For nearly 30 years Peter Hitchcock ran a thriving firewood business in Melbourne and Mooroopna but this year he gave the game away.
With the closure of the Barmah forest, Mr Hitchcock reckons firewood has become too scarce and too expensive to make it worthwhile.
``I could see firewood outpricing itself,'' Mr Hitchcock said.
``The price of it and the distance you have to travel to get it is the problem, last winter it was $105 a tonne and at Easter it was $160.''
``We can still access firewood but it's the cost of doing it, you're doing it for nothing.''
Anecdotal evidence suggests more and more people are having to resort to collecting their own firewood.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment has opened up domestic firewood permits for the proposed Barmah and Gunbower national parks.
In the proposed national parks, people will still be able to collect residual timber from designated firewood collection sites until mid-2011.
A domestic firewood licence or permit is typically issued for a short term and for small quantities of timber only and the firewood must be paid for in advance of collection.
Permits will also be issued again this winter for firewood collection in the Murray River Park, Shepparton Regional Park and Gunbower, Benwell and Guttram state forests.