The end of an era 1938 - 16th June 2010. Fifty five years of memories.

Wednesday the 2nd of May it finally happened. All Taspaper and Silcar employees were advised at 10:00am that the Burnie operation was to be closed. That the supposed buyers from Thailand had walked away from the sale.
Sadly, the ABC News Radio broadcast the story at 9:30am and the company had only just advised workers of a meeting at 10:00, but the news was already out.

Having said that it came as no surprise. Why? The rumour mill had dried up first. A planned four day maintenance program had been defered from February, then to March, then maybe April. None of which eventuated save only the one day scheduled maintenace days.

An ominous sign was the appearance of a number of executive looking people arriving at the mill entrance prior to 8:00am on the 2nd of May, one wag commented to me. "That's it Jack, she buggered!" How prophetic a comment that was as it proved to be two hours later. The last maintenance day took place on the 2nd June and it was blatently clear that the end was near. Pulp base was running out as no more was coming from the Maryvale mill and the Calcium Carbonate plant on the old sawmill site was all but out of stock. Coal was only coming in a few rail trucks a day so the news was passed around that June 16th would be the end of production and full decommissioning started.
I recall having said earlier that the vultures were circling over Burnie, and are now preparing to land and strip the mill site of usable plant and equipment leaving the bones to find their way to scrap merchants.

Now it appears that an Asian consortium will move the pulping plant, both paper machines, and the finishing room machinery out of Australia, set up and produce paper (of sorts) what they won't have is the skills to set up the machines to make it. Those skills will have been lost with the closure with the machinemen retired, or relocated elsewhere.

By the end of August 2010 the Silcar employees will also depart after the decommissioning. Some have found new jobs, others have applied and got nowhere at this point. But what I will say is this. To all the guys I worked beside at both Burnie and Wesley Vale, I couldn't have worked with better people. Good tradesmen, good staff at the end, something I couldn't say in 1995 when this firm was headed up a very rare species of manager, they to are a part of the history that was APPM, Australian Paper, Paperlinx, and lasty, Tasmanian Paper.

The good times were in the early 1960's, then North Broken Hill Pty Ltd. being the major share holders bought the outright ownership of APPM Ltd. That was the rock the proud paper manufacturer perished on. It was all down hill from there. next on the scene was AMCOR and each owner had their own agenda all to the detriment of the Tasmanian operations.

Now we have witnessed the final chapter in the sorry saga of lousy top management with no regards for the loyal long term employees who were in the end; numbers on a sheet of paper to screwed up and tossed in some remote rubbish bin in a corporate office in Melbourne or Sydney.

To those who are going to lose their jobs, hang in there chaps, others including myself have been through it earlier. It won't be easy for the older workers, while the younger ones will no doubt leave the state for greener pastures, and who can blame them. One thing is for sure and certain.

Many will have to radically change their life style. Big wages and salaries earned are a thing of the past, but with care you will find a way to survive. Listen to advice given by those who have been through tough times as it will ease the burden.

Note added Wednesday 16th June 2010.

The last paper was produced today at 0630. Raw materials had been run down to zero bringing forward the shutdown from June 30th to today. One would have to wonder what the employees feelings were as the machine was progessively shut down.

Doubtless, decommissioning will start almost immediately with the power, steam, air and water isolated, then sections of each service removed to render the equipment officially dead. All drives and associated equipment then removed pending sale, but to whom?

Thank you for 55 1/2 years of memories, some bad, but for the most part, good from the two sites of Tasmanian fine writing paper manufacturers Burnie and Wesley Vale.

Note added 30th June 2010.

Much has been said about the Paper Mill at Burnie and how it all began with Gerald Mussen, Sir Walter Massey-Green, Henry Somerset et al. But there is a wealth of material available from all sorts of places including the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Org. My thanks go to Mrs Jan Marinos, one of the "Makers' of Burnie" who supplied me with information written by W.E.Cohen "Twenty years of research into the paper making in Australia".

His paper recounts the emergance of the fledgling paper making in Burnie amongst other ventures in Tasmania.

"Associated Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd. operated a soda-pulp mill at Burnie, on the North west Coast of Tasmania. The company was inaugurated in 1936 with a paid-up capital of Au$3,000,000 in today's currency, which doubled for the company's post war expansion program. Production started in 1938 and operations were based initially on the original investigations using the soda process on eucalypt pulps. By means of research concurrent with its operations, the company improved the quality of its products, the yield and cost per ton, and the overall output of its pulp mill.

Pulpwood was drawn from eucalypt forests of the North western Tasmania, the chief species being Eucalyptus Obliqua, Gigantea, Amygdalia, and Viminalis. the mill produced a wide rnge of fine writing and printing papers, hard and soft duplicating paper, blotting and cartridge paper. Some grades were furnished with 100% eucalypt stock and the all over urnish averages 90% of bleached soda eucalypt pulp, the balance being imported long-fibre and non fibrous materials. The mill produced its own caustic soda and chlorine in an adjacent electrolytic plant.

Two paper machines were operated; a 457cm/180inch wide machine with a maximum speed of 240 metres/minute or 800 feet per minute, and a 229cm/90inch wide machine with a speed of 120 metres/minute or 400 feet minute were common with high percentages of eucalypt furnishes. A third machine was nearing completion to go into production. This gave a rated output of 20,000 tons of paper and 18,000 tons of pulp per year. Because of labour shortages and materials, the actual output was lower; 17,000 tons during 1946-47.

During World war II this mill was the sole source of fine writing and printing papers for the whole of Australia." End quote.

Since the article was written by Mr W.E. Cohen a fourth paper machine was added increasing the production figure. In 1962 No.2 paper machine was removed and a modern (in its day) wider machine replaced it designated as No.10. by the 1990's No.10 machine had been so modified that its operating speed and output almost doubled thanks to modern technology. This machine and No.4 were the last surviving machines at the Burnie Mill. Nos.2 and 3 were removed and sold off as scrap.

You will note that I have typed the quoted passage in the past tense. The original was in the present tense. The Soda process initially was done with six of what was known as Static Digesters. These were replaced in the 1950's with two Continuous Digesters which were far more efficient and cost effective. These two digesters are still standing today, but for how much longer begs an answer.