Business leaders are hopeful manufacturing will return to the Norske Skog Ettamogah paper mill and redundant staff will find employment under new owner Visy.
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Australian Industry Group's Tim Farrah said Visy was a well-resourced, well-run and globally-competitive company.
"Visy has a tremendous record in manufacturing and manufacturing in Australia," he said. "You would think with Visy [the mill] would be in good hands.
"I'd like to think Visy would come out and make their intentions clear as soon as they can. Right now 180-odd families are wondering about their future."
NSW Business Chamber regional manager Andrew Cottrill said there was a lot of infrastructure at the site that could be re-purposed and used by Visy.
He said the Border business community would be happy to work with Visy to support the site so hopefully work and workers would return.
"We're hoping it will happen quickly," he said.
"So hopefully staff who have been made redundant and have very attractive skills for the industry and the knowledge about paper production industry, can be engaged before they drift away from the region or into other jobs."
AMWU organiser Dave Corben said unfortunately it made sense Visy did not wish to keep the workforce, because even if they wanted to manufacture at the site, there would be no work available while the mill was assessed and refitted.
"What we hope is that they put some money into the site, repurpose it for whatever purpose they'd like... reopen the site and employ some people, that would be our ultimate hope," he said.
He said whether staff received similar pay would in part depend on whether the mill operated 24/7.
Visy was contacted for comment.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
