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AUSTRALIA — A paper mill is suing the Victorian government for more than $400 million in damages, accusing it of not providing a steady supply of pulpwood. Paper Australia, trading as Opal, has filed proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria, claiming the government breached a contract that required it to provide a table supply of pulpwood to the Maryvale Mill in Gippsland’s Latrobe Valley. The Maryvale Mill ceased white paper production in 2023, but still produces other paper products in a smaller capacity, in the wake of dwindling native timber supply and the state government ending native timber harvesting in 2024. …Under the agreement, the state government would supply Opal with pulpwood for paper and in particular, native harvest eucalypt wood, which was identified as a “critical raw material” for the company’s white paper products. But in late 2022, the government advised Opal it would not be able to fulfil its obligations.