Slash and burn: Kiland report says slashing of
island jobs and burning of timber has reaped rewards

By DANIEL CLARKE

28/08/26

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Kiland has begun selling its blocks of former forestry land “above their independently assessed values”, the company has boasted in its latest quarterly report. 

 

The Sydney-based enterprise that owns over 18,000 hectares of land on Kangaroo Island said the cutting of over half its operational workforce this year has resulted in monthly operational expenditure “more than halving during the (June) quarter”. 

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The report states that targeted burning of huge blue gum and pine timber stacks across its estate had proven to be "highly efficient" in clearing over 1,400 hectares of land to 30 June.

 

"(The burning) removed a material impediment to Kiland's grazing operation and the value of each property for potential buyers," the report states.

 

It said that Kiland’s board of directors had endorsed “a revised operating strategy which comprises a focused approach to land reversion”.

 

“Rather than attempt to undertake reversion of the whole estate at once, the strategy has been modified to concentrate initially on those properties already harvested and transitioning them into a saleable condition block by block,” the report continued.

 

“To this end all harvesting activities have been put on hold, other than clean up of the remaining pockets of standing timber that were previously koala stands.”

 

The shift in strategy resulted in Kiland making at least 55 of its on-ground Kangaroo Island staff redundant in two rounds of lay-offs in April and July. 

 

Staff who spoke exclusively to the Island Independent after the April lay-offs said the process of breaking the bad news was “shocking” and that "it was handled poorly".

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Kiland management said it made the “difficult decision to reduce the size of its workforce to reflect its more targeted operations”.

 

“Over half the operational workforce have been made redundant, with most of the redundancies having taken place in those roles that were previously focused on harvest operations (harvesting, skidding and stacking). As a result, monthly operational expenditure has more than halved during the quarter."

 

The remaining operational teams, the report says, have been deployed solely to undertake activities required to transform properties into saleable condition, including burning, stump grinding and raking. 

 

“This strategy has begun to bear fruit, and at the state of this report contracts for sale have been executed over several blocks at or above their independently assessed values”.

 

The report goes on to say that at the end of June, contracts for sale had conditionally exchanged on three properties “with a visible pipeline of further potential sales established”.

 

The sales included the Willmott and Martin agricultural properties near the Playford Highway west of Parndana, as well as the lifestyle parcels near Smith Bay (previously held for the once proposed sea-port development).

 

After claiming it was reverting its 4.5 million tonnes of fire-damaged timber into about 900,000 tonnes of biochar in 2022, Kiland – formerly known as KIPT – earlier this year began laying felled trees in rows where they stood in preparation for mass burns.

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It was hoped all of the timber lying in piles on the vast Macgill farm near Parndana would be utilised in biocoke production but that plan turned to ashes when Wundowie Carbon, the company attempting to set up the enterprise, announced last month that it could not raise the funds to make the project viable.

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Kiland said it holds 46 per cent of the shares in Wundowie, which at December last year were valued at $25 million. 

 

“As at the date of this report, Wundowie had been unsuccessful in raising sufficient capital to bring its pilot plant into production," the company said. 

 

“As a result, Kiland’s directors took the decision to write down the carrying value of their equity investment in Wundowie to nil. Kiland’s outstanding loan to Wundowie of $6.5 million remains on the balance sheet at face value (plus capitalised interest).”

  

The company also paid tribute to its outgoing Manager Director James Davies, who resigned early this year, and “a smooth transition from James to Ian (Greenyer) has taken place”.

 

“Ian’s focus is on achieving short term results, efficient operations and building upon and delivering the revised strategy. The board are very happy with what Ian has been able to achieve in the short time he has been in the position of Managing Director.”

 

Greenyer has yet to reply to the Island Independent’s multiple requests for comment about the company’s staff redundancies, forward business strategy, or its burning operations.