Today I had the honour of opening Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s (STT) new office based in Perth in northern Tasmania.
The upgraded site is STT’s newest fire management control centre, using state of the art technology, which will further position Perth as central hub for firefighting capability and incident management in the North East.
The 12 month development has invested directly into the local community, supporting local trades and business, fostering confidence in the region throughout the pandemic.
The facility will use technology such as live video streams, live mapping and resource tracking, video conferencing and will also be used an Operations Centre for fuel reduction activities throughout the season.
STT has a long history working and supporting the community of Perth having maintained an onsite office and extensive nursery for growing the seedling that are used to replant forests post-harvest.
Over the past thirteen years, STT has provided more than 100,000 trees and shrubs to Tasmanian schools to celebrate National Tree Day, with many of them being grown in Perth at this facility.
Thanks to the prudent management of the economy and the forestry sector, STT posted their third operating profit in three years for 2019/20, which has allowed them to invest in this type of community project.
STT has a strong history of supporting the broader Tasmanian economy, supplying 51 Tasmanian businesses with forest products and paid $111 million to Tasmanian businesses including $60 million to harvest and haulage contractors, supporting regional communities during 2019/20.
Tasmanians should be proud of our responsible, sustainable Forest Management which employs thousands of Tasmanians, injects more than $1.2 billion into our economy and supports communities and families.