Rival bid for Great Southern assets

The Bunning family and Azure Capital's John Poynton are part of a new bid for Great Southern's timber assets, pitting themselves against Perth businessman Gordon Martin.

The consortium - called Black Tree Proprietary and headed by former Integrated Tree Cropping chief Tony Jack - has launched a proposal for all 11 timber plantations managed by the failed agribusiness provider as part of the formal expressions of interest process run by receiver McGrath Nicol.

The schemes collectively represent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment.

Last month, Coogee Chemicals chairman Gordon Martin announced he would personally bankroll the bulk of a $20 million package to take over six timber plantations.

Mr Martin has established Pulpwood Plantations, headed by former Macquarie banker and former Great Southern deputy chief executive, Phillip Butlin.

A group set up to find a good commercial outcome for Great Southern growers, the Save My Trees initiative, has been involved in identifying groups that could offer a better outcome to investors than the receivers.

"We welcome more commercial offers. It creates more competitive tension," Save My Trees chairman Rob Burns said.

"We're aware of parties who are considering making bids for various schemes. We think we'll see a number over the next few weeks."