Already established as something of a saviour of Tasmania’s housing problems, developer David Marriner has big plans for Hobart’s – and Australia’s – last remaining newsprint mill.

The Melbourne-based property developer has government approval for the NOK 190 million (A$27 million) acquisition of the Boyer mill in Hobart, releasing owner Norske Skog from the responsibilities of its coal-burning antipodean outpost.

Marriner has already been making news locally with plans to manufacture precast concrete homes in Australia’s southernmost state, siting them on a former racecourse in neighbouring New Norfolk, as well as in other locations.

With Boyer, Norske Skog chief executive Geir Drangsland says the Norwegian group is “very pleased to conclude our orderly exit from Australasia” with the deal, expected to be completed during the first quarter of this year.

Talks with Marriner and Boyer Capital had been ongoing for some time, and are seen as “the ideal owner to both continue the production of publication paper and develop the industrial site for future activities”.

Owned by Norske Skog for 25 years, the Boyer mill has capacity to produce 150,000 tonnes of newsprint and 135,000 tonnes of LWC magazine paper a year. Its waterside 565 ha site is also seen as an opportunity, and Marriner has identified the potential to expand and diversify industrial activities, and says he has been “impressed with the knowledge and commitment” of mill management and staff representatives.

Marriner is quoted as saying the Hobart business will need to diversify, with perhaps copy paper – not made in Australia since the Nippon Paper-owned Maryvale, Victoria opted to make only packaging grades -  as an opportunity. He has a concrete manufacturing plant at Bridgewater, also in the Derwent valley, and envisages the Boyer site might produce insulation for housing using plantation timber.

GXpress reported in December on the difficulties of shipping newsprint to mainland Australia. See ‘Uncompetitive’ shipping surcharge could get worse

The deal leaves  Norske Skog with four mills, all in Europe, with a total capacity of 760,000 tonnes of containerboard, 840,000 tonnes of newsprint, 200,000 tonnes of SC paper, and 265 000 tonnes of LWC magazine paper.

Importantly for the Norwegian-headquartered group, it unloads the awkward problem of a significant carbon emitter. Reported to burn 80,000 tonnes of coal a year – now shipped from Newcastle, NSW – it had accounted for two-thirds of Norske Skog’s carbon emissions. A federally-funded study had looked at converting the mill’s boilers to electricity, but the company had not been able to make a deal with Hydro Tasmania. Marriner was quoted by the ABC that this would be “among priorities” as its new owner.

Established in 1941 by Australian Newsprint Mills – a partnership of newspaper proprietors – Boyer employs 310 employees, and is now the country’s only paper mill following the closure of Maryvale two years ago, and of their Albury mill –built in 1981 – following its sale to Visy in 2019. Norske Skog bought the interest of then-owners Fletcher Challenge in 2000.

Peter Coleman

See also: Newsprint mill ‘secure’ as Norske Skog looks for buyer