Endeavour Foundation

Partnership provides framework for new Timber Mill

Opportunities for people with a disability

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Senator Warren Truss today officially opened the new Nangarin Timber Mill near Maryborough, in the culmination of a partnership with the Butchulla traditional owners of the Wide Bay region. 

Chairman of Endeavour Foundation’s Board, Grant Murdoch, said the mill would provide employment and training opportunities for the local Indigenous community and proceeds would go towards Endeavour Foundation’s support services for more than 3,500 people with a disability.  
 
General Manager of Commercial Operations Andrew Donne said Endeavour Foundation and the Butchulla traditional owners had developed a respectful and productive relationship, giving people with a disability and Indigenous people the opportunity to lead lives that many people take for granted.

Members of the local Indigenous community have already taken up employment with the mill and are ready for work after training in an accredited Certificate II in Forest and Timber products course. 

“At Nangarin we have employed a mix of senior staff and young, eager trainees to ensure that the young employees will be provided with strong mentors and will gain the experience and qualifications to become leaders in the workplace,” Mr Donne said.

“I want to congratulate our staff on their incredible resilience and determination, despite setbacks, to see the mill opened today,” he said.

“They travelled to Victoria to dismantle and prepare this hardwood sawmill equipment for transport. I’m sure it gives them great pleasure, just as it gives me, to have the mill up and running and producing sawn timber.

“Endeavour Foundation has now been able to establish a secure supply chain for the many timber products produced by hundreds of people with a disability working in our enterprises in this region,” Mr Donne said.

Nangarin Timber Mill will produce building grade materials, flooring and decking grade materials, timber for pallets and other products. Timber from the mill will also be reworked by people with a disability who work at Endeavour Foundation Industries sites, to make stakes and pegs for the mining industry. 

The name Nangarin was suggested by the Butchulla traditional owners.  It means Silver Leaf Ironbark Tree. 

Media contact: Patrick Pollock, phone: 3908 7138