Pelz Haulage, based in Newmerella, suffered a substantial financial loss during the Black Summer Bushfires which swept through East Gippsland in 2019/2020.
While the fires didn’t directly impact their business, the closure of the Princes Highway for eight weeks, from December 30, 2019, took its toll on Pelz Haulage which has a significant footprint in the East Gippsland region.
Marianne Pelz, a former East Gippsland Shire mayor, said the financial impacts to the business were in the form of wages, loss of registration costs for a fleet of 20 prime movers and 45 trailer combinations.
“They were all parked for up to eight weeks in the yard because the commissioner in control of emergency services saw fit to keep the Princes Highway closed while they cleared Mount Drummer (east of Cann River) from encroaching roadside vegetation which should never had been there in the first place if proper maintenance had been kept up over the years,” Ms Pelz said.
IMAGE: Marianne Pelz, of Pelz Haulage in Newmerella, was all smiles when she moved on from her seat at the East Gippsland Shire table last year, but says her family business missed out on a Bushfire Recovery Victoria grant despite being impacted by the bushfires. “Anything to do with timber is very unsexy,” she said. K203-6950
