Burnt radiata pine logs are being delivered to a site on Bond Street, unloaded from plantation trucks, stored and then reloaded onto Melbourne-bound trucks.

Logistics company Malec Holdings is currently employing an additional 30 harvesting contractors and 60 haulage contractors to assist in the salvage operation.

More than 430 people are employed in the operation overall, and work is happening to minimise dust and mud issues.

Greater Hume environment and planning director Colin Kane read out a letter on behalf of the applicant at the August 19 council meeting.

"The issue these forestry companies face is there is a time window," he said.

"The domestic market will not be able to continue utilising the log products for long due to the timber quality deterioration.

"The forestry owners need the highest possible recovery to enable them to recoup their losses [through exports].

"Malec has been working closely with Forestry Corp NSW to ensure as the domestic market ceases consumption, Malec will have increased capacity to consume this volume."

Mr Kane suggested the operation could shut down from 10pm to 5am, with Malec hoping for a close instead from 10.30pm to 5am, due to a tight schedule of two runs to Melbourne each day.

The land is zoned RU5 Village and a freight transport facility is an approved activity within the zone.

A number of residents objected about the level of noise from the site over the last three months and proposed approvals, and a submission was also read by Mr Kane.

"We are constantly woken up at any time ... to the constant dropping of logs, from 3am through to 6am," he said.

"There is no escaping the noise."

The closest dwellings are approximates 350 metres away in Spring Street.

Cr Denise Knight said the noise level would be much more significant than when the site was a mill.

"I would worry about people's mental health, when they're losing the amount of sleep that it appears that they are," she said.

"One of the submitters said there's been up to a dozen trucks in line waiting, yet the proponent is saying the whole idea of this is to stop congestion."

Mr Kane said there had been no complaints to council about noise before comments were sought as part of the approval process.

"There wouldn't be an alternate spot in Holbrook that could better accommodate this development," he said.

"The noise coming from this site is fairly complicated; there's some high peaks and it's coming off a base that's quite high.

"If I compare that background noise level to other areas in the shire away from the Hume at night ... it's already a very noisy spot."

"If things deteriorated and we did start to get a lot of complaints, council can take other action."

Councillor Tony Quinn said the hours of operation were requested for a reason, and the flow-on effects could not be understated.

"The economic effect around Holbrook with all these people coming through has got to be staggering, they all must spend the odd 50 cents," he said.

"If we decide to make it too tough and brush them away, no effect for Holbrook."

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Mayor Heather Wilton said she and Cr Lea Parker had raised issues with the operation over recent months.

"They do two return truck loads a day, those that go to Melbourne, and the others bring them in from the forests - there are two separate lots of drivers.

"They are employing some local people as well.

"They semi-sort them and strip a bit of burnt bark off, and the next truck comes in.

"They have the trucks loaded and unloaded, loaded unloaded, in a big line ... it rotates. It's like a big conveyor belt.

"But it did start off in a pretty rough sort of fashion, when we were first alerted to it.

"I complained a bit, and I think Councillor Parker did, because we were just concerned at what was going on - to me it looked a bit dangerous, because there were trucks everywhere at one stage.

"There were 53 there on one day.

"It certainly is working much more efficiently now. It satisfies my concern."

Hours of operation of 5am through to 10.30pm Monday to Friday and 6am to 4pm Saturday and Saturday for the next 18 months, among other conditions around site maintenance, were approved by council.