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Warren Hyne

Warren Hyne succeeded his father as M.D. following a thorough grounding in all aspects of the business over a period of nearly 30 years. At the time of his father’s retirement, Warren and his brother Richard had just taken the decision to tender for the, at that time, inconceivably huge volume of 225,000 m3 p.a. of Slash Pine Final Crop, a move which proved to be a turning point in the history of Hyne.
1979 – 1994

 

In the late 1980’s Warren Hyne led the industry’s campaign to retain logging rights over Fraser Island which had been in place for over 100 years. The Goss government subsequently decided against industry and closed logging after a short phase out period.

In 1980, prior to the opening of our Tuan Slash Pine Mill, Hyne & Son was a medium sized player in the industry, processing

  • 60,000 m3 mixed hardwood in 6 mills
  • 30,000 m3 of Hoop Pine Thinnings
  • 20,000 m3 of Slash Pine Final Crop and Thinnings
  • 30 – 40,000 m3 of sawn timber from other producers

The move to higher volume processing of softwood at our Tuan mill was highly successful, being based on leading technologies.

  • Sawmill technology – Linck from Germany
  • High Temperature Kilns
  • High Speed Planer with fully mechanised machine stress grading and handling

Production costs were low, quality and reliability were high, and margins were strongly profitable. This major expansion was made possible by the conservative gearing of our balance sheet, with an effective but manageable level of debt. Our continued growth since that time has been driven by this conservative use of borrowed funds combined with a conservative dividend payment and reinvestment of retained funds, a policy which is virtually no different from that adopted in the earliest days of the company by its founder, R M Hyne.

In the early 1990’s Warren Hyne joined Sumitomo Corporation with a joint proposal, to harvest thinnings and export them as woodchips and won.

Warren Hyne dedicated much of his life to forest industry organisations. He was chairman of the Australian Timber Research Institute, a member and chairman of the Gottstein Memorial Trust, a member of the Wood Science and Technology Advisory Group to CSIRO Forest Products, chairman of the Queensland Timber Board (now Timber Queensland), councillor of the Timber Research and Development Advisory Council, and a foundation member of the National Association of Forest Industries.

He was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the forest and timber industries in 1997 and in 2001 was presented with the Centenary Medal. He retired as managing director of Hyne & Son in 1992 but remained as chairman of the board until 2001.

Warren Hyne passed away in March 2007 aged 77, after a long illness. At the time of his passing Warren was considered one of the real ‘captains’ of industry.

Warren Hyne had the greatest gift a man could have: respect – for himself, the industry he loved and the people in it. There is not a good friend or colleague whose life was not better for having known him. He had an incredible understanding of and patience with all people – from heads of government and industry to the lonely timber cutter out in the bush.

Warren Hyne is survived by two sons, Peter and James, a daughter Jane Sanders, two brothers, Richard and Christopher, two sisters living in England Sue Hyne and Prue Bertlesen and seven grandchildren – five boys and two girls.