Brief History

The Grant family’s involvement in the timber industry dates back to the early 1890s and their involvement in sawmilling dates back to 1945 when a sawmill was established at Kedron in Brisbane. In 1951 the mill at Geebung was purchased, followed in 1959 by the sawmill at Woodford.

The original owner of the Woodford mill was a Mr. Fredin, who came to Woodford in the early 1900’s. As a pioneer of the timber industry in this district he logged at first with horse and bullock teams and later sent logs by rail line, which opened in 1910, to Campbell’s Sawmill at Albion in Brisbane. He then decided to venture into a sawmill himself.

The original steam driven sawmill was built in approximately 1914 on a site half a mile away on the bank of the creek, which runs behind the present mill. This mill was partly destroyed by fire after a few years and was moved to its present site in approximately 1920.

The rebuilt mill was also driven by steam power until 1940 when it was converted to electric power, the machinery being driven from a series of counter shafts which were originally driven by the steam engines. This was considered a big improvement at the time.

In January 1971 the Woodford Mill was amalgamated with Brandon Timbers and subsequently when Brandon’s was taken over by the NSW Company Robb & Brown, the Grant family bought back the Woodford mill together with the company’s substantial landholdings in the Bellthorpe area. The Bellthorpe Forest is now considered one of the finest Hardwood producing areas in this country.

Geebung Yard in 1970. Sawmill and Office buildings in the background. Air dry stacks in the foreground.


The "Beddy" delivery truck.

Since the 1970s the Woodford mill has successfully taken advantage of its proximity to good quality forest resources and the Brisbane market. There has been ongoing investment in the mill over this time that has resulted in the current mill set up which consists of a large Canadian break down saw installed in 1965, McKee Resaw, Dry Mill relocated from Brisbane in 1993, GOS Storage Racks in 1994. Twin circular saws installed in 1994. A de-humidifier kiln was established late 1994.

1974 to 1976 saw new logging equipment including a Timberjack log skidder, Mack Truck and Cat D7 for a big push into our private country to improve productivity. The introduction of the Cat D7 equipped with bull tilt blade and Hyster winch was instrumental in breaking in new roads and tracks still in use today. Our country is all now very well roaded and tracked for future logging. The Timberjack Log Skidder, one of the first of its kind in this country, is still in service at Bellthorpe and set up with bull tilt blade it maintains our access roads and tracks.

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