When Clayton Crowe bought the former East Town railway workshops in Wanganui East, he was dreaming of a thriving industrial park. Today, there are still many businesses along the railway line in Wanganui East.
Successful businesses Burgess Matting and Eastown Timber are like the bookends of what was once given the grandiose title of Eastown Industrial Park - and there are a scattering of other businesses in between.
The Chronicle also found a business packaging wood shavings for animal bedding based in some big red sheds, and its neighbours were a car wrecking business and a transport business. Along the way are the buildings once used by a Wanganui polytechnic catering course - still empty.
Roger Brasell says the place has had a chequered history since the railway workshops closed in 1986.
His Eastown Timber Processors took up a chunk of the eastern end of the park in 1989 and is still going strong.
Its retail division trades as Eastown Timber & Fencing and is a 50:50 partnership between Mr Brasell and Stephen Smith.
After first owning Pitzac Wood Enterprises, which dealt with posts and poles, Mr Brasell's Eastown enterprise was about outdoor landscaping timber - fence pickets, wood for retaining walls and timber decking.
Wood was what he grew up with. His father, Austin Brasell, was a renowned carver.
These days, Eastown Timber buys in sawn timber from mills as far away as Rotorua and Hawke's Bay and as close as Waverley.
The timber is then treated in one of four different ways, to make it suitable for outdoor use or export. The newest timber treatment is known as ACQ. Copper is the only heavy metal involved and the timber can be used in beehives and playground structures. ACQ is more expensive than other treatments, but is gaining in popularity.
The business also has a heat-treating process, used to treat timber used in packaging for exports. It's needed because all wood moving from country to country now has to be sterilised.
The treated timber is sawn into its final shapes and dimensions.
Some of it is sold direct from Holyoake St and the rest goes to retail outlets.
These are mostly in the lower North Island, with a line of fence pickets exported to Australia.
The building industry in Australia and New Zealand is sluggish but may may perk up locally next year when construction finally gets under way in Christchurch.
The 12 staff at Eastown Timber & Fencing process about three truck-and-trailer loads of timber a week. Most of it is pine these days, with a small amount of imported timber and recycled rimu that is machined and dried for other businesses.
Sometimes farmers bring in their own timber to be processed for their use, and roading contractors buy timber for retaining walls and signposts. Customers can order wood cut to size and shape.
Surviving in the timber business was admirable at present, Mr Brasell said.
"We're not making any money, but we have survived and made a career out of it.
"It's an extremely competitive market and, on top of that, extremely high cost with consent and compliance issues for a plant this size."
He and Mr Smith have plans for the future though.
"We are strategically placed as a processing company. The growth potential is there when the market does move. We need volume to make it work and we are set up to do that volume," Mr Smith said.
Mr Brasell said the low New Zealand dollar compared with Australia could also entice Australian buyers.
EASTOWN TIMBER TREATMENTS
-Old-fashioned CCA treatment, the standard tanalising
-LOSP, done with solvents that penetrate quickly and evaporate later
-ACQ, a new environmentally friendly water-based treatment
-Steam heating to 52C for half an hour to sterilise timber used in export packaging