THE NF McDonnell & Sons sawmilling business has been in existence since 1944 and is now into its fourth generation of family involvement.
During these many years, the company has been involved in log hauling, harvesting, road transport, farming and sawmilling and today, is one of the major players in the softwood milling industry in the South East of South Australia.
The business was founded by Newman McDonnell and his two sons Don and Les following the devastating softwood forest fires at Mount Burr in 1943. Through this tragic event, Newman, Don and Les took a team of workers from their home in Cobden Victoria to begin milling the burnt timber for the Southern Trading Company which had contracts with the Woods and Forest Department (now OneFortyOne).
They arrived in 1944 and their “Bush” mill was one of many they established in the coming decade. The move was a success and later, as the business grew other mills were established at Millicent, then Kalangadoo and later along the Hundred Line Road near the state border, east of Tarpeena.
NF McDonnell & Sons was established as a company in January 1946 with Newman and sons Don and Les equal shareholders.
In 1947 McDonnells won their first log licence and this was the forerunner to establishing a much larger mill at Kalangadoo.
In 1973 Don and Les took over running the company after it was incorporated and Newman took a back seat role. As the company expanded into road transport and farming sons of Don and Les joined the business.
Following the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983 McDonnells became involved in a joint venture with Ken Carter of Carter Holt to export wood chips to Japan. It involved using the burnt timber from Ash Wednesday and McDonnells became the first Australian timber operation to export wood chips to Asia. Today that business still survives and is an important aspect to the company’s business.
In the coming years Ian gradually began to take more responsibility in the company and along with other family members became an equal partner with Don and Les in 1993.
After Les stepped down in 2007 Ian and his brother Anthony became third generation owners when they bought out their Uncle Don and father Les’ share and other family members.
In June 2011, the fourth generation of the McDonnell family, Ian’s son Shaun, became a director of the company.
At the beginning of 2012 our management team created a mill development plan which was based on our goal of modernising our mill into a truly world class processing facility. Stage 1 of this plan was for the redevelopment of our resaw facility, this project represented a $2 million that has given us a significant boost to our operational capacity.
2014 saw a major upgrade of our Primary Breakdown area. At the centre of this was the installation of the HewSaw R250, with its ability to operate at a variety of speeds and specialising in the conversion of small diameter log it has increased overall capacity considerably.
Anthony retired from the business leaving Ian and Shaun as company owners.
Commissioning of the final stage of the Sawmill with the installation and commissioning of the state of the art Kalfass sorting, docking and stacking line.
Craig Nisbet becomes CEO of NF McDonnell & Sons.
After 27 years as a director of the company, Ian McDonnell retired in 2019. Ian oversaw a huge leap forward in technology and process for the business during his time as Managing Director.
NF McDonnell & Sons was announced as a SafeWorkSA Safety Champion Gold Award Winner for 2019 for their dedication to safety and workplace well being.
The winners of the competition, run by SafeWorkSA for Safe Work Month 2019, were announced in November 2019 with the local timber processor sharing the gold award with Advanced Plastic Recycling based out of Kilburn.
The company becomes the first Green Triangle business to achieve internationally recognised Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) certification.
Global-Mark, a nationally recognised Conformity Assessment Body, audited the timber processor’s operations against the highest global standards and granted the company ISO 45001 OHS Management System, an international level certification for its efficient safety management policy and procedures.
Since 1944, the NF McDonnell & Sons business has grown significantly to be a large employer and at its peak during the falling, harvesting and log hauling days it employed more than 200 people. Today there are about 130 employed at the Suttontown Mill.
NF McDonnell and Sons over the years has built a very strong and loyal customer base with some customers trading with the company for over thirty years. McDonnell’s are well placed in the market to confidently move into the next phase of growing their business for the next generation of family members.
Pictured: Ryan, Ian, Shaun and Harrison McDonnell