Forestry

Timber Towns Victoria (TTV) has visited the Wellington Shire Council region for a 3-day members forum incorporating their annual general meeting and tours through several businesses featuring timber processing, innovation, and economic development.

The Murray Region Forestry Hub recently hosted its managers, representatives from relevant government agencies and industry groups at a conference. A number of items were listed for discussion as well as a packed field trip including the Visy Pulp and Paper Mill, Hyne Timber, Fire impacted plantation regrowth sites and a trip to Ardrossan to see first hand some of the fire infrastructure investment.

The latest national koala population estimates from CSIRO’s National Koala Monitoring Program (NKMP) have revealed a staggering leap in koala numbers that upends years of alarmism. The 2025 CSIRO report estimates the listed population between 398,000 and 569,000, a dramatic rise from the 2024 estimate of just 95,000 to 238,000.  

Forest Fire Management Victoria’s (FFMVic) newest recruits are gearing up for the summer bushfire season, undertaking intensive training camps across the state.

Matt Canavan’s exposé at the recent Senate Estimates, which had the Department of Agriculture’s executives sweating in their seats, deserves wide circulation ... “There’s lots of talk about the need to increase reforestation—effectively, the conversion of agricultural land to forests ..." ... If Matt Canavan is the Senate’s zealot hunter, then Western Australia’s Senator Matthew O’Sullivan is its Maremma the Sheepdog that protects its flock ... In committee, O’Sullivan’s questioning tore open the government’s $139.8 million Sheep Industry Transition Assistance Package ...

Guulabaa – Place of Koala, the world’s first purpose-built wild koala breeding and visitor centre, has been recognised with the Australian Good Design Award Winner accolade in the Built Environment category at the 2025 Australian Good Design Awards.

An independent, NSW Government-commissioned study released in September 2025 has confirmed there is no evidence that selective timber harvesting harms koala populations in NSW’s North Coast forests. 

Deep in the forests of Western Australia, jarrah has left a remarkable legacy. In the late 1800s, this mighty hardwood—then called Swan River mahogany—revolutionised city life. The noise on London's streets changed from the familiar harsh clang of hooves on cobblestones to the softer clippity-clop of horses trotting over wooden blocks. Those blocks were made from jarrah, and soon that timber paved an empire.

TFTU says the Labor Government is short-changing its own people and not being accountable to workers. The Timber, Furnishing & Textiles Union (TFTU) has condemned the NSW Government’s handling of the Great Koala National Park decision, saying workers are being offered redundancy support packages five times worse than their Victorian counterparts.

Tasmania has emerged as a "standout success story" in Australian agriculture, powered by a vibrant and varied farming sector which has experienced sustained and widespread growth in recent decades, according to a new report. In the report, Gearing up for mature growth in Tasmanian agriculture, agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank says agriculture remains the cornerstone of Tasmania’s economy...

"This funding initiative is an exciting new opportunity for the forestry sector," according to Cr Karen Stephens, president of Timber Towns Victoria and Mayor of Glenelg Shire Council, "ultimately using the whole of the tree and turning what would have been wasted wood fibre into a valuable low-carbon resource for use in other industries."

Premier Chris Minns says it’s unthinkable that koalas are at risk of extinction. He’s spot on. Koalas are not now and never have been at risk of extinction ... Environment Minister Penny Sharpe says the Great Koala National Park has been a dream for more than a decade. Indeed. The Great Koala Park is the culmination of a campaign by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to extend their empire ... Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty says the Government is committed to a sustainable forestry industry in NSW. I think her ministerial title gives the lie to that.

Clarence Nationals MP Richie Williamson has slammed the Minns Labor Government’s announcement of the 476,000-hectare Great Koala National Park, describing it as “a massive kick in the guts” for regional communities across the Richmond and Clarence valleys and the wider North Coast region.

Forestry Australia, the nation’s leading body representing forest scientists, managers and growers, expresses its dismay at the New South Wales State Government’s decision to create a Great Koala National Park without a clear, science-led plan to deliver measurable outcomes and avoid negative flow on consequences.

The Minns Labor Government has confirmed the next major step delivering on an election commitment to protect koalas in the wild, announcing the proposed boundary for the Great Koala National Park, alongside a comprehensive plan to support workers, industry and local communities ... The park will reserve 176,000 hectares of state forest and connect with existing national parks to create a 476,000-hectare reserve – one of the largest in NSW.

Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry production is expected to hit a record combined value of $101.6 billion in 2025-2026, according to the latest ABARES forecasts released today. ABARES Executive Director Dr Jared Greenville said the new record value was mostly down to livestock.

This Labor government’s environmental policy doesn’t look like it’s being run by those in Macquarie Street, but maybe by rooftop protestors who contribute little to society ... These high-end activists are screaming “koala crisis”, all the while happily living in high rise towers built from concrete and steel, wrapped in plastics, stuffed with furniture made from imported timber ripped from forests overseas with zero environmental standards. That’s not conservation. That’s hypocrisy.

The Nationals Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh is appealing to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action to repeat its public firewood collection from Barmah Forest in September last year. Mr Walsh said that day saw thousands of tonnes of flood-damaged timber made available to hundreds of locals for heating and, in some cases, cooking.

Foresters and environmentalists in Australia may not have seen eye to eye of late, but on the subject of forest clearances for large scale renewable energy developments, there are increasing instances where their objections to the consequential impact on the forest make them de facto allies.

Land clearing was effectively banned back in 1983—but apparently no one told the Shire of Northam. Their newly released draft Tree Retention Policy (LPP27) reads as if state and federal restrictions don’t exist. It’s packed with all the right buzzwords—biodiversity, canopy cover, climate resilience—but beneath the green gloss is a bureaucratic trap.

More than 70 guests—including Ministers, Shadow Ministers, MPs, CEOs and industry stakeholders—gathered at Parliament House yesterday for ‘Timber in July’, a showcase of the growing importance of Victoria’s plantation and wood fibre industry to the state’s economy, housing supply and climate goals.