But when the season finishes it seems it may be the last for a while.

Now Lithgow Council is curious to know why State Forests is not planning to replant the area.

It is a question that will also intrigue the wider community for whom the Newnes State Forest has been a part of the landscape for decades.

The surprise announcement arose from a meeting of the Lithgow Council Local Traffic Committee.

Attending the meeting for the first time was Mr Tijmen Klootwijk, the recently appointed Haulage and Sales Coordinator for Forestry NSW.

Party of Mr Klootwijk’s role is to assist in safety and efficiency measures for the logging trucks.

The meeting was told that the present harvesting operation in the Newnes Forest is expected to continue for about two years.

During that time there will be in the vicinity of 30,000 logging truck movements through Lithgow, en route mainly to the processing mills at Oberon, Bathurst and Tumut.

Mr Klootwijk surprised the committee with the information that Forests NSW does not have current plans to re-plant the area.

Lithgow Council had not previously been advised of the department’s intentions.

At its most recent regular meeting council agreed without further comment to seek clarification from Forestry NSW on just what is intended for the future of the pine plantations on the Newnes Plateau.

Much of the planting in the mature sections of the forest was carried out years ago by inmates from the now long gone Newnes Afforestation Correctional Centre.

Forests NSW last year carried out a major harvesting operation in sections of the Lidsdale State Forest overlooking Wallerawang.

Logging trucks are a very familiar sight on roads through Lithgow and occasionally the drivers have been known to stray into light traffic routes.

The designated heavy vehicle route — apart from where the final destination is on a light load route — is Mort Street, Lithgow Street, western Main Street to the Great Western Highway.

Some weeks ago a carelessly driven logging truck uprooted a set of traffic lights at the intersection of Lithgow and Mort Streets in an early morning incident.

Despite witnesses and the fact that the driver stopped near the police station to remove debris from beneath his trailer it is believed the offender has not been identified.

FOOTNOTE: Council’s Traffic Committee meeting was told there had been no complaints from the public regarding any aspects of timber truck operations through the council area.