Mailbox Musings: Navigating Bureaucracy and Beyond at Spring Bay Mill
The arrival of the morning mail at Spring Bay Mill never fails to ignite a sense of anticipation. Amongst the mundane bills and routine correspondence, there's often a sprinkling of intrigue: invitations to political soirees, nostalgic appeals from staunch loggers urging a return to wood chipping and even proposals to transform the wharf into a bustling cruise ship terminal. It's a veritable smorgasbord of possibilities!
Today's mail brought an unexpected missive from the enigmatic Illegal Logging Compliance Assessment Team (ILCAT) nestled within the labyrinthine corridors of the Department of Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry (DAFF). Initially met with a healthy dose of scepticism, I couldn't help but wonder if this was some elaborate hoax. After all, why had ILCAT chosen this moment to emerge from the shadows, particularly in Tasmania, where the spectre of illegal logging has been the status quo for decades?
Their communication was terse yet illuminating: the necessity of implementing due diligence protocols before processing Australian-grown raw logs. It's a phrase that reverberated with revolutionary undertones, especially amongst the eager beavers ensconced in their Canberra cubicles, munching on vegemite sandwiches.
Now, before I succumb to cynicism, it must be acknowledged that Spring Bay Mill may well have been a blip on Canberra's bureaucratic radar in its former guise as a log sawmilling enterprise, perhaps a decade or three ago. Nonetheless, as upstanding members of society, we embrace the opportunity to submit "a copy of our written due diligence system" to ILCAT, along with “records demonstrating” its application to specific timber products or loads of raw materials.
Select away, dear ILCAT, and we extend a warm invitation for your esteemed presence on-site, where you can delve into the depths of our wood chip piles to ascertain the legality of our timber sourcing. Liquor will be plentiful, rest assured.
Upon conducting some investigative work and consulting with former Mill employees, it came to light that our due diligence process was, in fact, a rather informal affair. Each log-laden truck that rumbled through our gates was subjected to scrutiny on the weighbridge scales. As the weight was duly recorded, the weighbridge operator would, with varying degrees of diplomacy, enquire of the driver: "Hey mate, can you honestly verify that these logs have not been illegally harvested?"
Responses ranged from the terse to the temperamental, but such colourful exchanges shall remain confined to our archives, destined for the fertile imagination of a renowned librettist, who envisions crafting "Spring Bay Mill, The Opera" - a saga that encapsulates the essence of Tasmanian life, with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies.
