{"id":565934,"date":"2026-03-26T16:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565934\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:23:09","slug":"australia-cannot-guarantee-fuel-past-april-timber-hauler-burns-70000-in-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565934\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia Cannot Guarantee Fuel Past April \u2014 Timber Hauler Burns $70,000 in a Week!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia could run out of fuel by mid-April, with the federal government unable to guarantee fuel supplies, according to documentation from the National Cabinet Meeting obtained by Wood Central tonight.\u00a0At the same time, bowsers in rural and regional areas \u2014 which are critically important for transporting pallets, flooring, posts, piles, structural timbers, biofuels, and farming and agricultural goods \u2014 are already dry\u2026despite the government claiming that fuel supplies are stable.<\/p>\n

Tonight, Wood Central spoke exclusively to Denis Greensill, one of NSW\u2019s big three harvest and haulage contractors who runs 35 trucks from Grafton north through the northern rivers, west to Glen Innes, and out to the port of Brisbane \u2014 moving between 5,000 and 10,000 cubic metres of hardwood every month into pallets, flooring, posts, piles and mine shafts. <\/p>\n

Tonight, he revealed that his weekly fuel bill had jumped by $20,000 in less than a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now costing us $70,000 a week to operate our trucks \u2014 up from $50,000 last week \u2014 which works out to more than $300,000 (additional charges) every\u00a0month,\u201d he warned.\u00a0And whilst Greensill is pushing some of that cost back to the mills, he says it never fully comes back. Some sawmills will absorb an extra $10 a metre \u2014 but for others, they\u2019ve already reached their limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou still don\u2019t fully get it back [\u2026] that\u2019s the only way we can survive. Some mills said they can\u2019t pay anymore \u2014 that\u2019s it. They\u2019ve got their own markets, their own competitors. But everything\u2019s going to go up regardless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Greensill said the log flow on the north coast is already thinning, with sawmills still desperate to chase up missing timber deliveries, with the region serviced by just four\u00a0crews working to sustainably harvest hardwood in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"dorney<\/a>Earlier this week, Wood Central exclusively revealed that Anthony Dorney and his son \u2014 the fourth and fifth generations of the Dorney family \u2014 were forced to sell cattle to cover a monthly diesel bill that has blown past $400,000. [Photo: supplied to Wood Central \/ Central PR Group by the Dorney family for exclusive use]<\/p>\n

Wood Central understands the pressure is far from easing and will likely get much worse. That\u2019s because Australia\u2019s \u2018big four\u2019 fuel suppliers \u2014 responsible for controlling 85 per cent of the wholesale petrol market \u2014 are now drawing 100 per cent of their contracted allocations, leaving independent retailers, the ones serving regional bowsers, to starve, buying from a spot market that has nothing to sell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the Australian Institute of Petroleum revealed that it was\u00a0cautiously optimistic that\u00a0the country can maintain the vast majority of supply, but only whilst Asian refineries keep producing from existing crude stocks \u2014 refineries that have not yet restocked from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

And the Great Koala National Park moratorium on harvesting is compounding the damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The removal of forestry access from habitat areas has pushed contractors off their most workable ground \u2014 dubbed by Greensill to be\u00a0A, B and C blocks\u00a0that kept operations viable when wet weather closed everything else \u2014 leaving D and E blocks that are steeper, wetter, harder to reach and more expensive to work.<\/p>\n

\"chrisNSW Premier Chris Minns and Andrew Hurford, President of Timber NSW, at Hurfords Mill in Kyogle \u2014 where the conversation about the Great Koala National Park proposal is no longer abstract. For contractors like Dennis Greensill, the removal of A, B and C category harvesting blocks from koala habitat areas has pushed operations onto steeper, wetter and more expensive ground at the worst possible moment. (Photo Credit: Provided to Wood Central \/ Central PR Group by NSW Premier Chris Minns\u2019 office)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve taken\u00a0our prime blocks away\u00a0[\u2026] we can always tinker around and get a couple of loads a day [in those blocks]. Now they put us into areas that are wet, and we\u2019re just sitting there for three days, not moving until it\u2019s dry,\u201d Greensill said. \u201cThe GKNP has taken all the\u00a0better areas away. The contractors are left with the D and E blocks \u2014 the high-cost ones \u2014 because of accessibility, road conditions, and rain. There\u2019s a multitude of factors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greensill\u2019s operation moves more than sawlogs \u2014 biomass for sugar mill energy, power poles for Koppers, Coffs Harbour Hardwoods output, and sawdust to mushroom growers in Sydney \u2014 though that diversification offers little buffer when the fuel exposure runs across the entire fleet. <\/p>\n

Already, fellow NSW contractor Anthony Dorney \u2014 running 25 trucks out of Bulahdelah \u2014 has been forced to sell cattle to cover a monthly fuel bill that has blown $400,000. For Greensill, costs have likely blown past $500,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is the key. You\u2019ve got to have food and the roof over your head. Primary production \u2014 timber, food \u2014 that should have priority when it comes to fuel availability,\u201d Greensill said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Wood Central tonight, Steve Dobbyns, Executive Chair of Forest and Wood Communities Australia, rejected the government\u2019s claims that current supplies are adequate, pointing to bowsers running dry across forest and wood communities as evidence that the official position does not reflect conditions on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"AmpolAmpol\u2019s Amplify Diesel board reads 299.9 cents per litre at a regional NSW service station \u2014 more than a dollar per litre above what city operators are paying and nearly 55 cents above the national average terminal gate price as of mid-March 2026. With 86.6 per cent of all domestic forest products freight moving by road, every cent at bowsers as this one flows directly into the cost of framing timber and pallets on Australian building sites. (Photo: Supplied to Central PR Group \/\u00a0Wood Central by Steve Dobbyns, FWCA for exclusive use)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve only got to look at dozens of sites across rural and regional communities, in the heart of forest and wood communities, to see that diesel is in short supply,\u2019 he said. \u2018The government is\u00a0paying\u00a0favourites with the cities \u2014 the 90 per cent \u2014 over the regions. It will lead to major shortages in the supermarkets, on the building sites and along the full value chain,\u201d Dobbyns said.<\/p>\n

Please note: This story is part of a special Wood Central series covering the fuel crisis in regional and rural communities and its impact on Australia\u2019s $23 billion forest products value chain. For more information, click here for Wood Central\u2019s exclusive story with Denis Greensill from Friday, March 20.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"J <\/p>\n

Jason Ross, publisher, is a 15-year professional in building and construction, connecting with more than 400 specifiers. A Gottstein Fellowship recipient, he is passionate about growing the market for wood-based information. Jason is Wood Central’s in-house emcee and is available for corporate host and MC services.<\/p>\n


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