THE BATTLE OF BARAKULA: Cypress resource in cross hairs of conservation

摘要

BARAKULA, THE BIGGEST state forest in the southern hemisphere, with 2655 km of I forest roads, is shaping as the last battleground in Queensland's bitter western hardwoods fracas. In April 2006 the State Government moved to convert a million ha of state forests into national parks in a 50 million dollar buyback deal with top-end hardwood sawmillers. The sale package included the hardwood timber division of Hyne Timber (a buyback of Hyne's western hardwoods Crown allocation of 11,343 m~3), Emerald Sawmilling Co, two smaller mills, and an in-principle agreement to purchase the hardwood operation of N.K. Collins Industries.