Hi zwu, I think you may be reading too much into the word...

Hi zwu, I think you may be reading too much into the word "land". You can see the blocks on: gunns.tasmanianruralproperty.com.au/.

I believe freelance timber property buyers were bidding for some but most were picked up conservation interests, mainly Jan Cameron, Kathmandu shop founder. That suggests to me there wasn't a lot of merchantable timber left on them for the timber men to drop out and leave them to the amenity value bidders.

I reckon GNS had got the best of the timber off over many years. The blocks were held for years by Boral/Forest Resources (taken over by GNS in 2000) or North Forests (taken over by GNS in 2001).

I recall seeing somewhere a book value claim of around $30M.