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Operation
 Our
operations include the planting of seedlings, on going management
of the young trees through to harvesting, delivery and preparation
of the ground for the next crop. All this is backed up by
a maintenance and service arm that minimizes vehicle down
time.
Planting tomorrow’s crop is where it all starts - this
is done after the first winter rains in June and July. We
take seedlings straight from the nursery and plant them out.
The trees we plant today are already sold for future wood
– for a pine tree used in structural timber this is
start of 30 years of growth. Blue gums, used for chipping
take a little less time, more like 10 years to reach maturity.
Our planting supervisors monitor the process and ensure maximum
yield from these young trees.
Over the following seasons we work with the client to maximize
the return on their crop. To ensure this, the crops are monitored
and managed continuously with fertilizer applied, fire breaks
maintained and weeds kept under control.
When it comes time to harvest the wood, Pine Hauliers works
in all kinds of terrain - from near flat plantations to the
steep sided valleys along the Blackwood river. Our harvesting
equipment can work almost anywhere.
 On
moderate slopes we use the “Waratah” - a one man
mobile harvesting and processing plant. This tracked vehicle
scales slopes, cuts down trees with a specialized head attachment
and debarks and trims each log – all in 1 action! An
experienced operator can harvest 300 tonnes of wood a day.
A “forwarder” vehicle then collects the logs and
deposits them at a point where the log truck can collect them.
On steeper slopes a “Skyline” is used. The skyline
team works closely together to log and remove trees. Loggers
first cut down the trees and then attach them to the “skyline”
cable. Then the “skyline” - a dedicated crane
and top station combination uses these cables to drag the
logs up or down the steep slopes where they are collected
by a “forwarder” or “skidder”.
The final stage is to deliver the logs to the timber or wood
chip plant. Pine Hauliers fleet of trucks travel over 1 million
kilometers a year, collecting logs from the harvest site and
taking them to the customer’s plant.
 Keeping
this fleet of trucks and machinery on the road is a full time
job for our maintenance department. The department is split
into 2 areas – one to look after the fleet of trucks
and the other to maintain all other plant. Machinery is constantly
updated – this reduces maintenance time and increases
the efficiency of our operation.
The environment we work in needs special care. Whenever accessing
plantations our vehicles always stay on forestry tracks to
minimize damage to native flora and fauna. Dieback controls
are used and all forestry operations are suspended during
total fire bans. In addition to this a fire truck is always
on standby and all vehicles carry fire fighting equipment.
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