Final load of pallets trucked from Corryong timber mill

"I might just leave them on there, they look good," Mr Rowston remarked after parking his B-double at Baranduda's Vitasoy factory on Friday, November 17, 2023.

The 61-year-old's attachment to his haul of 612 timber trays was not surprising, given that he has been transporting piles of pallets five to six times a week for the past six years.

Although, while saddened by the end of an era, there are things he will not miss.

"I was thinking this is the last time I'm going through Darbyshire, this is the last time I'm going through Shelley and this is the last time I have an idiot with a tandem caravan overtaking me," Mr Rowston said.

A Greenfreight company driver, Mr Rowston originally scored the 120-kilometre route because he had already negotiated it an estimated 3000 times since getting his truck licence aged 17.

"I would have driven it thousands and thousands of times and I've never got sick of the drive because it's a beautiful drive in the country," he said.

The pallets delivered by Mr Rowston either went to Vitasoy to assist with carting their soy, almond, oat and rice milk cartons to distribution centres or the Wodonga depot of pallet distributor CHEP.

While he will pick up other work, it is a different story at the Corryong mill with redundancies having been handed out to staff this week.

There were 14 staff, including some who had already finished up, on hand to watch the last pallets being driven away.

"There was a realisation that that was the last one we're ever going to see leave," administration officer Rhonda Witter said.

"For the 16 years that I've been here they've been rolling out every day.

"I've noticed the silence since production stopped, with no pallet machine going, no mill going ... you know it's ending."

Tearing up as she spoke, Ms Witter could not help but express frustration at the Victorian government which ensured the mill was no longer viable after banning the use of harvested native timber.

"It's wrong, we did everything we could with using sustainable products and following the rules and regulations," she said.

Mr Rowston was blunter, blaming the former state premier Daniel Andrews.

"It's all because Dictator Dan was worried about the bleeding of votes to the Greens in the city, so they shut down the sustainable timber industry," he said.

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