Niue Recieves First Sawmill in Years

It has been a number of years since there has been a working sawmill on the South Pacific Island of Niue. Seeing the demand for access to local timber, and knowing that no one can supply this demand left Anton Nemaia one choice.

Source the best darn sawmill money can buy – a Peterson Winch Production Frame (WPF). The flagship Peterson Sawmill – offering ultimate efficiency and longevity while remaining light weight and portable. Though, Anton is lucky enough to have a brand new concrete pad to operate on, he can easily load the mill onto a vehicle or trailer to be used remotely anywhere on the island.

As our existing mill owners already understand, buying a Peterson isn’t just a one-off transaction to us. We care immensely about the success of our customers and their sawmilling endeavours. Our New Zealand based support team often go beyond the call of duty to ensure you get the best advice and training with your new machine.

When there’s the temptation of a tropical island holiday mixed in with sawmill training, there’s no need to convince our Sawmill Specialist Greg Sheehan to start packing his bags. Accompanied by his wonderful wife, Greg spent a week in Niue late last month to help set up and provide training to ensure Anton was confident running his new Peterson Sawmill.

The sawmill was blessed in traditional fashion before the demonstration and training begun. The logs Anton had aquired to break-in his WPF were Mahogany that had been damaged in a recent cyclone. They had some rot present inside, so were being milled to recover the good bits. Anton planned to cut common construction timber with the bad bits used for boxing pegs.

“I looked online and these guys (Peterson Portable Sawmills) have really good customer reviews, the customers they have are very happy with them and they do a lot of mills for the islands and Australia, New Zealand and the States as well. I haven’t heard anything bad”

Local media outlet, BCN News attended the sawmill training for a feature in the evening news and an article online to share Anton’s excitement with his new purchase. While there, they asked Anton what lead to him choosing a Peterson Sawmill over competing brands of swing blades, to which he responded, “It’s something I have been looking into for a number of years and I did research. I looked online and these guys (Peterson Portable Sawmills) have really good customer reviews, the customers they have are very happy with them and they do a lot of mills for the islands and Australia, New Zealand and the States as well. I haven’t heard anything bad and I went with them.”

Anton told BCN News that he is excited. For now, he plans to focus on how to use the sawmill before looking ahead on how it can benefit Niue.

“They are based in New Zealand as well so it’s close for parts and they managed to come all the way out here to do training as well. It’s been good,” says Anton.

Greg’s visit also gained attention from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Niue who were interested in the business case for domestic timber production and recovering materials from trees damaged in extreme weather events. They invited Forestry staff and others who were keen to learn more about the swingblade technology.

For now, Anton is getting his head around all the opportunities that are now at his doorstep and getting familiar with the mill, although Greg and his wife loved their trip to Niue so much, they might just be back to give Anton a hand on the island soon! So long as they catch some fish next time..