Australia’s timber industry is facing disaster, with “significant” areas of East Gippsland’s native hardwood logging allocations destroyed by the bushfires. The devastation leaves the Victorian government’s plan for a slow shut-down of the native logging industry looking uncertain, according to the forestry union, with large areas of plantation timber also burnt in Victoria, NSW and South Australia. An industry source said on Tuesday they feared up to 40 per cent of the state forest allocated to timber agency VicForests to harvest in East Gippsland had been destroyed in the fires, which have burnt through 1.2 million hectares of Victoria. The forest industries lobby group says the consequences of the plantation destruction will take years to play out for communities in the three states reliant on timber jobs. …Construction Forestry Mining and Energy National Secretary Michael O’Connor said the destruction of East Gippsland forest in the blazes put the state government’s transition plan into doubt.