Timber

The silent and devastating toll of people stealing wood from Victoria’s forests and parks has been revealed as public land authorities announce a crackdown on escalating illegal firewood take and habitat destruction threatening the survival of native wildlife and Aboriginal cultural heritage. In 2023 alone, firewood thieves damaged or destroyed more than 9,200 native trees or cleared roughly 462 hectares of public land in Victoria ...

A decision by an electricity network which covers more than 90 per cent of the state to phase out hardwood power poles in favour of composite poles made from resin and fibreglass has sparked community concerns amidst allegations the transition will increase power bills, further exacerbating financial pressures during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, as well as compromise the timber industry.

South Australian-sourced timber will form the backbone of two of the state’s new technical colleges – simultaneously reducing the carbon impact of the construction work and supporting the state’s $3 billion forestry industry ... new technical colleges at Tonsley and Mount Gambier will both be constructed with timber sourced from Timberlink Australia’s new $70 million NeXTimber manufacturing facility at Tarpeena in the state’s south east.

Forestry Corporation has embarked on a seed collection program to safeguard some of the most iconic forests in New South Wales. The giant eucalypt forests of the NSW high country dominated by Alpine Ash were severely impacted by the Black Summer bushfires.

Peter Rutherford. After reading Mark Poynter’s brief critique of The Forest Wars and the David Lindenmayer response, a few points seemed to need further exploration ... Many SETA members and others working in the forest industry have been curious as to what appear to be strong connections that Mr Lindenmayer has with a number of media reporters, who regularly report his opinions on native forest issues.

The Allan Labor Government’s Forestry Transition Fund has helped an East Gippsland timber worker to successfully transition from working in a mill to running his own small business ... Riverview Installations installs flatpack kitchens, including those from Bunnings and Ikea, in Bairnsdale and the surrounding area. The business also helps homeowners to measure and design their own kitchen.

Mark Poynter, a fellow of the Institute of Foresters of Australia (now Forestry Australia) reviews The Forest Wars. The author, Professor David Lindenmayer, responds ... "The Forest Wars  purports to portray the ‘ugly truth’ about what happens in wood production forests": Poynter ... "As I point out in the book there are some key problems with the industry": Lindenmayer.

Miners and small prospectors fear that the state government's study into the future of Gippsland's forests could lock up swathes of forest and shackle mining as a driver of local economic growth and jobs. Both the Minerals Council of Australia and the Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria (PMAV) are critical of mining's inability to have a say in the process.

Thirty-seven years ago, a group of women came together at Mallanganee Memorial Hall and created a huge applique of a bullock team to honour the village’s timber history. It started in 1975, when Katina Larsson came to Mallanganee from Casino one day a week to teach a TAFE fashion course at the hall.

Radial Timber in Yarram, with a strategy already in place for its mainstream timber operation, has embarked on a new approach to using its wood waste that takes the company deeper into the heart of the sustainable, circular economy. Radial has installed a pilot plant that uses pyrolysis technology; organic material, in this case wood residues, is burnt at high temperatures without oxygen to produce biochar, a stable solid that is rich in carbon and can fertilise and endure in soil for thousands of years.

When I started as a young forester in the late 1980s, I yearned for the opportunity to work in our native forests. While assessing a coupe to plan for a tree harvesting operation, I knew I was inheriting a forest structure that benefited from silvicultural practices adopted by foresters a few generations before me. Foresters aim to make the forest more productive by applying scientific principles to aid in the regeneration of the next crop of trees and to encourage the best growth of the retained trees. My responsibility was to continue that tradition for foresters a few generations ahead of me.

Local CFA brigades attended a fire at Walkers sawmill in Corryong on Friday night which destroyed electrical equipment, necessary for the production of kindling. Two on-site mill workers heard a series of popping noises, similar to gunshots, around 10.30pm before noticing flames coming from the main processing area.

The expansion of one of the Clarence Valley’s largest timber factories, Big River Group is a huge boost to the local economy and sets the bar high in supplying the sustainable manufacturing of high-quality specialist technical timber products across the State. The upgrade includes the installation of state-of-the-art machinery that will substantially increase Big River’s output enabling them to supply an unprecedented volume of timber products.

Victorians have a landmark opportunity to help design the future of the state’s public land estate – which now includes more than 1.8 million hectares of forest previously used for timber harvesting. To inform the future use and management of Victoria’s forest estate the Allan Labor Government has established the Great Outdoors Taskforce…

“Under the bark of trees are powerful solutions”. This year’s  International Day of Forests celebrates the role of trees in providing powerful solutions for a better world.

About 40 salaried jobs at the Maryvale Mill will be gone by June as Opal moves to slash further positions across the company in a bid to stabilise its financial performance. The 40 are believed to be among about 220 salaried company-wide employees who will be made redundant, adding to the more than 300 workers who lost their jobs when Maryvale's white paper production plant was closed late last year.

Monique Dawson. Recent public commentary about the closure of VicForests has included numerous false and misleading claims.  VicForests knows there are individuals and organisations who are opposed to native timber harvesting who will be celebrating VicForests’ closure ... The most offensive category of false claims being made is the suggestion VicForests is “rogue” or a “cowboy agency”.

VicForests, the Victorian Government’s own forestry agency, is being treated deplorably as it braces for a June 30 shutdown ... Peter Walsh, Leader of The Nationals, said it seemed the government was intent on wiping VicForests from the history books.