Harvesting
 APEC commenced their Blue-gum Harvesting and Haulage operations in October 2001. In the beginning APEC started with two sub-contractors, McNabb Plantation Alliance (MPA) and Albany Plantation Logging Services (APLS). MPA had their own trucks and APLS used a local Mt Barker company, Southern Haulage Industries (SHI) to deliver the logs.
At this early stage the APEC chip-mill on, Down Road Albany, was receiving 500 t/day in log form. Since then APEC has increased the amount of sub-contractors employed by them, and now has 4 harvesting crews (MPA, now called Blu-Chip Harvest, APLS, Edenborn Pty Ltd and Total Harvesting) with a total of 19 processors. The total volume per day in log form delivered averages nearly 2,100 t/day. These contractors between them employ over 60 - 70 people.
These machines are excavator bases, (Komatsu, Caterpillar, Hitachi and Volvo) with 16" forestry harvesting heads attached to them (Waratah & AFM). Two of these crews have there own haulage, the other two crews use one haulage company (SHI) to cart their logs to the APEC chip-mill.
In total APEC have 17 "pocket road-trains" delivering logs to the chip-mill. The trucks are fitted with Central Tyre Inflation (CTI) systems, which the driver, from inside the cab can decrease tyre pressure to lessen the damage to unsealed roads and also enhance the traction needed in and around plantation roads.
APEC does not tolerate overloading of trucks to ensure the safety of other traffic and minimize the damage to our local roads. As part of their commitment to the local communities, APEC endeavors to maintain the local roads during haulage operations, in conjunction with the 4 local shires and Main Roads.
APEC is contracted to harvest the plantations owned and managed by APFL, its sister company; however we also source privately owned timber from plantations from around the Great Southern.
Since October 2001 the APEC sub-contractors have delivered almost two million tonnes of logs to the Chip-mill on Down Road. All of these logs are then chipped on site and railed to the port in Albany some 22km away.
Plant and Equipment
Mobile Plant
- Caterpillar 324D FM Log Loader Excavator
- Caterpillar 980G Log Un-Loader
- Komatsu WA 500-3 Log Un-Loader
- Komatsu PC 200-6 Log Loader Excavator
- Wagner L90 Log Un-Loader
- JCB 520-50 Forklift
Fixed Plant
| Conveyors |
- 5 Chain Type Log Conveyors
- 8 Belt Type Chip Conveyors |
| Debarker |
- Scandanavian 3 Drum Horizontal Flail Chain |
| Chipper |
- 106 inch Tamarack 10 Knife Chipwheel rotating at 289 rpm
- Driven by two 715 kw Alstom Motors.
- 244 tph design output. |
| Screening |
- 2 Nicholson 20ft x 10ft Chip Screen
- 1 Nicholson Disc Scalping Screen
- 1 Jeffery Chip Resizer |
| Rail Bin |
- Holds approximately 1200 gmt of chip. |
| Log Storage Area |
- Holds approximately 5000 tonne of logs. |
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