Ta Ann Plant at Smithton Under Construction

By Bob Gordon, Managing Director
Construction of the Ta Ann rotary peeled veneer mill at Smithton is well under way. The Smithton mill is the second to be built by Ta Ann as part of the Malaysian company’s $60 million investment in Tasmania.


This is an important development for our state. In addition to the approximately 120 construction jobs related to this mill, the facility will employ 50 people in rural Tasmania for years to come.

Combined with the mill in the Huon Valley, the two rotary peeled veneer mills ensure that we are delivering on the key objective of the Forestry Growth Plan – to manufacture value-added wood products here in Tasmania. Both mills will produce a sustainable, value-added product from regrowth or plantation eucalypt timber not suitable for saw milling. Most of this fibre would otherwise have been used to produce export woodchips.



Valuable new products such as this provide the forest industry with the means to transition from using mature timber, to regrowth and plantation timber.

Another important factor with this mill and with the growth in value-added manufacturing in Tasmania is that Forestry Tasmania’s operations are certified under the Australian Forestry Standard. This means that Ta Ann’s valued Japanese customers have independent assurance that the timber they purchase in Tasmania is from legal and sustainable sources.

Certification that is recognised internationally by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC) gives sustainably-produced Tasmanian timber a competitive advantage in this environmentally-aware market.


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