12 | Mike Hurring Logging & Contracting 101 Union Street, Milton | 03 417 8959 | milton@stihlshop.co.nz Stihl Shop Milton LOVE YOUR LAND 21 Portsmouth Drive, Dunedin Shop & Building Signs Window Graphics Vehicle Graphics Banners & Flags Illuminated Signs 3D Letters Footpath Signs Electronic Signs Digital Printing BASED IN RIVERSDALE, SOUTHLAND We cart export, saw, chip and firewood logs in and around the Southland and Otago districts. 027 562 2798 office@sansonag.co.nz SUPPORT ING MIKE HURRING LOGGING AND CONTRACT ING LTD T T Aimee Wilson Otago sawmill now back in business The company has been supplying both the domestic and export markets for the past 40 years. The old Conical Hill sawmill has a new lease of life since closing in 2009, thanks to Mike Hurring Logging & Contracting. The Balclutha-based business is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and has spent a large majority of that time logging in the Blue Mountains near Tapanui in West Otago. Conical Hill closed after facing downturns in the forestry market, resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs, but Mike Hurring plans to revive the site and has bought the mill to start palletising wood for domestic and export boiler systems, as well as wood chip for animal bedding and boilers. “We’re back in the same workshops 40 years later,” he says. His company started logging in 1986 with just a few staff in South Otago, and now employs eight logging crews, supported by two workshops, transport, cartage, contracting services and training – totalling over 250 pieces of plant and 65 staff across Otago, Southland and Tasman. When the Government closed down some of its sawmills in the 1990s, Mike Hurring managed to keep logging in the Blue Mountains. Malaysian-based Ernslaw One arrived on the scene in West Otago, and its subsidiary, Blue Mountain Lumber, operated the mill. Conical Hill was one of only three sawmills left in the South Island – the others being at Rangiora and Tapawera. It became the backbone of the community and local economy, reaching a workforce of 350 employees at its peak. “There were 16 houses there and busloads would come from Tapanui and Gore to work,” Mike says. His company has been supplying both the domestic and export markets for the past 40 years, and branched out into other forests, such as Port Blakely in South Canterbury, Matariki Forests in Southland and recently, City Forests in Otago, while always working in with Ernslaw One in the Blue Mountains and private woodlots throughout Otago and Southland. “In that time there has been a major shift from motor-manual operations – a man on a saw and a man in a machine assisting – to full mechanisation nowadays, where everyone is in a machine and there is no one on the ground. This has increased not only production but also safety in the industry,” Mike says. Surviving in forestry means being willing to diversify and change tack, but now they are able to bring their investment back into West Otago, and offer the community a local source of employment again. At Conical Hill, they have imported a pellet machine from Belgium and Austria that will offer a more consistent product for boilers to run on, with an emphasis on bio-energy. Mike Hurring Logging started stockpiling logs in early June, and when the new pellet technology arrives, it will have to be rebuilt before commissioned. Mike says they were initially planning to set up the plant at their base in Balclutha, but when 33ha of land became available at Conical Hill, they saw even more potential for opportunities. The company is looking at internally using some of the wood biofuel to help power the plant, as well as other environmentally friendly power-generation options, including solar and wind, with the possibility of putting power back into the grid. Mike Hurring and Logging is used to new challenges. Their expertise has taken them far and wide, from projects across the ditch in Canberra, Australia, to as far north as Nelson. The future looks bright, with this latest project coming full circle back to where it all began in Conical Hill, 40 years later. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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