Work has been completed on stage one of a major clean-up of the historic former Batlow sawmill site to repair the land for the local community.
The sawmill on Mill Road dates back to the 1950s and has been dormant since the 1980s.
Cleaning up the legacy site will restore 7,500 square metres of Crown land so it can once again be used by the Batlow community.
Crown Lands contracted Soil Conservation Service to remove about 10,000 cubic metres of sawdust from the former mill site – enough to fill four Olympic swimming pools – with that work now done.
Trucking out thousands of tonnes of sawdust was the first stage in a process to make the site clean and safe so that it can once again be reopened for use.
Crown Lands will remove other waste from the legacy site next year to complete the site’s restoration to a natural state.
Bushfires in 2020 exposed dumping on site, including car bodies, concrete, glass and other domestic waste, that will next be cleaned up.
Asbestos was detected and removed from the site in August 2020, but the further work will ensure any further traces are removed.
Aerial view of Batlow sawmill
Section of the reserve following removal of the sawdust
