Farmers, community members and potential investors gathered at cluBarham this week to learn more about an exciting opportunity for the region. 

Attendees listened to how the growing, processing and value-adding of industrial hemp could provide great opportunities to producers, in employment and provide a boost to the local economy. 

The ‘green’ building attributes were explained by energy-efficient building practitioner and owner of the Hemp Building Company Joe D’Alo.

When Joe first discovered hemp and lime building while reading an article about the use of this wonderful plant material in the restoration of a historic building in France, Joe traded his public service job to study building, becoming a registered builder in 2006. 

“I learned a lot from my mistakes, there was no how-to book,” said Joe.

Joe first obtained hemp hurd from northern NSW.

“Looking back, I don’t even know how we put it all together, but we did.”

Joe’s passion for hemp has seen him travel the world to learn more about the opportunities and diversify his own business into consultancy to architects, builders and owner builders, as well as education and training.

“The relationship with timber frame construction, and what we’re proposing today really works with our current way of building in Australia.”

Currently, hempcrete in Australia is typically poured in forms or spray applied.

“Most buildings around the world made of hempcrete have been built, what we call cast in situ, and that’s just simply putting up some light formwork, mixing the material on site.

“It looks a bit like dry porridge. It’s basically dumped into the void made from the formwork. 

“It’s a great system, but the major downfall is very high in labour input.

“Over the years, what I’ve always tried to do is work out better cost-effective ways to produce a cheaper product to the marketplace.”

The answer to this cheaper alternative may come in the form of prefabricated blocks. The investment presents the argument for creating Murray Hemp Blocks, providing a readily useable, cost-effective alternative to traditional bricks and also contributing to positive environmental outcomes.

At full production, approximately 750,000 blocks could be produced and it is estimated that a single dwelling could be built from approximately 1 (one) hectare of hemp grown (1,275 blocks per dwelling).

To supply the raw material, local farmers would have the opportunity to grow hemp with the lower water use and higher returns forecast than many current cropping options.

Executive Officer of Western Murray Land Improvement Group Roger Knight spoke of the journey that led to the development of this proposal. 

“Obviously, irrigation water, and the viability of our irrigation districts in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales underpin our economies, and we need to look at opportunities to improve, improve the competitiveness of our farmers, and reduce that potential or further potential of economic leakage.

“We want to be solutions based and come up with some initiatives based on what the community have said, these ideas, they’ve got to be owned by the community. 

“We want to encourage partnerships, investment. One of the things we heard from the community is looking at novel ways of raising capital, of which tonight for the decortication plant, and as a primary processing facility, and value-add facility for the hemp bricks from the hurt and hopefully, down the track, there’ll be other opportunities with the fibre.”

In 2022, trials demonstrated the area’s suitability to growing hemp and through funding from the Murray-Darling Basin Economic Fund and Murray River Council, a pre-feasibility study was performed to ground truth market demand and whether the idea was worth pursuing. 

“What we found is the potential to generate more revenue per unit area, potential to augment existing farm revenues, local development of local supply and a value chain, diversification for farmers and the possibility for carbon sequestration in the future. 

Following the positive pre-feasibility study, funding was obtained from the NSW Government Department of Regional NSW for an extensive business case using the Wedge Group and RMCG to perform the analysis. 

By establishing a processing precinct plant in Barham, the Murray Industrial Hemp initiative aims to deliver a manufactured high-performing internal and external wall material to the construction industry while delivering favourable outcomes for the local community. In raising $5.25 million of capital, Murray Industrial Hemp will be eligible for an $18 million Regional Precinct Partnerships Program Federal Government grant, directed towards constructing a decortication plant and block manufacturing infrastructure. 

Several share options exist for people to invest in the project.

Attendee thoughts 

• Michael Chalmers, Noorong NSW

“The good work being done by Roger Knight and his crew, and the advertising, it just presented a really interesting aspect to the whole hemp industry.

“I guess coming along and listening to, particularly Joe, and Joe’s passion for building with hemp, it looks like a really interesting thing and can potentially be fantastic for Barham.”

• Glen McDonald, Gonn NSW 

“As a farmer, you’re always looking for new alternatives to grow.

“It’s pretty unique and I’m interested to look at it more as a grower.

“It could be great for the community if it gets going, there seems to be a lot of different opportunities for it.”

• Kate O’Neill, Barham NSW

“We’ve looked into hemp previously, before these guys were looking into it and just found there was not a lot of information for this area. 

“It was just interesting to come tonight and see a bit more about the outcomes and the business case, and the figures in terms of if it’s worth growing.

“We’re building very soon, and I love the idea of going with it. If it was available locally, it probably would have been something that we would have looked into a bit more, and I’m definitely interested from a community aspect, the local precinct and what that might mean for the local area and opportunities.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 4 April 2024.