By JONATHON HOWARD
THE first day of the 2013-14 financial year has heralded a new era for an iconic Inglewood business with new owners taking over Bretts Inglewood Sawmilling Pty Ltd.
After 67 years of ownership by the one family, Inglewood’s cypress pine sawmill, known locally as “The Mill” or “Bretts”, has been sold by Bretts Timber and Hardware to a Melbourne based company.
Speaking recently to Jim Bowden, writer for the trade journal Timber and Forestry News, the National Sales Manager of the new owners Outdoor Treated Timber Pty Ltd, Alison Gebbing, said Cypress has been a significant part of the business.
“We have had a long association with Bretts as one of their biggest customers,” she said.
“As a family business ourselves, we have a strong bond with the Brett family.
“We were also impressed with the work ethic and performance of the mill workers at Inglewood.”
Bretts Managing Director Bill Nutting Jnr said the mill was sold with all employees transferred in their current positions and all employee entitlements intact.
Today the mill is a thriving business providing employment for 26 people including foremen, benchmen, loggers, tailer outs, dockers, stackers, fork lift drivers, machinists, packers and dump workers and salespersons.
An important part of the overall mill operation is the role played by the contractors who cut and bring the cypress pine logs to the mill.
In recent years the mill has diversified to suit current trends and is now considered a “totally green” operation. Nothing is wasted. 100 per cent of all waste products including chips, bark, and dockings are sold for use in stables, piggeries, poultry farms, home gardens, landscaping projects and other agriculture areas.
Bretts Managing Director Bill Nutting Jnr said the sale was a positive move for the region.
“The new owners have indicated that they will continue to run the mill as it has been done in recent years and, in time, hope to ramp up production,” he said.
He also told assembled staff that it had been a difficult decision to make to sell the mill but the time was right for it to happen.
Mr Nutting said he wanted, on behalf of himself and his father Bill Nutting Snr to thank his staff from the bottom of his heart for their loyal support over the years and to wish them all the best for the future.
(history breakout)
From days of steam…
RECORDS of the Inglewood Sawmill dated earlier then 1946 were difficult to find but it was believed that the mill was first established a few miles west of town.
Several years later, prior to the commencement of World War II, it was shifted to its present site in Inglewood by Mr J.E Boyle of NSW. It is thought the mill was steam-powered at that time.
Bretts acquired the mill in 1946 and began trading as Inglewood Sawmilling Company Pty Ltd.
It is understood that a change to diesel operation was made soon after 1946.
Bretts Managing Director Bill Nutting Jnr said his father Bill Nutting managed the mill from 1948 to 1951.
Another name change for the business took place when the mill became Bretts Inglewood Sawmilling Pty Ltd in 1968.
On 1 July, 2013 the new owners will begin trading under the name Inglewood Sawmill Pty Ltd.
EMPLOYEE BREAK OUT – use with 026
Murray r
INGLEWOOD Mill Manager for almost 20 years, Murray McDonald, will clock up 40 years working at the mill this November.
Starting off as a trainee machinist before rising to the position of Mill Manager, Mr McDonald can recall many major events that affected the mill over the years and while devastating at the time showed the resilience of the mill’s owners and the mill’s workers who never lost faith in the mill and the town.
In January 1956, a record flood inundated the town and the mill. Twenty years later, in January 1976, the town and the mill were again flooded. Although the water level was not as high as that of 1956 it was enough to cause much damage and another major disruption to the operation of the mill.
In 1977 a Twin Edger Machine, the very latest in technology at that time, was installed at considerable expense but in 1994 it had to be replaced when it and the area housing were badly damaged in a devastating fire which saw the mill closed for three months.
In October 1980, the mill which is located on the western outskirts of the town experienced a mini-tornado which was isolated to that area. It unroofed most of the mill buildings and blew over the massive waste incinerator which had been installed in the 1960s. In an outstanding show of support and co-operation the mill workers continued to operate the mill in the open air while builders worked over the top of them constructing a huge new shed to cover workers and machinery. The whole project was finished just before Christmas 1980.
