The saws have stopped at Kyogle’s Pentarch Forestry mill, and the workers who lost their jobs are now waiting to find out whether they qualify for government support.
The mill on the Summerland Way closed its doors last week. At its peak, it employed more than 60 people. Some 31 workers are being made redundant; five of whom are staying on for about a month to decommission the site and make it safe.
“We are importing more timber from France and other countries while our local timber mills are being locked down,” said Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan.
The Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union (TFTU) blames the job losses on the State Government’s decision to create the Great Koala National Park.
“The wood supply stopped the day the koala park was announced on Father’s Day, 2025,” said TFTU NSW Secretary Alison Rudman.
The government has had a moratorium on timber harvesting within the proposed park boundary since 8 September 2025. It covers 176,000 hectares of state forest from Kempsey to Grafton. At the time, the government said it would affect six of more than 25 mills in the region and about 300 jobs.
Kyogle sits well north of the proposed park, and Pentarch’s troubles started before the moratorium. In March 2025, 38 workers were stood down at Pentarch’s Koolkhan sawmill near Grafton, with the company citing a shortfall in logs from Forestry Corporation. In early July this year, Pentarch closed its Herons Creek mill, south-west of Port Macquarie, with then director Stephen Dadd saying it had been running on stockpiles that had run out.
As recently as April, Pentarch was still advertising permanent roles at the Kyogle sawmill.
Ms Rudman has confirmed the government will handle the support package for the Kyogle redundancies. But whether workers get the money depends largely on how Pentarch describes the reason for the closure.
To be eligible, the employer must hold a wood supply agreement and show it has been affected by the moratorium. Each worker needs a separation certificate or a letter from the employer saying the redundancy was because of the Great Koala National Park moratorium.
The package covers North Coast workers, full-time, part-time, or casual, who were employed on 7 September 2025 and are made redundant by 7 March 2027. It includes:
- four weeks of base pay for each year of employment, capped at $150,000, including the employer’s own redundancy payment
- an extra three weeks of pay for each year of service after age 45, capped at $50,000
- up to $9,000 for retraining
- up to $45,000 for workers who move more than 50 kilometres for a new job.
Nationals candidate for Lismore Dylan Butcher called the closure a gut punch for Kyogle, and questioned how the local MP, who is also the Minister for the North Coast, could stand by while local jobs disappeared.
“When it was running at full steam, this mill would have been one of the biggest private employers in Kyogle,” Mr Butcher said.
“Those are local jobs, local wages and local families.”
“When a mill closes in a town this size, it’s not just the workers who lose out.”
“It’s the cafe they buy lunch from, the mechanic who services their ute, the footy club their kids play for and the school their kids go to.”
He took aim at Labor’s response to the closure.
“These are skilled, specialised jobs,” he said.
“Labor’s answer is money to retrain, but people who’ve spent years in timber aren’t going to retrain and become baristas.”
“Most will likely have to leave Kyogle to keep working in their trade, and they’ll take their families with them.”
Mr Hogan said the closure also raised serious concerns about the long-term future of the local timber industry.
“Once these mills close, they are very difficult to bring back,” he said.
“We risk losing local jobs, infrastructure and specialised skills that have been built up over generations.”
“The timber industry has been an important part of the Kyogle community for more than a century.”
“These are highly specialised skills that we cannot afford to lose.”
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