The shock closure of Adelaide’s largest salvage yard will have wide-reaching ramifications for SA builders and renovators that will be felt for years.
Adelaide and Rural Salvage at 283 Hanson Road, Wingfield will close its doors to the public on June 12 after 32 years of operation – 25 of which business owner Paul Tucker has been at the helm.
“Around the building trade, and with renovators, builders and architects it’s a bit of an institution,” Mr Tucker said.
“We supply a huge range of new and used building materials like architectural fittings, flooring, doors, windows, timbers – all that stuff.
“We’re on a hectare or five-acre property, so we have been one of the biggest and best salvage yards in Australia, not just South Australia, so it’s rather unique.
“It’s going to be limiting for the market.
Adelaide and Rural Salvage items for sale as the business closes after 32 years. Picture: Supplied
Some of the character windows on display. Picture: Supplied
The place has timber galore. Picture: Supplied
“There are a couple of other sort of junkyards and salvage yards around, but in our space there’s going to be nothing left, unfortunately.
Mr Tucker said the loss of this amount of material available for sale would come as a blow to builders and renovators as the cost of new materials rise across the board, blowing out many families’ budgets.
“It’s not just that, it’s also the unique materials,” Mr Tucker said.
“If it’s an architectural piece – you’re not going to get it anywhere else, so, you know, that’s going to dictate the price, and all that timber is recycled and unique, so you can’t get it anywhere.
“It’s all old growth timber.
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“You can’t buy jarrah anymore, they’ve stopped milling it, and oregon.
“The problem is South Australia never had any native timber.
“People buying older houses now want to do an extension which is generally two to three times the size of the original house, and they want to use matching flooring, which we provide, matching leadlight and doors and windows and all that sort of stuff which we’ve salvaged for years.
“As well as everybody experiencing the cost of living crisis, I’m experiencing the costs of running a business crisis.”
The place has an impressive array of character sink and tapware. Picture: Supplied
Need an oven – they’ve got ovens. Picture: Supplied
They’re not short on doors too. Picture: Supplied
Mr Tucker said his costs had skyrocketed in recent years.
“On this site, my land tax and council rates are $200,000 a year before I even open the doors,” he said.
“Insurance is 50 grand and it just keeps on spiralling.
“The days of making money are over.
“I’ve sort of known this has been coming for a while and I’m just going on for as long as I can but it just financially doesn’t make any sense for me to continue on.”
Mr Tucker said the environmental impact of this closure would also be felt.
With his fleet of “strippers” soon to be off the road and no longer salvaging materials from properties scheduled for demolition, that meant more stuff going into landfill.
Just one of the ornate windows they sell. Picture: Supplied
There aren’t too many places you’ll be able to find vintage fireplaces to match your old ones. Picture: Supplied
“We had someone do a study about three years ago and at that state we were keeping about 15,000 tonnes of material – doors, windows, flooring and so on – out of landfill each year,” Mr Tucker said.
“Taking us out of the space, there’s going to be virtually nobody doing it, so it’s all going to be heading to landfill.”
The salvage yard closes its doors on June 12.
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