OPEN the large green door and you smell it straight away — that distinctive new-car smell. The driver's seat has had such little use that the back of it is still wrapped in plastic.
It's a 2008 model but it has been driven for only about 10 to 12 weeks, which explains the new-car aroma. Only the vehicle in question isn't a new car, it's a large green tractor and it was up for grabs today — one of 14 tractors listed at a huge clearing sale in western Victoria.
Parked right next to it is an identical 2008 model. Same distinctive colours, same workload (570 hours), same plastic around the seat and same estimated value ($50,000 to $75,000).
And it's on sale for the same reason — the collapse of Great Southern — the managed investment scheme company that planted millions of blue gums in the region.
When the estimated worth of the trucks, trailers, near new four-wheel-drives, motorcycles, earth-moving and other equipment is tallied, the sale could raise about $1.75 million.
It is being sold by Casterton Plantation Contractors, which is reducing its fleet dramatically because of Great Southern's demise, but is staying in business itself doing forestry work. Much of the equipment for sale has been sitting around, doing little, for the past five or so months.
"In terms of what we've got it's probably about 80 per cent [of the value] I suppose, we're probably keeping around 20 per cent," says Casterton man Paul O'Brien of the sale, one of the owners of the contracting business.
Established a decade ago, growth in the business mirrored that of the MIS blue gums. The contractors worked on plantations in Victoria, South Australia and as far afield as north Queensland for Great Southern.
Its growth created permanent and casual jobs and it spent up big on equipment. In one year alone, it bought seven new tractors from a dealer in western Victoria.
"Our business was based on providing a total service to the silviculture [forestry] establishment industry. Basically, we could do everything. When a plantation company or an MIS operating company would buy an ex-grazing site or whatever it may be, we'd basically do everything from the point that they'd bought it. And we would transform it from farmland into a plantation, so we could do site prep, fertiliser application, herbicide application, firebreak maintenance and construction and any related earthworks," Mr O'Brien says.
At its peak he estimates that the business was probably the biggest private employer in town. But when Great Southern collapsed in May, his business was one of the first to be hit, shedding about 10 permanent jobs locally, and up to 40 casuals who were employed in the busiest months.
Mr O'Brien says letting go loyal long-term staff, knowing they were headed into a challenging jobs market, was the hardest part.
"You live in a small town, you know basically everyone who walks up and down the street. So the day after or the week after you put someone off you've still got to see their wife or their kids or whoever, walking up and down the street," he says.
Locals expected the clearing sale to be the biggest the town has hosted, with Keatley Livestock auctioneer Jody Darcy expecting 700 to 800 people to attend.
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