GUNNS finally began harvesting bluegums at Dartmoor in the Victoria's far southwest last week.

It is the first ever harvest for the former Great Southern and Timbercorp estates.

The collapse of the two managed investment scheme giants in mid-last year delayed harvest of maturing plantations.

Gunns, which is now harvesting and marketing the former Great Southern estate, will also commission its new hardwood chip storage and loading facility at the Port of Portland early next year.

Gunns contractors are now harvesting and chipping bluegums at Dartmoor and trucking the chips to Portland, where they will be stored before shipping.

Despite the continuing weakness in the international hardwood chip market, Gunns expects to start shipping from the new facility early next year.

Gunns harvest operations manager Andrew Wiggill said it was a "bit of a relief" to see harvest begin on the 40,000ha of Gunns-managed plantations in the Green Triangle.

"The region is now in a very positive position to benefit from plantation forestry, in terms of the economy and jobs," Mr Wiggill said.

The harvest and chipping operation is reaping 250 tonnes/ha and processing and trucking 500 tonnes a day.

Mr Wiggill said Gunns' acquisition of Auspine, in the southeast of South Australia, gave the company great flexibility in access to harvesting and chipping contractors.

Meanwhile, Australian Bluegum Plantations, which bought the former Timbercorp estate, is also gearing up for its harvest. It is planning to chip its logs at South West Fibre's chipping and storage facilities at Myamyn, northeast of Heywood and Portland.

It controls 63,666ha of leased and freehold plantations in the Green Triangle and a further 27,931ha in Western Australia.

Mr Wiggill said it would be up to the new owner of the former Great Southern land to decide if they would take the plantations on to a second rotation.

However, he said the plantation forestry industry now was much more stable and with the jobs it could provide, had a very bright and permanent future in the Green Triangle.

"It's been a turbulent time and people wondered what might happen, but there is now a whole new industry here in the Green Triangle, which will provide hundreds of jobs," he said.