Australian Forests & Timber News

February 2011, Issue 1, Vol. 20 Ph: (03) 9888 4834 Fax: (03) 9888 4840 Email: lmartin@forestsandtimber.com.au Web: www.timberbiz.com.au ISSN 1444-5824 - Print Post No. PP 767324/00002

TRIED & TESTED pages 24-25  THE BRUKS 805.2 STC chipper, a newcomer to Australia, is the fifth generation of Bruks mobile chippers with a drum diameter of 800mm. The 805.2 STC is the multifunction version based on the Bruks concept featuring infeed from the side and high-dumping chip bin. Its design is based on experience from some 300 same-size mobile chipping units manufactured by Bruks.

The new chipper has been put through its paces in SA and Victoria and is the subject of this edition’s Tried & Tested segment (pages 24-25). The photo shows the new machine being prepped prior to the start of its field trials.

Govt should back down

By John Hudswell

S

IGNS ARE emerging that the South Australian Government could back down on its plans to forward sell almost a century of ForestrySA harvests.

Several factors point to a Government backflip on a plan that has had the State’s timber capital up in arms for some time, stifled investment in the area, seemingly stalled value-adding enterprises and threatened thousands of jobs in the long term.

First, ForestrySA has shown a desire to increase the plantation estate by up to 30%.

Apparently Forestry Minister Michael O’Brien sees such a move as a catalyst for increased investment in processing and new value adding.

According to the Minister such an increase would provide the basis for two world-class sawmills plus smaller sawmills in the Green Triangle.

Mark Braes, chairman of Regional Development Australia Limestone Coast, said that to sustain the industry and grow it, “we need a greater critical mass of forestry” and it was positive news for the 5,000 people in the southeast who rely on the industry for employment.

Second, Treasurer Kevin Foley, a staunch advocate for the forward sell plan, is soon to leave Government. Now the Forestry Minister (he and Foley didn’t see eye-to-eye during the early stages of the “sell” pitch) can instead see the value of a larger estate.

However, the people of the region are not leaving things to chance and plan another march on Adelaide to put their point across “strongly”.

In a pre-rally letter to Premier Rann, the Mayors of Mount Gambier City (Steve Perryman), District Council of Grant (Richard Sage) and Wattle Range Council (Peter Gandolfi) said the Government’s forward sell decision would “undoubtedly affect our region, however, we will not be alone. All South Australians will be affected in some way with an expected $40 million no longer contributed to annual State Revenue due to the ‘income’ (logs) being sold, yet the liability (forests) will remain with the State Government. One very possible scenario: a disproportionate amount of log will be exported which will translate to increased building costs and delays due to the unavailability of milled building grade timber – just one of the value adding

processes that happens in our region, with a number of mills configured to produce building grade timber,” the trio pointed out.

Third, comes the news that from May, about 170 permanent and 35 temporary jobs will be cut from Kimberly Clarke’s Millicent Mill.

A further 65 jobs may be lost in October if a buyer for the Tantanoola pulp mill cannot be found.

Even with some form of Federal and State Government investment and retrainingfunding the opportunities for “new” work in rural regions just can’t be plucked out of the blue.

The solution for the Government is simple … maintain the status quo and reap the annual rewards from ForestrySA; retain ownership of a massive asset; grow the asset; ensure that people in rural areas have access to long-term, purposeful employment. And, as a gesture of sincerity, the State Government should urge the Federal Government to reintroduce the anti-dumping charges that had previously been imposed on China and Indonesia to prevent international companies from dumping tissue and toilet paper on the Australian market.

Call us for caring personalised service, great value cover and a range of products to suit your needs.

FREECALL 1800 804 950 website www.hciltd.com.au email enquiries@hciltd.com.au A Registered Private Health Insurer

CRC Forestry 19, Biofuels & Chipping 26-29, Fire Equipment 32-33

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 3

The changing landscape of Australia’s forestry investment sector Rationalising timberland Managed Investment Schemes

I

N THE LATE 1990s Australia leasing costs as a single-up-front their debt facilities. Timbercorp was facing a growing deficit payment—often in the order of and Great Southern Plantations, for wood products. The $10,000 per hectare. In many the largest MIS companies, went Federal Managed Investments Act cases the MIS companies financed into administration/receivership of 1998 responded to this supply the investments with up to 100% in April/May 2009, leading to shortage by creating a retail debt, allowing the investor to gain questions about the viability of investment structure that allowed the tax deduction with no up-front the whole sector. Such turmoil has been a challenge for the many tens investors to take a personal payment.

Forestry MIS companies of thousands of grower investors, income tax deduction for investing and manage the but the resulting restructuring in reforestation and agribusiness establish activities through Managed plantations and market the timber and sale of assets also creates the Investment Schemes (MIS). The products on behalf of the individual opportunity to institutionalize creation of timberland MIS was investors in the scheme (known as forestry investment in Australia. more successful than anticipated. “growers”). The MIS company is The rationalization should lead New companies were formed to typically paid a management fee to a stable, high-quality forestry offer MIS to the retail market, and a share in the harvest proceeds. estate on many former MIS and the sector grew quickly in Upon raising the funds, the MIS landholdings. response to investors wanting operator has 14 months to secure to manage capital gains tax bills land and undertake reforestation associated with the bull market operations.

Over the past year, the of the Australian Stock Exchange rebalancing of the sector became (ASX). The MIS sector has evident in the downfall of several driven almost 1 million hectares prominent MIS operators with (2.5 million acres) of plantation several large properties changing establishment in Australia over The MIS industry first rose to hands and companies entering the past decade. In the peak year prominence in the late 1990s as Administration: of 2006-07, investors placed rising stock markets drove interest In early 2009, Great Southern over $1.2 billion dollars in MIS in tax minimization products. In Plantations, the largest MIS projects.

2000 the Federal Government of operator with over 40,000 To meet the surging demand, investors, offered to MIS companies buy out its growers needed to acquire Alberta Investment Management in bulk. Only onesubstantial land quarter of the forestry Corporation and New Forests’ assets.

However, investors accepted an land acquisition is Australia New Zealand Forest offer to trade their not tax deductible Fund acquires the 270,000 hectare woodlots for shares to the investor forestland holding of Great Southern in Great Southern. under the Managed Subsequently, Investments Act, so Plantations from the Receiver, Great Southern was the MIS companies McGrath Nicol for $415 million. unable to service financed land its debt and went purchases on their into Administration balance sheets with substantial Australia tried to limit the growth and Receivership in May 2009. bank debt. The recent combined of the schemes by requiring that The management rights to the effect of a volatile share market, the reforestation occur in the year plantations were sold to Gunns in reduced demand for MIS products of investment, but as the stock December 2009. and an inability to roll over debt market contracted in 2001, the In the case of Timbercorp, the facilities has led to a somewhat entire industry went into a near schemes were wound up and sold disorderly re-structuring of collapse. The Government reversed collectively as a timberland asset. the MIS sector over the past 12 its tightening of regulation, and There were approximately 95,000 months. In 2009, MIS sales fell the commodity-led boom of the hectares of trees, most on leased to under $AU300 million and early 2000s led to recovery and land but also 39,000 hectares of in 2010 fell further to below further expansion of the MIS freehold land. This sale was widely $100 million. With major MIS sector. This resulted in a kind of publicized during October 2009, companies being liquidated and land grab, as firms competed to when the assets were purchased a negative public view of the MIS fulfill their tree-planting quotas for $345 million by Australian sector, it is unlikely that the sector within the required 14 months Bluegum Plantations, an will ever return to its heyday. The of selling an MIS product to the Australian company managed by opportunity now is to rationalize retail investment market.

US-based Global Forest Partners. the land and forestry assets—1 Investments focused primarily A portion of the purchase price million hectares of plantation on blue gum plantations near ports was used to repay the bank debt likely worth $AU3-4 billion – into for woodchip export, which are and release the security charge an institutional timberland asset. attractive because of the relatively over the land, and a portion was short rotation length. There have distributed among the company’s also been MIS projects for radiata 15,000 investors and growers. pine and tropical hardwoods, Forestry Enterprises Australia including sandalwood. While (FEA) was placed in Administration The MIS sector is a direct there is high demand for many and Receivership in April 2010 product of tax legislation designed of these quality wood products, owing $215 million in debt. The to encourage investment in MIS cost structures were company has an estimated 77,000 plantations. This was particularly generally considered too high to hectares of plantation land in effective as a means to drive make commercial sense, and the Tasmania, New South Wales and forestry investment because the companies began facing financial Queensland which will likely be early tax deduction was seen as difficulties. sold in the coming months. balancing the risks associated with In 2009 the Government moved In May 2010, Rewards Group, investing in newly established to curtail the MIS sector, but which managed 12,000 hectares plantations that require 10- again the effort was poorly timed, of forest and horticultural 14 years of growth before the coming as global markets felt the plantations, including teak, was timber becomes marketable. Tax shock of the credit crisis. Most MIS placed in Administration, leaving deductions are awarded in the operators were listed on the ASX the fate of $250 million of MIS year the investment is made, and and quickly came under pressure investor funds uncertain. the MIS companies were allowed from falling sales, falling share In July 2010 Willmott Forests to charge for all the reforestation prices and a refusal by the banks entered a trading halt after its costs, management costs and to continue to extend or roll over MIS sales missed projections,

Market activity

Rise and fall of the MIS industry

How MIS products work

and in September 2010 entered receivership, owing $120 million.

Elders Forestry also had limited MIS sales in 2010 and has undertaken a review of its forestry business and assets.

In late January 2011 Alberta Investment Management Corporation and New Forests’ Australia New Zealand Forest Fund acquired the 270,000 hectare forestland holding of Great Southern Plantations from the Receiver, McGrath Nicol for $415 million. This is the largest private forest land holding in Australia and will be central to the future evolution of the forestry industry.

Ways forward The current challenges facing MIS companies and their grower investors have created opportunities for sophisticated investors. The Australian Financial Review reported in June 2010 that the MIS players who are surviving in the market rationalization have done so through successfully tapping into new finance.

For example, MIS companies Elders and TFS have announced that they are seeking access to new sources of capital, such as wholesale finance from forestry investment funds. continued on page 4.

FIREWOOD MILLS For Information, please, call 0419-536804 or email your postal address to info@firewoodmills.com.au

1X42 economical and fast with smaller timber!

BigX47 for serious processing, shown

with Feeding Table and Diesel Power Pack.

4 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

HCV: Highjacking common vernacular?

February 2011

By Allan Hansard CEO, National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) VicForests’ regenerated forest highlights sustainability. Read more on page 13 News Single industry organisation still on track 8 Alliance gives added impetus to Green Triangle 10 New concept at AUSTimber 11 Down and dirty 12 Two million tonnes and more to go 16 Features Viewpoint Farm Forestry Carbon Computer Technology TCA Reports

14-15 17 18 22 34-36

630 Regency Road, Broadview

Postal Address: PO Box 1006, Prospect East, South Australia 5082 Phone: (08) 8369 9555 Fax: (08) 8369 9501 Advertising: lmartin@forestsandtimber.com.au Melbourne Office (03) 9888 4834 Trader classified: lmartin@forestsandtimber.com.au Melbourne Office (03) 9888 4834 Editorial: editorial@forestsandtimber.com.au Adelaide Office (08) 8369 9512 Subscriptions: subs@forestsandtimber.com.au Adelaide Office (08) 8369 9522 Accounts: Adelaide Office (08) 8369 9555 General Manager: Elizabeth Bouzoudis Editor: John Hudswell Advertising Sales Manager: Laurie Martin Subscriptions: Nola Brigante v Subcription rates One-year (8 editions) $55 Two-years (16 editions) $95 Production: Nathan Grant Publisher and Chief Executive: Hartley Higgins Suite 103, 486 Whitehorse Road, Surrey Hills, Victoria, 3127, phone (03) 9888 4822 Conditions: Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editor/publishers; information is published in good faith and we do not accept responsibility for damage which may arise from any possible inaccuracies. All rights reserved, none of the contents may be used in any other media without prior consent from then publishers. Published by Ryan Publications Pty Ltd.

Australian Forests & Timber News is a member of Circulation Audit Bureau (CAB).

A

NYONE INVOLVED in the native forest industry in Australia in the last few decades would know that the battle has not been in the forests but in the media and in shaping public opinion. Too often science has been ignored and the argument based on basic and emotive ideas of ‘saving trees’ versus ‘saving jobs’.

Former Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon told a forest industry forum in Hobart late last year that “political science” is about the only science with any power in the debate. Skills in sloganeering, news grabs and one-liners have often carried more weight than a PhD or decades of research.

A letter to the editor of the Hobart Mercury on 3 January from Lindsay Miller of Hillwood, Tasmania, provided some pertinent examples of how this concept has been used by the conservation movement: …“terminology has continually changed, from World Heritage value to World Heritage buffer zone, to heritage value, to

tall forests, to old-growth forests, to high conservation value and now the all-encompassing native forests. They want the lot.”

NAFI has been involved in this constant game of tug-o-war since its inception 25 years ago.

However, the Tasmanian Statement of Principles (which NAFI is a signatory) has provided a chance for the rhetoric and mudslinging to stop.

There is a genuine willingness to devise a sustainable future for the forest industry and for the war to end through a more mature style of discussion.

However, the meaning of a term which has been used throughout principles document ‘High Conservation Value’ (HCV) remains ambiguous. The interpretation of this term will have material impacts upon the future of the forest industry, environment and communities.

While the general meaning of this term is open to interpretation, what does it mean in reality? What do ‘conservation values’ cover? To what extent does this term cover native forests and plantations across Tasmania beyond the coups initially identified? Does the ENGOs’ definition of HCV

represent the community’s view and do the ENGOs possess the ‘social licence’ to set the definition of HCV? The Federal Government’s response to the Tasmanian Principles refers to a due diligence assessment that will ensure all parties have a strong understanding of the term HCV. The appointment of the former ACTU President Bill Kelty as independent facilitator for the next phase has been welcomed

by NAFI and it will be important that Mr Kelty and all stakeholders consulted during the process can have a solid grasp of what the terms of the agreement mean.

Importantly, establishing the definition will be crucial in meeting one of the first requirements outlined in the statement of principles; the progressive moratorium on the harvesting of ‘HCV’ forests as identified by ENGOs. Moving away from the old debates in the media, it is important that an agreed definition of HCV is objective, transparent and measurable. We must have science return to the driver’s seat.

NAFI and the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT) have decided to hold a forum to

 Allan Hansard.

flesh out what this term means.

We have invited several speakers from the scientific community, conservation movement, certification bodies, industry, unions and community groups to outline their interpretation of the term HCV. The forum is designed to provide an opportunity for key stakeholders to play a role in defining this term and what it means in practice. In the spirit of the principles, a definition of this term must be established in order to ensure that the goalposts aren’t moved as the second phase of the restructure of the Tasmanian industry takes shape.

Forum details: 22 February 2011 at Wrest Point, Hobart, Tasmania Free of charge but places are limited. Registration is essential - online www.fiatas.com.au or phone (03) 6224 1033 for info

Focus fixed on tropical forestry potential THE PROSPECTS for the forestry and the wood products industry to further contribute to economic and social goals in northern Australia were under the spotlight at a meeting of the Northern Australia Forestry Project technical team.

According to tropical forestry expert Simon Penfold, the project being undertaken by Forestlands Consulting and financially assisted by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation and Forest and Wood Products Australia will be reviewing the potential of forestry activity to support economic and social outcomes in the Kimberley, Northern Territory and in Far North Queensland.

“Our project followings the

completion of a preliminary review of the hardwood plantation sector in tropical Australia and an examination of current issues, future prospects and development challenges facing forestry in the region.

“Among other things we will be paying close attention to the opportunities for tree plantation expansion and related wood processing development,” Penfold said.

Director of Forestlands Consulting John Halkett said the project team had now completed an initial round of on-the-ground consultation with key stakeholders, including government agencies, researchers, private forestry companies, land councils and technical forestry experts.

Changing landscape of Australia’s forestry investment sector continued from page 3.

Options such as land sale and leaseback transactions and purchase of woodlots provide entry to the asset class with opportunities to further enhance investment returns over time. For example, changing management of certain MIS lands may be profitable, particularly where higher value mixed agricultural uses for the land are available (e.g. dairy or viticulture). Other operational management decisions such as

diversifying the species grown or altering rotation lengths at the conclusion of the MIS rotations can affect valuation and future sales. In addition, eco product opportunities such as the recently announced federal Carbon Farming Initiative may be additive to existing asset values. The changing landscape in Australia’s forestry investment sector creates a pool of assets that are available at attractive discounts and/or yield rates with potential upside optionality.

“Notwithstanding that commercial forestry enterprises across tropical Australia have been badly affected by the uncertainty associated with a number of managed investment scheme based agribusiness companies had been placed in administration, the prospects for further economically robust plantation activity in parts of northern Australia were promising.

“Commercially-sound tree plantation opportunities, especially on indigenous-owned land, appear to exist with the potential to make a valuable contribution to economic, social and employment objectives.

These opportunities include ‘new generation’ tree crops and related products, including bioenergy, essential oils and other chemicals,” he said.

Noted forest scientist John Turner added that plantation forestry in a tropical context was much more demanding than in temperate regions. “In addition to major considerations such as land suitability and environmental impacts, technical issues like species selection, soil nutrition, water availability, weed and termite control, critical mass, wood processing, distance to markets and infrastructure collectively present challenges for researches and managers.

“However, there is a growing confidence in some species and tropical forestry projects.

For example, with further concerted research effort and

 John Halkett, Simon Penfold and John Turner – leading a project to examine the prospects for future forestry activity in tropical Australia.

sound management, African mahogany and Eucalyptus pellita plantations will be capable of supplying medium density, hardwood timber products at competitive prices,” said Dr Turner.

Halkett says the project team was finalising an in-depth background review paper and was advanced in the planning of a Northern Australia Forestry Forum for key stakeholders.

This forum will be held in Cairns in April.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 5 Industry vision This is Terry Edwards’ vision for the restructured forestry industry.

Secure, long-term compensable contracts for the remaining processing sector.

Long-term compensable, bankable contracts for harvest-and-haulage sector – contractors who remain.

Extensive and long-term R&D funding to look at some of the issues already identified about plantations, including creating successful plantation estates that can be processed into high-quality-appearance grade products. “This is fundamental to a successful outcome of the agreement, which does talk about a complete transition out of native forest – but only when sufficient quantity and quality of plantation-grown material is available to permit that transition to occur,” says Edwards.

Identification and successful implementation of alternative processing strategies. The CRC, based within the University of Tasmania, has been researching the use of Eucalyptus nitens hardwood plantations for production of higher-quality, appearance-grade, solid-wood products. No solution has been found, but it’s improving all the time.

Capital and planning assistance to look at new processing technologies that may supplement the existing processing sector, utilising resource not suited for the sawmilling sector or the rotary-peel veneer sector, but which has already been quite successfully developed within the state. So things like LVL, OSB and other reconstituted wood products.

Undertake an extensive socioeconomic analysis with a clear commitment by governments to compensate, in a strategic way, affected communities and businesses.

Compensation for employees displaced in this process. They should be looked after through retraining packages, relocation packages as appropriate, and a range of other compensations.

Equally, similar compensation packages should apply to harvest-and-haulage contractors who lose their livelihoods as part of the process.

Significant investment in a new silviculture for plantations, which might include an examination of which species could successfully grow within Tasmania, given its climate, rainfall, soils, and capacity to process the product into high- quality appearance-grade products and the management regime that will optimise the outturn of sawlogs.

“Finally, one of the huge things I would like is an understanding from the entire Australian community that most of the calls for the restructure of Tasmania’s forest industry have come from areas like the CBD of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide,” says Edwards. “They’re effectively asking Tasmania to become Australia’s garden. These people need to understand that it comes at a significant cost, and this cost should be borne by those arguing for it: Australia’s taxpayers.”

Tasmania’s forestry: where to from here

By Rosemary Ann Ogilvie

I

N A YEAR that left Tasmania’s forestry industry staggering from an unrelenting volley of blows, the final one-two punch was delivered with the Gunns Limited announcements during December that its Tamar Valley and Hampshire (Burnie) woodchip mills were closing. Neither is expected to reopen. The international market for woodchip, depressed since the GFC, shows no signs of improving, and in fact industry figures say it’s worse now than 12 months ago when short-term mill closures were implemented.

In August, Gunns announced it was pulling out of native forest logging in a voluntary redirection of its business model once the industry reached agreement with environmental groups on a statement of principles (www. premier.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/ p d f _ f i le /0 0 0 9/13 49 91/d r a f t _ principles.pdf) to end the conflict over forests. While this dramatic about-face has every industry player wondering what the future holds, Ed Vincent, executive officer, Tasmanian Forestry Contractors Association (TFCA), says putting an end to this conflict is critical. “I started working in and near the forest industries in 1973 and it’s been going on for all that time. It’s now having a very real impact on the viability of businesses in the forest industries, not only in Tasmania, but also all around Australia.”

Essential restructure Vincent believes the industry in general needs to restructure, and sees the statement of principles as providing an opportunity for a comprehensive review of the Tasmanian forestry industry.

Understandably, TFCA members have concerns about the potential impact. “This is heightened by the fact that there’s no firm plan for the future,” says Vincent, “And this is what needs to come out of the next part of this process: a firm plan for the future so people in businesses and communities associated with forestry know what to expect and can plan for their future, plan good viable businesses, good viable communities.”

Considering the massive investment contractors make in plant and machinery, they deserve this basic right. “People – economic pundits included – tend to overlook the contribution the forest-contracting sector actually makes,” says Vincent. “In this State, it represents capital investment in excess of half a billion dollars, which is the largest in the forest industries. In an environment of reasonable trading conditions and reasonable degrees of certainty, this investment would be made every five years.”

Inadequate package Clearly, the Federal Government’s $22.4m exit-and-

assistance package ($17m for exit grants, $5.4m for viable businesses wanting to remain in the industry), announced in November, is woefully inadequate. “A deposit,” is how Terry Edwards, CEO, Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT), describes it.

“Our best assessments to date suggest that the requirement for contractor assistance alone is more like $200m to $300m, depending

on the shape of the restructure.”

The original package, he adds, was designed to assist contractors to get through the period it will take to negotiate through this industry restructure. “It was never designed to provide for exit packages, which it’s now being used for.”

Vincent comments that it’s been extremely difficult for many contractors just to apply for assistance. “There’s considerable

angst because when you have only a fraction of the funds required to do the job; the deficiency means many will miss out completely.

“The reality of the situation is that some people are facing the very real prospect of bankruptcy,” Vincent continues. “It’s quite clear there will be no additional assistance – at least until the first continued next page.

Off the shelf solutions, customised for your mill For over 100 years, we’ve been engineering solutions for the timber industry.

In that time, we’ve designed and built a range of equipment proven to improve mill productivity.

But we’ve yet to meet a client who didn’t need some modifications to make even the best equipment fit their particular space and needs.

Contact us for a quote to make your mill even more productive.

• manufacturing • sawmilling equipment • log carriages • resaws • multisaws and board edgers • automatic sorters and stackers • transfers and conveyors.

Complete turnkey projects.

From major start-ups to retro-fits, if you want professional service and advice, contact us.

AE Gibson & Sons Phone 02 6559 4001 Email: johns@aegibsonman.com.au

6 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

Upcoming

timber events If you would like to promote a forthcoming event, please email details (including contact numbers, email, etc) to: editorial@forestsandtimber.com.au or phone 08 8375 9827

AUSTRALASIA 2011 February 9 Timber Queensland Cypress February 10 Ideas2Market, Mt Isa, one-day workshop. 07 3853 5292 February 11 Timber Queensland Directors February 11-14 Australian Wooden Boat Festival, Hobart.

February 14-18 Wood Science Course, University of Melbourne and CSIRO - Melbourne contact Silvia Pongracic 0418 764 954 or visit www.gottsteintrust.org.

February 23 Timber Queensland Fabricators March 7 Melbourne Hoo Hoo Club 217 Meeting.

Guest Speaker Bruce Hutchings, Timberbuilt Solutions. Garrie James on 03 8706 1252 or garrie@hoohoo.com.au March 9 Ideas2Market Master Class Workshop, Gold Coast. 07 3853 5292 March 11 Timber Queensland Hardwood Logs March 12 Master Builders-Bankwest Housing Excellence Awards. Perth Convention Exhibition Centre.

March 21 World Forestry Day March 21-23 Timber Merchant Industry Tour, SW Victoria & Mt Gambier.

Refer www.timber.asn.au March 25 Melbourne Hoo Hoo Club 217, Hoo Hoo Golf Day – Sandhurst. Garrie James on 03 8706 1252 or garrie@hoohoo.com.au March 29 Timber Queensland Workplace Health & Safety March 30 Timber Merchants Association (TMA) annual charity dinner, Crown Complex, Southbank.

March 30 HIA Industry Outlook Breakfast, HIA Home Ideas Centre, 28 Collie Street, Fyshwick ACT 2609.

ACT/SNSW Events Manager (02) 6285 7300 March 30 TMA Annual Charity Dinner, Crown Complex, Southbank.

Refer www.timber.asn.au March 30-31 Residues to Revenues, Rotorua. www.woodresiduesevents.com March 31 Ideas2Market Master Class Workshop, Toowoomba. 07 3853 5292 April 1 Timber Queensland Executive

Tasmania’s forestry: where to from here continued from page 5. stage of the restructure process under the statement of principles is completed. So we would be encouraging facilitator Bill Kelty to provide his initial report by early March.”

Impact on high-quality resource The statement of principles is premised on Gunns’ decision to withdraw from all native forest harvesting and processing which, says Edwards, will cause a reduction of about 50% in current high-quality sawlog volume.

Vincent stresses that the pulp mill is an absolutely critical component of the forest industry of the future. “We’ve known for a number of years there will be a reduction in the viable nativeforest sawlog component. The reality is that the available highquality sawlog capacity is going to drop from 300,000m3 – a level that hasn’t been supplied for nearly 10 years – to 150,000m3. So a transition of processing capacity from existing native-forest supplies to plantation-based material supply is inevitable.”

He adds that if Gunns exits native forest sawmilling, the ability to supply all the remaining existing players with sawlog material won’t be diminished. “Any further transition will happen over a fairly extended period. Existing contracts will remain in place, such as Ta Ann’s, which goes out to 2027. So the hardwood sawmilling sector should be able to continue at current levels of production.” Some good news, at least, for this sector is an important contributor to the Tasmanian economy.

“We believe the remaining industry ought to be given increased security of access to a high-quality resource,” says Edwards. “The concern of all processors in the State is long-term access to a highquality resource – the key thing the industry turns on is security of access to a quality resource. If we don’t have a resource, we don’t have anything. We’ll be looking to increase security for those remaining to ensure employment is secure, investment already made is secure, and that there’ll be a willingness to invest in downstream processing, which in turn means wealth creation and employment creation. This will be even more critical with the smaller size of the industry.”

Retraining the workforce Edwards conservatively estimates direct job losses will be between 1200 and 1800 people, depending on the outcome of the restructure, with a similar number of indirect losses. Most will be in reasonably remote rural communities where alternative employment opportunities are relatively scarce, which is a significant concern to FIAT. Retraining, obviously, will be critical. “The question arises, what will we retrain people to do, given the demographic of where they’re located?” says Edwards.

“There’s been some initial discussions with Government

about working towards retraining and relocation of people, but it is a tough position, both for the State and for the individuals involved,” says Vincent. “Most guys working in the bush have chosen that career.

There are some incredibly skilled people, but while some of those skills may well be transferable into other industries or occupations; others are specific to the forest.”

Unfortunately, Tasmania has lost a significant proportion of its manufacturing base over the last couple of years, with closures of vegetable processing facilities, major footwear manufacturers, carpet manufacturers, engine-parts manufacturers.

Compounding this is the contraction in civil construction, the industry harvestand-haulage people are most likely to move into. “Levels of infrastructure development in Tasmania is at lows not seen for a number of years,” says Tony Cook, CEO, Civil Contractors Federation, Tasmania.

“Once current major infrastructure projects are completed – the Brighton, Kingston and Dilston Bypasses – only a handful of projects are coming up. The State Government has openly admitted Tasmania is in for some hard times. We need to see sustainable planning to smooth the peaks and troughs and allow companies of all sizes to plan ahead.”

Forestry Tasmania managing director, Bob Gordon, believes the industry hasn’t spent anywhere near as much on training and developing people as it should have – although he stresses industry training body, ForestWorks, has done great work. “But for the future, we need an even more highly trained and skilled workforce,” he says.

This will underpin the changed forest industry he hopes will emerge from lasting agreements achieved through working on the statement of principles. “An even smarter industry that builds on its reputation for sustainable, wellmanaged forests, that brings some ENGOs with us, that enables us to put plantations on farmland in a way that allows farmers to capture carbon and grow high-value products that in no way reduce agricultural production.”

Seeing what’s possible Forestry Tasmania’s focus has been on encouraging people to look at what’s possible, particularly on the processing side: the work it has done on different types of silviculture and breeding for managing eucalypt plantations to grow high-value products. “When we started, most people said it couldn’t be done,” says Bob Gordon. “When we worked for nearly 10 years developing the market for Tasmanian eucalypts in China’s high-strength, high-price veneer market, everyone said it was impossible.”

Now, FT is ready to start showing people why some of the things it believes are possible are indeed possible. Ta Ann, for example, is considering adding a plywood mill to one of its rotary veneer mills located at Smithton and Huon.

The organisation also knows from the work it’s been doing on engineered wood products, such as varieties of laminated veneer lumbers, that Tasmanian eucalypts have enormous potential here because of their very high strength ratings.

“Another engineered wood product we’re looking at is tilt slab cross laminated lumber,” says Gordon. “Instead of having tilt slab concrete walls, it’s possible to make the same thing out of timber. Europe and North America have done a lot of work looking at how to redesign materials so cross laminated lumber, which is generally much lighter, can be used. And it has the benefit of capturing a huge amount of CO2, unlike concrete, which emits CO2.”

In Europe and Japan, eight- and 10-storey buildings have been constructed from new engineered-wood products such as laminated veneer lumbers and cross-laminated lumber. “They’ve done this because in earthquake zones, a timber building won’t collapse, unlike one made of steel and concrete. They have to be made from hardwood, of course: you need the strong, stiff timbers,” says Gordon.

While FT’s managed native regrowth forests have higher engineering strength ratings than most plantation product, the organisation’s extensive work in this aspect – primarily tree breeding – is producing much denser plantation wood than in the past. “So again, this holds potential for the future,” says Gordon. “However, it’s taken us 15 years to selectively breed these trees, and it takes another 20 years to grow them.”

Aware of a growing international demand for rayon, FT is also exploring the potential for producing the textile in Australia. With cotton prices shooting up, some designers have been including rayon garments in their collections; currently, supply cannot keep up with international demand. “Eucalypts and wattles are very suitable for rayon manufacture, so there’s no reason we couldn’t use wood products to provide clothing as well as shelter and paper,” says Gordon. “We’ve sent a shipment of woodchips to China to be put through the sulphite dissolving-pulp mills used to make rayon. If it produces the results we expect, the next step is to undertake some larger-scale production trials and after that, hopefully do some feasibility-study type work in Tasmania.”

The technology developed in Scandinavia and Germany means these mills are quite small scale and very clean. “As only a couple of hundred thousand tonnes of woodchips are needed to make one viable, it could be done at either of the sites at Smithton or Huon.”

With the range of options available, Gordon says he can’t see any reason why Tasmania can’t achieve a high-value industry based on clever engineered-wood products, especially if the work Associate Professor Greg Nolan has done at the University of Tasmania for using wood in innovative ways is built on.

“However, it takes a long time to set up manufacturing industries. We spent 10 years working on the potential for the rotary veneer mills in Tasmania. It took another two years to build them. So none of these things happen quickly – but we believe they’re all possible.”

MUSCLE TIGERCAT 1075B

Now 25 tonne RATED The super duty 20 tonne high capacity TIGERCAT 1075B forwarder is now rated as 25 tonne for slopes less than 20% meeting the most demanding applications on all sites.

Powerful, efficient Mercedes 906 engine • Tilt-out enclosure for excellent access to both sides of the engine • 275 HP

Efficient high-capacity cooling system • Automatic variable fan speed for improved fuel efficiency • Automatic reversing cycle to easily clean the heat exchangers • Side by side radiator – Engine intercooler – Hydraulic oil cooler – Air Conditioning Condenser which eliminates blockage by any bush debris

Heavy duty construction for demanding applications and large, heavy payloads • Thick steel plate used throughout the wagon frame • Large pins and tapered roller bearings in the oscillation and articulation joints • Standard bunk capacity 6.3 m2 the largest available now available with fold out Expandable bunks with 7.6 m2 capacity for special applications such as 5.0 m Blue Gum Extraction

Other features • Heavy duty swing out brush guard • Excellent stability when loading on uneven terrain enables the operator to load while traveling giving increased production • The unique centre joint design eliminates the need for an oscillation lock and gives improved operator comfort and reduced fatigue because the front module isn’t locked to the rear module during the operation of the crane • Wide spread 20-tonne rated bogie axles for 1075B • Wide spread bogie provides extra flotation when equipped with tracks and eliminates bogie-lift on steep slopes

All new cab structure and interior • Improved visibility and ergonomics for higher production and reduced operator fatigue • Low interior noise levels and improved climate control for greater operator comfort • Activity log to monitor machine utilization

Tigercat forestry systems are designed to provide lowest cost per tonne harvesting solutions. Contact us to get a quote on the best machinery for your particular needs.

FOREST CENTRE PTY LTD ACN 079 278 372

SUPPLIERS OF FOREST EQUIPMENT & ATTACHMENTS

Lot 2, Snowy Mountains Highway, Tumut, NSW 2720 Phone: (02) 6947 2833 Fax: (02) 6947 3254 Email: sales@forestcentre.com.au For used equipment list visit our web site www.forestcentre.com.au

Service Agents

South Eastern Victoria Healesville Mob: 0427 488 349

Tasmania Breadablane Mob: 0427 986 112

Oberon Area Bathurst Mob: 0437 400 481

West Australia Bunbury Mob: 0439 906 125

South Australia Mt Gambier West Mob: 0427 268 096

8 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

Single industry organisation bid ‘still on track’ T

HE BID for a single national organisation for the forest and forest products industry is, according to Linda Sewell (A3P chair and a member of the steering committee to oversee its introduction), “still on track”. It will replace the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) and A3P. Sewell, who is also chief executive officer of HVP Plantations, said the aim was to have the new body up and running by 1 July ... “that’s the timeframe we are working to at the moment”.

She said the birth of the allnew entity would be a momentous occasion for the industry. It will have a new name, new board, and new constitution. It is believed that the new chair cannot come from the two bodies.

“We will form a new entity and the existing members of the two national bodies will fold into that new entity,” she said. “We don’t want to get into a situation where one association seems to have taken over the other one. We really want to start afresh and that’s the best way of doing it.

“We would hope to have it approved by the members of the two organisations by the end of April but it will take us a couple of months to get the name in place, but we hope to have it finalised by the end of April, launched by 1 July.”

However, neither NAFI nor A3P has yet signed off on the deal.

When asked whether the new body would enlist a full-time lobbyist, Sewell replied: “We would have to go out to the markets to find a new chief executive to head the merged organisation and

we would see that the new board and the new CEO would make an assessment of what appropriate resources are required.”

Sewell told Australian Forests & Timber News last year that the aim was to create an organisation that works at the national level and would facilitate State representation as it progressed.

“We are just trying to take one bit at a time.”

So far, the new body has a name but it is being kept under wraps until website access has been researched. It is also understood

that 8 to 10 people would be employed by the new body.

“If it happens, and it looks more likely than not from where we are sitting at the moment, it will be quite a momentous occasion really, finally getting the industry united and in a position to have a single voice,” Sewell said.

The steering committee entrusted with the formation of a single industry organisation has six members: Linda Sewell (A3P), Greg McCormack (NAFI), Jim Snelson and Stephen Hawkins (A3P), Vince Erasmus and Bryan Tisher (NAFI).

Waterlogged nation starts taking stock DEVASTATING FLOODS across Queensland, northern NSW, Victoria and Tasmania have taken their toll in many ways ... life, livelihoods, futures. But, it hasn’t taken the Aussie spirit.

Wracked with pain and anguish Queenslanders have joined as one to start on the road back, so too in other parts of the nation.

However, it’s not just the current problems that have to be considered, it’s repairs to infrastructure, roads and businesses.

Queensland’s forestry business has suffered through the big wet (and cyclones were hovering) with one contractor saying he had not worked since the first week of December.

James Hyne, resource manager

at Hyne Maryborough, said there had hardly been a day without rain and that crews were moving in and out of different blocks to try and find something dry.

“Access to our resource is fairly limited at the moment because the forests are that wet.” the prolonged wet spell meant that the traditional maintenance period was extended even though at one stage floodwaters cut access to the mill for a while.

He said that contractors were pretty much hamstrung at the moment and there was an ongoing review of operations. “Got one crew operating at the moment in a limited area and there is an ongoing review of what compartments we can get into.

“Input per week is well down;

just can’t get anything because some of the roads are falling apart and access to get to the bush to get some of the wood that’s actually there is a problem at the moment.

“At the mill we got 630mm of rain in December. We had a very wet year as it was any way; the ground was quite wet even through winter we were harvesting wet weather blocks in winter which is normally our dry season. We should have been doing country that is hard to get at so we’ve made a very big hole in the wet weather compartments,” he said.

Boral’s Queensland operations, which generate 28% of the company’s Australian revenue, escaped largely unscathed, company spokeswoman Penny Berger said. However, demand

had been slow to return after operations re-opened, as many customers were not in a position to take delivery of their orders.

Northern NSW timber regions were also hard hit with timber supplies in extreme demand.

Down south, Victoria copped a drenching as well but the main timber growing regions appeared to have been spared.

Linda Sewell, CEO of HVP Plantations, preferred to look at the bright side … “We are not in Queensland which I remind our people when they are feeling a little bit down. The west of the State is affected the most, the Ballarat western districts and the northern region had some challenges. We have lost close to a week’s operations in those regions where we have effectively had to shut the forests. At the moment we are still managing to supply our customers and things are getting back to a little bit normal.

“There’s no doubt we will have some infrastructure damage but its just too early to assess what the damage is.”

Apparently the floods had little impact on VicForests’ operations and according to VAFI there was one mill that wasn’t able to get supply but the actual mill was unaffected. “There’s been a little bit of the standard sort of interference to operations in some plantations beccause of the storm; nothing exceptional. Most of the flooding and the real heavy storms have been in the north-westReceive of the State and that’s the part of with the least presence of the industry.” next Northern Tasmania wasyour also hitorder when you by flooding while over in the West mention this bushfires were the main worry.advert.

Now, the nation has to get back on track; ensure that business regains and retains its role. For the timber industry, especially Queensland, the flood-rebuilding phase should be a major short in the arm for the forestry/timber and building industries.

10% off

VAFI appoints new CEO Lisa Marty has been appointed chief executive officer of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries (VAFI), the peak representative body for the Victorian timber industry.

Departing CEO Philip Dalidakis has taken on the role of deputy chief of staff to Senator Stephen Conroy, Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

The association’s incumbent deputy CEO, Lisa was appointed CEO at a board meeting on 28 January.

Lisa said she looked forward to continuing to provide strong representation for the forestry industry. “The association has provided an effective voice for the industry, ensuring any debate on Victorian forestry is based on empirical evidence and a sound policy footing,” she said.

“I plan to continue this work while collaboratively developing

ideas to ensure forestry has a sustainable future in Victoria.”

Lisa said these ideas would be developed with the association’s members and other industry stakeholders using creative solutions.

VAFI president Bob Humphreys said the association had served the industry well in recent years and would continue to do so in the future.

“Lisa has been a passionate advocate for the industry,” he said. “She has empirical evidencebased policy development while deputy CEO and will continue to undertake this form of advocacy for our members in her new role.”

Ms Marty is a former consultant specialising in environment policy, trade policy, development cooperation and strategy. She has a Master of Environment and a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons).

EPRW N ES! LOW IC

HARVESTER BARS 3/4” & 404”

AUSTRALIAN MADE QUALITY

EPRW N ICES! W LO

GB has over 50 years experience in the forestry equipment industry. This wealth of knowledge combined with on going product testing in the field, ensures that GB designed and manufactured product performs in the most demanding of conditions. GB tests all product that it manufactures, from the humble plastic wedge through to 3 metre long chainsaw mill guide bars.

DRIVE SPROCKETS 3/4” & 404”

Improvements in materials, heat treatment and manufacturing processes have produced longer lasting bars and sprockets, and higher strength industrial harvester bars at a competitive price.

EPRW N ES! LOW IC

of f

Re yo ur ce m ne iv en xt e tio or d n e th r is w ad he ve n y rt. ou

Phone today for the new 2011 Price List and complimentary free product brochure. Receive 10% off your next order when you mention this advertisment. Ask to be added to our monthly product specials mail-out.

10 %

CHAINSAW GUIDE BARS

EPRW N ICES! W O L

CHAINSAW CHAIN

GB MANUFACTURING PTY LTD Phone (03) 9300 5580 AH. 0409 411 558 Fax (03) 9300 5581 sales@gbproducts.com.au GB PERFORMANCE www.gbbar.com.au FORESTRY EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING

GB PERFORMANCE FORESTRY EQUIPMENT

10 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

Alliance gives added impetus to Green Triangle A

U S T R A L I A N BLUEGUM Plantations (ABP) has signed an alliance agreement with South West Fibre (SWF) to process and export up to 1.2 million GMT per annum that will be harvested

by ABP from its Green Triangle plantation estate.

SWF facilities are at Myamyn (the chip mill) and Portland (receival, handling and export facility). Both facilities are in Victoria. ABP will work with SWF to further develop export markets for its resource.

Green Triangle regional manager Mark Diedrichs said ABP had resounding interest to its advertising late last year calling for expressions of interest for the provision of harvesting and haulage services in the GT. Mark said a number of applications came in from across Australia including from Western Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

“Most applicants have had extensive experience in the Forest industry, with a number currently employed in other harvesting operations. Those who have been successful in progressing to the tending stage have been subsequently informed; however, when the tenders are due will depend on how quickly ABP can secure its sales volumes from the GT in 2011.

“ABP believes it’s important that those who tender have a good and clear understanding what is on offer and in particular the timing for when operations will commence. ABP will work closely with those still in the process in terms of updates, and looks forward to introducing parties unfamiliar with our estate to what is considered Australia’s premium blue gum estate,” he said.

Global Forest Partners LP (GFP), a registered investment advisor with the U.S. Securities and

Exchange Commission (currently managing a globally diverse US$3 billion portfolio), created Australian Bluegum Plantations late in 2009 to help acquire and manage high quality blue gum (eucalyptus globulus) plantations in the Green Triangle region in south-west Victoria / south-east SA, and south-west WA. Today, ABP’s estate consists of some 92,000 hectares of blue gum plantations that have held FSC certification since 2004.

Mark said the ABP management team’s key focus was to deliver healthy returns to investors through both strong cash flow generation and by increasing the ABP investment value.

Cash flow generation is mainly brought about through wood sales, in ABP’s case through international woodchip sales (although ABP is exploring round wood opportunities within domestic and international markets).

Given the business has only recently been established managing director Tony Price and staff are focusing attention on developing long terms sale opportunities through their various networks in South East Asia. A number of sales contracts have been cemented for ABP’s WA resource; harvesting is taking place using local contractors in both Bunbury (delivering logs to both the WAPRES and Hansol PI chip mills for further processing), and Albany (delivering logs to APEC’s chip mill).

Increasing the value of the ABP’s assets through good forest management practices creates worth for many of ABP’s stakeholders. There are a number of activities undertaken by the ABP team that help to facilitate growing the business. ABP is at the forefront of research and development. Areas such as tree breading, site evaluation and

New chip export facility commissioned soon THE NEW Gunns hardwood chip export facility at the Port of Portland will face its first test this month when it loads its first ship.The facility will be officially commissioned in March and is in the process of gaining environmental accreditation. The completion of the facility has triggered harvesting in the Gunns-managed former Great Southern blue gum plantations in the Green Triangle. About 20,000 tonnes of woodchips have been delivered to the Port since Christmas.

The facility has a state-of-the-art unloader and radial stacker.

identifying various inputs to help increase plantation yields has large potential for significantly adding value to the plantations.

Environmental initiatives to create awareness and preservation of high conservation habitats by using such groups as Greening Australia also adds to ABP’s intrinsic value.

Working with Local Government and communities in operational planning creates efficiencies for both ABP and its contractors in a

variety of tasks. ABP is managed by local staff providing expertise in forestv management practices, ensuring the plantations they manage perform to their full potential.

ABP is continually looking for opportunities to increase its assets value.  Top photos: Green triangle.

Bottom photos: SWF at Myamyn and Portland port.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 11

AUSTIMBER

New concept at AUSTimber 2012 A

NEW concept will be implemented at AUSTimber 2012 with in-forest static displays. This has never before been attempted at AUSTimber or in Australia and the organisers are confident this will be an added benefit to exhibitors and visitors. This opportunity is available because of the advantageous positioning of the AUSTimber site within the forest and with clear paddock in close proximity.

The in-forest static displays provides exhibitors and visitors with more options, as visitors will be able walk around the expo site to view exhibitions through either the in-forest walk or the outdoor static displays. Potentially a product bestsuited to an in-forest display will be positioned within the in-forest area and another product more suited to an outdoor static display could be viewed there – providing exhibitors two vantage points for different product offerings.

AUSTIMBER 2012 will be a compact and comprehensive site.

Sawmill displays will have the option to be use either outdoor or indoor exhibitions. In essence,

exhibitors have the opportunity to capture as much of the visitor attention just from the walkthrough traffic.

AUSTimber 2012 is also providing exhibitors the opportunity for live demonstrations to display a variety of harvesting: • p ine harvesting in first thinnings • l ater thinnings • c lear felling • c ut-to-length blue gum harvesting • t ree length blue gum harvesting • i n-field chipping •m ulching and bio-fuel production In addition AUSTimber 2012 intends having displays for live demonstrations of timber haulage units, including the opportunity for exhibitors to take potential buyers over a haul route, plus vintage equipment, fire-fighting equipment and yes, there’s more to come!

“After inspecting the sites set aside for AUSTimber 2012 I am really looking forward to the event, and I am left in no doubt that it will be much bigger and better than 2008. To have everything in the one area is fantastic and will benefit both visitors and exhibitors and ensure maximum value is

gained by all.” Brenton Yon, National Sales Manager Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd David Quill, General Manager said: “We encourage everyone to take a walk around the website and look at the site plan. The site has been designed to ensure visitors are channeled through all exhibition sites. Everything is in close proximity within easy walking distance, with the maximum walking distance only 1.6kms and there are dedicated parking areas for exhibitors. “The site has been developed taking into account the feedback we received from the last event in 2008 and recent visits by various exhibitors and other industry visitors. Our mission is to make sure AUSTimber 2012 site meets the needs and benefits all exhibitors and visitors.”

The site plan was launched in December at a media briefing in Mount Gambier and via the AUSTimber 2012 E-News to email subscribers. To view the site map just go to www.austimber2012. com.au and to be first in the know of AUSTimber 2012 planning subscribe to their newsletter via the website.

 Concept image of visitors at the in-forest static display envisaged for AUSTimber 2012.

Concerted effort to achieve site improvements THE SITE for the static displays at AUSTimber 2012 has been a subject of a concerted effort by the management committee for some time to ensure it meets the ‘traffic load’ for the expo. The site was leveled and cultivated as far back as the winter of 2009, when it was sown down to pasture, which unfortunately failed due to excessive rains.

The site was replanted in 2010 with further cultivation and fertilising, but owing to the totally infertile nature of the soil the resulting pasture has not met expectations for the anticipated traffic load for AUSTimber 2012.

To address this concern, AUSTimber’s General Manager, David Quill, and Site Manager, Ian Tyler, recently met with Stephen Van Schaik (Managing Director of Van Schaik’s Bio Gro) and Rick Jordan (General Manager of Advantage Ag – a subsidiary of Bio Gro) to discuss what could be done. As a result of this meeting a program has been put in place to address the nutritional issues and to establish and manage the pasture base.

“We are pleased to announce that Van Schaik’s Bio Gro, in conjunction with Advantage Ag have offered their support in the form of a sponsorship package of goods and services. Utilising professional advice from Advantage

Ag’s agronomists and products supplied by the Bio Gro companies, we are now confident that by March 2012 the site will be in the condition required to cater for the event and activities. We will provide visitors to our site with regular updates as the new ground cover is developed,” David said.

Advantage Ag is a Mount Gambier-based consultancy and agronomic business specialising in soil and plant nutrition and pasture management; and is a division of Bio Gro. Van Schaik’s Bio Gro has a number of facilities in both South Australia and Victoria, with its largest organics processing facility conveniently located within 5km of the AUSTimber site. It has developed from a small family company into a large national organisation employing in excess of 100 people. Bio Gro’s primary focus is to compost and process upwards of 150,000 tonnes per annum of organic and forest residues. The end products are high quality materials that are supplied into the horticultural, agricultural and landscape markets.

AUSTimber 2012, 29-31 March, Mount Gambier, South Australia www.austimber2012.com.au

Sites still available!

 (Left to right): Van Schaik’s Bio Grow Managing Director Stephen Van Schaik and General Manager, Advantage Ag, Rick Jordan, meet with AUSTimber Site Manager Ian Tyler and General Manager David Quill to discuss development of the Expo Site.

12 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

Strength and reliability a good combination for trouble-free work G

EOFFREY MUSKETT’S first Tigercat machine, an L870 levelling feller buncher fitted with a Tigercat ST5702 series “ big timber” heavy duty single post disc saw felling head, has, according to him, proven its worth.

It’s logged up “just” 1400 hours and as far as he is concerned ‘she’s a ripper!’

“We tried other brands and we are always looking around at different machines,” said Geoffrey, part of the family business of BR & KF Muskett based in New Norfolk (dubbed the capital of the Derwent Valley).

“I operate the machine myself and I’m extremely happy with it... she’s full on reliable,” he says.

“The way it’s built, mate, it’s really put together well ... a really strong machine.”

And he’s rapt with, among other things, the stability. “The stability of it, the actual tilt frame and the way it’s actually put together is ... like every machine breaks down ... but to be able to work on it, like it’s not all cluttered up.

“The boys have put a lot of thought into it as far as the workmanship of the machine. The build quality of the machine is up there you know ... right up there!

“We feel the Tigercat is a lot more reliable. Well, I’ve proved it anyway.

The Tigercat hasn’t put a leg wrong so far with nearly 1400 hours up on it. I know that’s not many hours at this stage but the previous one during the same period we had a few little dramas,” Geoffrey says.

The 860C/870C series is the result of over a decade of ongoing engineering enhancements and field testing and in some of the harshest forest environments.

It has excellent access to the engine, valves and pumps through a fully retracting clamshell style

roof enclosure with swing-out door on both sides of the machine; the engine is separated from all hydraulic components; it features twin swing drives for powerful swing torque and reduced pinion loads for extended swing system life.

Its automatic variable speed cooling fan with automatic reversing cycle helps improve fuel economy and leads to quieter operation.

The large air intake for the cooling system is at the rear of the machine for reduced debris build-up, and its forest duty undercarriage with long track frames and wide stance carbody was designed and built by Tigercat.

The Muskett logging business started by his dad Brian (the son of a forestry family) in the early 1950s then started working for Norske Skog in 1966 - is now a real family affair.

As Geoffrey puts it ... “I’ve got two brothers and a sister (Helen helps run the office); Kevin, he’s the manager ... we’re all sort of managers ... but he’s the top notch manager, and Robert works in the workshop. My sons Nicholas works in the bush with me and Cassidy – he still goes to school - but he comes up of a weekend and helps me out. Kevin’s got two sons, Matthew and Andrew, working in the bush now, too. All up, the Muskett workforce totals 20.

Geoffrey has been in logging for over four decades and during all that time the Muskett business has been working for Norske Skog.

“We used to he hardwood loggers but now because all our wood down here goes to the Boyer mill down here ...that had a transformation nearly two years ago and its wholly and solely a pine mill now... we just harvest pine.

Their operational sites are in the Derwent Valley. “Some of it is pretty good and some of it is a bit steep, a lot of creeks and all that sort of jazz; pretty good mixture,” says Geoffrey.

 (from left) Nicholas Muskett, Kevin Muskett, Robert Muskett, Geoffrey Muskett, Hellen Wright, Matthew Muskett and Andrew Muskett.

 Geoffrey Muskett with his Tigercat L870 levelling feller buncher fitted with a Tigercat ST5702 series ‘big timber’ heavy duty single post disc saw felling head.

Getting down and dirty with all the facts THE LATEST edition of the internationally recognised ‘bible’ on sampling soils for factors like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and toxic substances, was released at the Australasian Soil & Plant Analysis Council Conference in Canberra.

It’s been almost 20 years since the last edition of the ‘Soil Chemical Methods’ book was published in the Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbook,” said lead author, former Principal Scientist with the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management Dr George Rayment.

The book sets out the standards for over 200 laboratory and field chemical tests relevant to many of the challenges faced today in land management in Australia and around the world.

“It’s a ‘recipe book’ for soil laboratories,” Dr Rayment said.

“From helping farmers and farm consultants figure out how best to apply fertiliser to reduce loss to waterways, to guiding scientific sampling across the country, the Handbook sets out all that is needed for consistency across the profession.”

“It’s a ‘recipe book’ for soil laboratories.”

According to CSIRO Sustainable Agriculture Flagship scientist Mike Grundy, managing our landscapes has become far more complex over the past 20 years.

“We have always needed standardised approaches to soil chemical analysis because soil is a complex material, the processes for measuring it are complex and there is potential for misinformation,” he said.

“Getting the analysis right is far more critical now. For example, accurately measuring carbon in the soil is important for managing greenhouse gas emissions as well as the health of the soil.”

The book includes details on new instrumentation and new technologies, plus a wider array of tests for emerging areas such as acid sulfate soils.

CSIRO and the Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program have collaborated on compiling and publishing Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbooks for the last 30 years.  Lead author, former Principal Scientist with the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management Dr George Rayment.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 13

Regenerated forest highlights sustainability V

ICFORESTS HAS successfully regenerated more than 5500 hectares of Victoria’s forest. The 2010 Coupe Finalisation Process Report, released by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, has confirmed the regeneration of forest areas across eastern Victoria.

“VicForests ensures the forest fully re-establishes in all areas following its harvesting operations,” Brad Winthrop, VicForests’ Director, Operations, said.

“VicForests will hand over management responsibility for 5517 hectares of State forest to the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) following successful regeneration work.

“This outcome highlights VicForests’ commitment to the sustainable management of Victoria’s forests.

“Following harvesting operations, VicForests sows seeds from trees native to each local area to ensure the same mix of species present on a site prior to harvest grows back.

“VicForests actively monitors these areas after seeding to ensure regeneration is occurring. The areas are then audited by DSE

to confirm this process has been successful,” he said.

Winthrop said VicForests maintained responsibility for all harvested areas until they were regenerated.

“The regeneration of our forests after harvesting is a detailed process that can take more than three years to complete successfully. The areas accepted back by DSE have been regenerated and monitored by VicForests over a long period,” he said.

“More recently, VicForests completed its largest ever aerial seeding program in 2010 aimed at regrowing forests throughout the east of the State.

“This program resulted in the amount of native forest re-seeded in 2009/10 exceeding the area that was harvested, with more than 5300 hectares of forest re-seeded and only 5047 hectares harvested during this time.

“Drought and poor seed crops had made regrowing our forests difficult in previous years and had resulted in a backlog of areas requiring regeneration.

However, VicForests’ extensive regeneration program has assisted with addressing this backlog.

“VicForests is now within 7.5%

of its regeneration target and has stockpiled Victoria’s largest supply of eucalypt seeds for use in future programs,” Winthrop said.

The area handed back to DSE includes 513 hectares which were successfully regenerated to the required standard by VicForests before being burnt by wildfire.

PRENTICE FORESTRY EQUIPMENT 30 YEARS IN AUSTRALIA

STATIONARY MOUNT LOADERS

TRUCK MOUNT LOG LOADERS

TRUCK & TRAILER MOUNT LOG LOADERS

PRENTICE LAND CLEARING TRACTORS

CTR SLASHERS

CTR PULL THROUGH DELIMBERS

Randalls Equipment Company Pty Ltd Wallace Ave, Point Cook, Melbourne VIC Phone. 03 9369 8988 – Fax. 03 3969 8683 Email. randalls@randalls.com.au www.randalls.com.au

14 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

VIEWPOINT

The war on forestry is a social construct that has become disconnected from a harder reality

By Dr Simon Grove

A

N OUTBREAK of peace is threatened in the forests of Tasmania.

We have a Forests Agreement to end all forestry disagreement. A victory for conservation and for common sense, surely? An end to native forest logging; a move to a plantations-based industry; compensation for retrenched loggers; increased reservation. It all sounds so thoroughly rational, surely the principles should be rolled out nationally?

Sorry to spoil the party, but we seem to have neglected to consider whether conservation is best-served by forsaking native forestry in favour of a swing to plantations and imports. The pursuit of peace sounds worthy, but if it merely replaces a polarised social landscape with a polarised ecological landscape, delivers perverse anti-conservation outcomes, and costs hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money in the process, I have to ask whether it’s all worth it.

The root of the “forestry problem”, as I see it, is that we have been conditioned by years of exposure to the forestry vilification campaign to reject any notion that native forestry and conservation might be good bedfellows. This is despite plenty of evidence that this is indeed the case. But we live in an intellectually lazy and largely urban society in which our understanding of what makes the bush tick is rudimentary; and our hearts often rule over our minds.

People are sick of the war on forestry and just want it to go away.

These are the perfect conditions for environmental NGOs to become the de facto voice of authority on matters forestry, and the selfproclaimed arbiters of good taste in conservation. Professional foresters and conservation biologists have been largely disenfranchised. Why ask them for a lengthy explanation of why things are done the way they are, or how they could be done better, when you can make up your own answers and then go fishing for “evidence” to support your case, and when so many in society appear prepared to believe you?

Black-and-white is the new green. It reminds me of the old adage that the simple solution to any complex problem is usually the wrong solution. In the context of conservation, that’s where we are right now with this forests agreement.

It’s ironic that the phrase inconvenient truth was coined to support a pro-environment agenda (and with good reason),

but in the war on forestry, it’s the environmental camp that prefers to operate in a knowledge vacuum.

But war doesn’t decide who is right, merely who is left, and the environmental NGOs aren’t thinking of disbanding themselves any time soon. In the battle for hearts and minds, sound-bites can bite. Spin-doctors and wordsmiths form part of the corporate structures of modern ENGOs. They have excelled at hijacking the language of forestry and conservation. Science, other than psychology perhaps, doesn’t enter into it. Say something outrageous about forestry often enough and people start to assume it’s true.

There’s always got to be a war on the Western Front, and the footsoldiers can learn all they need to know about it from the ENGOs themselves, aided by the complicity of the mainstream media who have normalised their greenspeak,

use is a form of carbon capture and sequestration that can displace more carbon-intensive materials like concrete, aluminium and steel).

The profession of forestry is frequently vilified by ENGOs: after all, in their book, it seems, we’re only in it for the money, or because we get some perverse satisfaction in killing trees and desecrating wild areas. But most foresters that I know “do” forestry because they like trees, forests, nature, people and wood - and the knowledge that the forest resource is one of the few that we know how to use sustainably.

In many other endeavours in society we are living on credit, using finite and non-renewable resources. We clearly can’t go on doing so indefinitely, but we can go on doing native forestry indefinitely - that is sustainably - if we do it well enough.

At a glance

• Environmental camp prefers to operate in a knowledge vacuum • Warped view of reality • We can go on doing native forestry indefinitely - that is sustainably - if we do it well enough • If the media were to portray forestry accurately, it would be very boring for the rest of us land they’ve been entrusted with.

They appreciate that the frontier won’t go on forever, and that future forestry will be about revisiting old ground. The entire estate planning system is modelled and managed with this long-term view in mind - but what the public notes is the initial, messy harvest, the fire and smoke that rightly follows harvest,

‘The root of the “forestry problem”, as I see it, is that we have been conditioned by years of exposure to the forestry vilification campaign to reject any notion that native forestry and conservation might be good bedfellows. This is despite plenty of evidence that this is indeed the case.’ column-inch by column-inch.

High-conservation-value forests?

Sure, we’ll add that term into our lexicon, and we won’t ask whether it has any scientific basis whatsoever as currently used (it doesn’t).

I care deeply about conservation, but I can no longer call myself a conservationist because these days the word has connotations of radical environmentalism. If you think I’m over-reacting, ask yourself how rarely you hear the word “forester” and how often you hear the word “logger” instead; and note too how the entire industry is dismissed as the “woodchipping industry”; how regeneration burns are branded “forestry burn-offs”; harvesting and regeneration is called “landclearance”; and all harvesting is “clearfelling”, despite most being by non-clearfell methods.

And how, of course, the only certification show in town is the Forest Stewardship Council the one scheme in Australia that allows ENGOs to effectively veto certification even if all the sustainability boxes have been ticked.

In this warped view of reality, all native forests are high-carbondensity forests, and are likely to stay that way forever unless harvested (best not to mention the massive carbon releases from the Victorian bushfires; nor that wood

In this context the ENGOs have done well to turn so many Australians against native forestry, when harvesting eucalypts gives us so much useful stuff that we all use.

At the end of the day, forestry is no more about mindlessly chopping down trees than conservation is about mindlessly declaring more and more reserves. It’s also about nurturing forests and protecting these assets over decades and centuries, for future generations.

The trouble is that if the media were to portray forestry accurately, it would be very boring for the rest of us. For every image of trees coming crashing down there would be 999 images of forests quietly growing, or foresters in office clothes sitting in front of monitors, coffee-mugs at hand.

It’s odd that the ENGOs choose to come down on forestry so much more than, say, mining, farming or fishing, when forestry is in many ways a paragon of environmental virtue in comparison to other primary industries. I think it’s because native forestry is an easy target: harvesting frontier forests is often very messy, and appears to involve an awful lot of wanton destruction. These aren’t neat woodlots we’re talking about (and from a conservation perspective, we’re lucky that this is so).

Foresters can only work with the

and the log-trucks rumbling through town.

Conservation in eucalypt forests need not be all about lock-up. The balance of nature never was so abstract a concept as in a naturally fire-prone eucalypt forest. Yet society’s disconnection from the bush makes it difficult for many of us to appreciate the resilience of nature. Bushfires can sweep through tens of thousands of hectares almost overnight, but the forest starts growing back the very next day: it has been this way for as long as there have been eucalypts on the planet.

Today’s old-growth may not be tomorrow’s old-growth, and vice versa. This realisation certainly puts forestry in its place. For a start, it means it’s quite natural to use fire to help regenerate the forest after harvest. It also means that even disturbances as massive as clearfelling have their place, alongside less visuallyconfronting alternatives. The bigpicture view is that conservation in these landscapes is about maintaining resilience and not exceeding tipping-points - keeping the landscape joined up, allowing ample forest to age naturally, and keeping enough ageing forest intermingled within a matrix that is managed to be productively young.

Broadly speaking, that’s what the various Regional Forest Agreements have delivered.

Compare the ecological health of Tasmania’s forest estate, and the level of reservation of native vegetation in that estate, with the equivalent statistics for the nation’s rangelands and croplands and you’ll see that we’re in a league of our own.

So where does this more joinedup thinking take us? Well, any conservation gain from exiting native forestry would, in my view, be modest, because it would be in the context of the already-high level of forest reservation. And in reality, the forests would still require active management (at the taxpayers’ expense), for example, to keep weeds at bay and to manage fire risks.

Gradually phasing out native forestry is not a smart proposition either. Experience elsewhere, from the forest concession systems of Indonesia to the South East Queensland Forests Agreement, suggests that if there’s no incentive to manage for the long term, there will be a temptation towards assetstripping - harvest what you can today because you won’t be allowed to harvest anything tomorrow.

The motivation for maintaining standards will be all stick and no carrot - a sort of straitjacketing which promises to sap foresters’ professional innovation and their flexibility to deliver good conservation outcomes.

In my more cynical moments I wonder whether, deep down, that’s what the ENGOs want as it would help validate their anti-forestry stance - a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But since the 1950’s, forestry has moved on from its “log-and-leave” days to embrace science and sustainability. It would be a big mistake to go back there again.

The extent of further nonconservation perversities from an exit from native forestry would depend on where we sourced the replacement wood. Can we rest continued on page 15.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 15

VIEWPOINT

Safety: Cost versus Value

By Col Shipard AFCA

I

F YOU took the front page story in the last edition of AF&T News at face value you would be left with the impression that the issue of safety is the number one priority of VicForests. Among Stateowned growers they are not alone in making such claims and indeed, for every employer well advised in butt covering, the issue of safety will always be recorded agenda item #1 at every company meeting, be it among the cleaners or the directors.

However, the real value of any safety system lies in actions rather than writings or discussions and it should come as no surprise that anything of real value costs money.

I will leave the test of VicForests claimed position for another day, but there is an irony in the timing of its article because as AF&T News was hitting the stands, their near neighbour – Forests NSW – was in the throes of finalising a tender for a significant parcel of existing work in its Hume region. As best as can be determined, unsurprisingly they selected the lowest cost option.

The managerial conundrum here is that, before accidents, risks are increased by ill-considered reductions in operational costs – the major determinant of selection in competitive tendering. However, after accidents, the economic and personal costs can be large and ruinous for all who bear responsibilities for harvesting and

The war on forestry continued from page 14 easy knowing that we’re going to import more wood from somebody else’s back yard instead of our own? Perhaps so, if we discount the resultant carbon footprint and trade deficit and if we import from the well-managed plantations of New Zealand, South America or South Africa (though the blue cranes, blue swallows and other endangered birds whose African grassland habitat has been largely afforested may beg to differ). If the world’s not so lucky, our wood will come from the rainforests of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands or Indonesia, where ecological and social sustainability is still but a distant dream. In effect, the cost of exiting native forestry locally could be the export of deforestation and corruption to our near neighbours.

Or we could grow our trees in plantations here in Australia, which is what most people are assuming will happen. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the environmental movement likes this idea. But it’s not very long ago that the plantation sector in Tasmania was being accused of poisoning the waters sustaining local residents and oysters alike, and of killing off rural communities faced with encirclement by tree-farms.

I’m no great fan of the current plantation estate myself. In Tasmania, much of it is on land deliberately and only recently cleared of native forest - a perverse outcome of past agreements. For the future, we have to do better than this - but where? Unfortunately,

plantations grow best where crops grow best. Do we want more food or more wood? Marginal agricultural land is often marginal plantation land too, and is often the only part of the agricultural landscape where native trees, shrubs and grasses still hang on. For plantations to thrive here requires intensive management, usually involving fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides, which have an environmental and carbon footprint of their own. Conservation gain?

Unless it’s very cleverly managed, I don’t think so.

In essence, the war on forestry is a social construct that has become disconnected from a harder reality the reality of what makes the forest tick (ecology) and the reality of how our management choices impinge on its ecology (conservation). The outcome of this war is a forests agreement that, in forsaking native forestry in favour of a swing to plantations and imports, is not sensible and does not comprise effective conservation policy.

It discounts the future and it discounts the cost of conservation in other places. It represents a step away from sustainability, not towards it.

We face horrendous planetaryscale challenges in the spheres of conservation and climate change, and we need vigorous ENGOs to help us turn our social, cultural and economic systems around to meet those challenges. It’s time they left domestic forestry to do its bit for our sustainable future, and moved on to dealing with these more pressing matters.

About the Author For the past nine years, Dr Simon Grove has been a conservation biologist in Forestry Tasmania’s Division of Forest Research and Development in Hobart. He has a PhD in forest ecology from James Cook University, Cairns, and an MSc in forestry from Oxford University.

His current research interests encompass beetle biodiversity, birds, fire, “deadwoodology”, alternatives to clearfelling, and landscape ecology. He is the author of numerous scientific papers on forestry, forest ecology and conservation. This viewpoint was featured in Online Opinion.

delivering logs to mills. In seeking the balance of these forces, contract principals need to be aware that the seduction of spin may mask the barb of reality.

From my dealings with contractors spread across the length and breadth of the country I believe that most of them have a compliant safety system. But, as for the translation of what is written and discussed into actions, there wouldn’t be half a dozen contractors that actually live their safety system. Two of these lost out in the last tender by Forests NSW. At least one of the “new” contractors – already with a Forest NSW contract – does not even have a compliant written safety system.

So, what do I mean when I say a business lives its safety system and, why do I emphasise its cost? The cornerstone of any living safety system is fatigue management and fatigue management is now the constraint that determines capacity.

These days fatigue management (i.e. sustainable work hours) is expressed in MAXIMUMS not AVERAGES. Using the transport industry as an example, a truck driver in any period of 24 hours, cannot work more than 12 hours and must have enjoyed at least 4 breaks each of at least 15 minutes, PLUS a block of 7 hours of stationary rest time.

The maximum work hours in any seven days is 72, but this level of activity can only be attained every second week. For bush workers, if one adopted the Vic WorkSafe Fatigue Management Guidelines in their entirety, the daily productive

capacity of businesses would be determined from the availability of each and every employee being limited to a 12 hour workday, measured from when they leave home until when they return.

In any week when demand for wood is more than capacity, the deficiency can only be recovered by (ultimately) increasing capacity.

The most immediate capacity gains come through additional operator/driver shifts, which increases risk especially from logging at night, as recent studies on logging have shown. It is well recognised that a disproportionate number of industrial disasters such as the Chernobyl explosion, the Union Carbide factory disaster at Bhopal and the Exxon Valdez collision occurred at night. Further production increases come from adding extra machines which is a long term fixed cost decision that alters the nature of individual contracts. Either way, there is a cost attached if the grower cannot manage wood flows that match weekly productive capacity that are linked directly to a contractor’s fatigue management system.

The scenarios can be messy.

Consider the following; a grower engages contractors requiring camping on the job, and the contractor then allows work on dumps after the evening meal (perhaps alone), such that they end up working a 16 hour work day; contractors set 16-18 hour shifts for truck drivers, either as a one-off or continuous basis. It is not enough that the forest growers innocently exclaim “we don’t want to hear

 Col Shipard, AFCA.

about that” when they are “told about that”. The extent of grower involvement in the entire capacity/ rate/fatigue management equation leaves them exposed in the whole “chain or responsibility”.

If a low cost solution is not supported by a safety management system built upon a sustainable fatigue management program, that also involves the employees’ company directors as well as other employed family members, it is not a solution.

The lack of critical evaluation of the operational attributes of contractors during the latest tender process was revealed when one of the senior managers from Forests NSW expressed an opinion to one of the incumbents living their safety system that went along the lines... “you’ve seen one contractor you’ve seen them all”. He, and Forests NSW, will learn that is just not so if one contractor lives a safety system and the other has merely written one up from his latest research on Google. You see, in this industry, it is action that determines outcomes, not what is written or discussed.

Some forest growers are only one properly investigated accident away from finding this out!

New Shed for

Best Mates The solid and powerful Pulpmate and Logmate forestry heads are now available from a brand new supplier.

Along with a complete stock of parts and unsurpassed in-field service, these forestry heads are now sold and serviced by the partnership between Scott Ferguson & Steve Garrett.

To find out about the full range of Pulpmate heads, original designed Log Forks, cut-off saws and Felling Boom/Arm sets, call us today.

5 Jersey Road BAYSWATER VIC 3153 Ph: (03) 9729 0744 Fx: (03) 9729 1844 Email: info@hardwoodforestproducts.com.au

16 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

Two million tonnes and much more to go B

U N B U RY- B A S E D timber exporter Hansol PI celebrated the export of its two millionth tonne of plantation timber with a tree planting ceremony at its head quarters at the Bunbury Port.

The company started operations out of the port in 2004 and from humble beginnings has grown to become a major player in the plantation industry employing about 120 people either directly or via contract.

“This is a major milestone for the

company which has now generated over $210 million in foreign export earnings and has created significant regional development opportunities in the process,” Hansol PI chief executive officer Dr Gary Inions said. “It is a credit to all concerned particularly our staff and contractors”.

Also attending the ceremony were representatives of Mitsubishi Corporation (Tokyo), the Bunbury Port Authority, Monson Agencies, Griffith WA Services and B & J Catalano.

“While it has taken nearly six years to reach this milestone the next two million tonnes will be achieved in half that time,” Mr Yamada from Mitsubishi Corporation (Tokyo) said. “As customers we are very pleased to be involved with this project.”

Hansol PI exports an estimated 500,000 green metric tonnes (gmt) of timber per year of Forest Stewardship Council-certified plantation-grown timber to the Japanese pulp and paper industry.

 Celebrating the major milestone were Hansol PI staff, Catalano’s (Dozing ) staff, Monson Agencies (HPI Shipping agent), Bunbury Port Authority, Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo and Melbourne.

 To mark the occasion of Hansol PI’s export of 2 million tonnes of wood chip plantation woodchip export, Dr Gary Inions, Hansol PI chief executive officer (left) and Mr Yamada from Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo, plant an Australian Native tree in the grounds of Hansol P’s office at Bunbury Harbour.

Export facility leads the way in a tough field ALBANY’S WOOD pellet export facility is a winner in more ways than one! Not only is it highly successful operationally, it won the Environmental Project of the Year Award at the 2010 Australian Bulk Handling Awards in Brisbane.

Nominations for this prestigious event were hotly contested by companies such as SKM, Aurecon Hatch and Rio Tinto.

Brightwater Engineering Solutions designed and constructed the West Australian export facility which receives, stores and loads-out 250,000 tonnes of wood pellets per annum and comprises a reception grizzly, shuttle conveyor and a fabric clad building.

The wood pellets are exported to Europe and are a renewable energy source for boilers.

The $13 million project was carried out for Plantation Energy Australia.

Plantation Energy Australia Pty Ltd is Australia’s largest manufacturer and exporter of Densified Biomass Fuel (DBF) pellets. Reclaiming of the pellets is done within the building then conveyed and loaded into a ship utilizing the existing ABH (Albany Bulk Handling) ship loader.

The final design was driven by several key points such as timeframe for completion, resistance to corrosion, capital cost and operational flexibility.

Various systems were explored including silos, conventional buildings and fabric clad buildings. The fabric clad building was selected ahead of others, meeting all of the criteria and it could be constructed to meet the

exceptionally tight time schedule. The timeline for the work was six months including planning, lease negotiation and construction, and employed up to 40 people across multiple disciplines in the project.

Brightwater Engineering Solutions is a Welshpool-based EPC engineering business, established in Perth three years ago by general manager, Mathew Fletcher. The business has grown from humble beginnings with Mathew operating from shared office space, into 15 full time professional engineering staff and up to 80 construction personnel.

During this period the Brightwater team has delivered in excess of $70 million in projects and grown at a phenomenal rate amidst the global financial crisis. Mathew credits the success to dedicated and loyal staff; without them none of this would have been possible. “The core of our business is based on integrity, courage, value and trust. In Brightwater people come first, and with happy people we are in a position to delight our customers”.

Brightwater Engineering Solutions is part of the Nelson (New Zealand) based Brightwater Group of Companies. Ostensibly Brightwater is an EPC company that provides complete turn-key engineered solutions in industry sectors such as biomass renewable energy, bulk materials handling, mining, and forestry.

Some of Brightwater’s next anticipated projects include a 15Mw biomass heat plant for timber

drying kilns, bulk conveying and handling of wood chips for a board mill, installation of a bin sorter for a sawmill, and a 10Mw biomass power station.

The Varanus Island gas disaster in June 2008 saw a 30% reduction in natural gas supplies to Perth and Bunbury and industrial consumers were asked to curtail their consumption as a result.

Wespine, the largest pine sawmill in Western Australia, at Dardanup in the State’s south-west, became interested in reviewing options that would increase energy supply reliability and reduce overall energy costs.

Through preliminary consultation Brightwater Engineering Solutions in Perth was awarded a contract for Front End Engineering and Design.

The FEED study is multi-step process that ensures that customers remain engaged and informed to achieve the key outcomes required for the project.

In this instance Brightwater had been tasked to review available technology, provide a selection of options and then move into detailed engineering and costing based around an agreed solution.

The consulting and project management is lead by the Perth office with design provided from Brightwater’s Melbourne branch. The team considered a variety of options including wet product burners and dry product suspension burners with a variety of heat outputs.

One key aspect of the FEED study was to consider the utilisation of sawdust for fuel. Sawmill sawdust

 The award-winning complex.

 Haulage to the complex.

was once considered to be waste and now has the potential to provide significant operational savings. The price of natural gas is set to double in the coming years to around $12/GJ. The cost for energy from sawdust is about $2.50/GJ thus providing cost effective, clean and reliable energy.

The biomass heat plant is still under consideration by Wespine’s Board of Directors. The situation is that to date, Brightwater has done pre-feasibility studies, assessed options and completed the FEED

(Front End Engineering & Design).

The proposed solution would utilize a 15 Mw cyclonic burner that will deliver 10.5 Mw of heat energy into a thermal oil circuit. The thermal oil temperature at 280 C is passed through heat exchangers in the kilns for timber drying. The project has environmental benefits, as it will be using biomass wood waste from the sawmill which is a renewable energy source. This will reduce the reliance on using natural gas for kiln drying and improve energy reliability.

a large amount of harvest residue’ Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 17

CRC FORESTRY

Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Forestry plays vital role in industry success T

HE ROLE of the CRC for Forestry is to support a sustainable and vibrant Australian forestry industry through research, education, communication and collaboration.

The CRC for Forestry is a powerful collaboration of industry, government and research organisations that began in 1991, and received its third funding renewal in 2005. It receives cash funding from the Australian Government and cash and inkind support from partners including forest industry businesses, research organisations and state agencies. Partners are located Australia-wide and the CRC’s headquarters are in Tasmania.

Cooperative Research Centres are a unique response to collaboratively tackling major research challenges in Australia. The program began in 1991 and was established to improve the effectiveness of Australia’s research and development effort. It currently supports more than 40 CRCs. Each of these brings together researchers and end users in a long-term collaborative arrangement to undertake enduser driven research. The program emphasises the importance of developing collaborative

arrangements between researchers, and between researchers and research users to maximise the benefits of publicly funded research and increase the likelihood of uptake of research findings. Each CRC is focused on a research challenge of national significance, with a focus on developing outputs that can be readily implemented by end users.

The CRC for Forestry produces sciencebased tools to help forest managers maximise the profitability of their estates and minimise environmental impacts. Among its aims are increasing harvesting efficiency, guiding silviculture for value-added end-products, and improving approaches to stakeholder consultation. Research activities are organised around four themes: managing and monitoring for growth and health; high-value wood resources; harvesting and operations; and trees in the landscape (which also includes the CRC’s major ‘Communities’ and ‘Water’ projects).

The CRC for Forestry’s national research network supports sustainable wood production, and is focused on addressing existing and emerging challenges to help ensure a sustainable industry for the long

term. Enhancing profitability, and ensuring environmental and social benefits outweigh any costs, are central challenges for Australia’s forest managers. CRC for Forestry research is focused on these issues in plantation forestry, and also addresses some related topics in native forest management. The CRC’s research program spans the whole value chain of this nationally important industry, including the social and environmental values of forests.

More information about research outcomes to date and current research activities can be found on the CRC for Forestry website www.crcforestry.com.au

Key People • Chief Executive Officer: Professor Gordon Duff • Board Chair: Kate Carnell • Program Manager, Program One (Managing and monitoring for growth and health): Dr Mark Hunt, Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation • Program Manager, Program Two leader

 Professor Gordon Duff

(High-value wood resources): Dr Chris Harwood, CSIRO • Program Manager, Program Three leader (Harvesting and operations): Mark Brown, University of Melbourne •P rogram Manager, Program Four leader (Trees in the landscape): Professor Brad Potts, University of Tasmania • Education Manager: Professor Peter Kanowski, Australian National University The CRC for Forestry will be making regular contributions to Australian Forests & Timber News, highlighting its research outcomes and how they can help shape the future of the forestry industry. The first of these contributions is included in this special segment.

European biomass harvesting systems and their application in Australia

By Mohammad Reza Ghaffariyan CRC for Forestry University of Tasmania THIS PRESENTS an analysis of various biomass harvesting systems in use in Europe and considers their application in the Australian context with a particular focus on recovery of harvesting residue for use in energy generation.

Specific systems discussed in this review will be explored in greater detail in later bulletins, noting the results from trials of their use in Australia.

Europe produces 696 million cubic metres (m3) of woody biomass each year (Hetsch 2008) using

several harvesting technologies.

These harvesting systems differ in the machinery applied in the supply chain, the material used as a source of biomass, and the applicability of the systems in various forest stands and terrains.

Biomass use has become an increasingly important part of the global effort to mitigate the effects of climate change and forest biomass has been used extensively for renewable energy generation (DPI 2009). Biofuels are a growing source of electricity generation in the European Union (EU) and more than 50% of that comes from wood and wood waste. For example, in Sweden up to 90% of bioenergy comes from wood and wood waste.

There are three major sources of biomass in the EU: harvesting residues, short-rotation plantations (poplars, willows and eucalypts), and wood harvested for use as fuel for heat or electricity generation (‘energy wood’) (from purposegrown plantations or from native stands). Some wood produced in short-rotation plantations is used as energy wood and for the purposes of this report has been discussed in that way. Residues and energy wood can be harvested using whole tree or cut-to-length (CTL) systems.

Chipping operations can occur at various points in the biomass supply chain: in the forest stand, at the roadside, and in the storage yard and/or in the factory. It is also

 Figure 1. Classification of biomass harvesting systems based on chipping location and biomass source (Kühmaier et al. 2007)

possible to bunch the residues at roadside and then chip them at the mill. Figure 1 presents the different combinations available to harvest biomass in Europe.

Australian forest biomass Table 1 summarises the advantages and disadvantages of various biomass systems used in Europe and notes their possible application in the Australian forestry industry.

Australia’s move to increase renewable energy options (through mandated renewable energy targets) creates new markets for waste and byproducts from the timber production industry. A number of commercial operations are already using wood—including harvesting residues—as an energy source, and other ventures are in development.

Residues can be categorised as harvesting slash and plantation stemwood (energy wood). Based on Table 2, the woody biomass potential capacity in the country is about 6,487,650 tonnes.

Australia’s current wood residue could produce 3 million MWh (megawatt hours) of electricity per year and result in a permanent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (3 million tonnes of CO2) each year.

In most cases the biomass supply chain design is still developing to satisfy existing and proposed biomass users. Analysis by the CRC for Forestry has found that some of the systems currently used in Europe could be adapted for use in Australia, depending on stand and operational factors: baling (or bundling), chipping the stemwood at the roadside, and chipping residues at the roadside (for both CTL and whole tree methods).

Take-home messages There is a significant volume of forest biomass available in Australia including a large amount of harvest residue. While not all of it can be cost-effectively recovered, the resource has significant potential for energy production.

Forest biomass supply chains have been well defined and researched in Europe and are operating effectively to convert forest biomass to commercial products—including an alternative energy source. Work is needed to adapt these systems to Australian forest operating conditions.

From those European systems considered in this bulletin, several are considered to be adaptable for

18 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

CRC FORESTRY use in Australia, and the CRC for Forestry is conducting field trials in the use of some of these: baling, chipping stemwood at the roadside, and chipping residues at the roadside (CTL). The results of these trials will be reported in future bulletins.

System

Advantage

Disadvantage

Applicable Australian condition

Baling system

Produce uniform products that are easily handled Flexible logistics Easy process control, reliability and cleanliness Less storage needed

High cost of baling, only feasible in large-scale forestry situations

May be more applicable to centrally located static chipping operations, as opposed to in-field chipping

Chipping in the stand

Effective transportation (stand to roadside) Easier extraction of wood products to roadside

Impossible on steep and rough terrain In thinning operations, harvesting of residues is costly due to limited space for operation of machinery

Low wood quality plantations that could not produce pulpwood or other commercial woody products

Chipping residues at roadside (whole tree extraction)

High machine productivity for chipping and loading No additional cost to extract residues

Removal of nutrients from the stand Considerable soil and stand damage

Current roadside processing operations

Chipping residues at roadside (CTL system)

High machine productivity for chipping and loading

Additional cost to extract the residues to roadside Removal of nutrients from the stand, although to a lesser extent than for the whole tree system Higher soil compaction and stand damage due to traffic caused by extraction

Current Australian in-stand processing with extraction of the residues to roadside

Manual felling chains

Less machine cost for felling Effective in early thinning to fell trees below 0.15 m3

Time consuming and less cost-effective Lower work safety for chainsaw operators

Likely no application

Mechanised felling chains

Higher production in feller-buncher and forwarding systems Lower breakage during felling Allows directional felling to improve extraction efficiency

Small-tree felling by this method is more expensive than manual felling

Suitable for clearfelling of energy wood plantations

References Department of Primary Industries (Victoria) (2010), ‘Forestry’ website, at http:// n e w. d p i .v i c .g ov. a u / fo r e s t r y/ plantations-and-climate-change/ carbon-trading/plantations-forenergy.

Hetsch S (2008). European wood potential—enough to satisfy future energy and industry needs?

9th conference of the European state forestry organizations (Bialowieza, Poland) 9–12 June 2008.

Kühmaier M, Kanzian C, Holzleitner F & Stampfer K (2007).

‘Wertschöpfungskette Waldhackgut. Optimierung von Ernte, Transport und Logistik.’

(Instituts für Forsttechnik, Department für Wald- und Bodenwissenschaften an der Universität für Bodenkultur Wien) Ryan MF, Spencer RD, Keenan RJ (2002). Private native forests in Australia: what did we learn from the Regional Forest Agreement program? Australian Forestry 65(3) 141–152.

Organisations supporting this science BOKU University of Vienna (Martin Kühmaier) provided useful information on biomass technology.

More information For more information, visit the CRC for Forestry website at http://www.crcforestry.com.au/ research/programme-three/index. html

 Table 1. Summary of biomass harvesting systems Biomass resource

Estimated biomass (t)

Bio Briefs

Forest harvesting residues

2 986 856

Uncommitted plantation resource

1 220 000

Uncommitted softwood plantation residue

260 000

Uncommitted native forest residue

224 000

Estimated sawmill residue

1 796 794

Total

6 487 650

Wood pellet plant expansion WOOD PELLET manufacturer and supplier Pacific BioEnergy has expanded its wood pellet production plant located in Prince George, British Colombia. The $24 million project is able to handle bush grind, due to the addition of a new in-feed line.

The expanded facility is also able to handle increased amounts of waste wood, including that killed by mountain pine beetles, from the forests surrounding Prince George. Production capacity at the plant will be boosted to 350,000 tonnes of wood pellets a year, up from its current output of between 150,000 and 180,000 tonnes.

Pellets produced at the plant will be destined for Europe and exported via Vancouver.

 Table 2. Australian woody biomass (Ryan et al. 2002)

Toll Free: 1300 130 800

Modular bioenergy power plant NEVADA-BASED Energy Quest (EQI) is setting in motion the preliminary work for a modular biomass power plant that would produce 6.4 MW bioenergy that will be sold back to the utility in Georgia’s Lee County. The plant would include four 1.65 MW modular power units. This modular bio-energy plant will utilize 10 to 12 tons of agricultural waste biomass per hour and this will be supplied from the surrounding regions.

The gasification system, which is employed to produce gas required for the generator engines, would also produce 16,000 to 18,000 tons of high quality biochar annually.

This would be traded as a soil enhancement product.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 19

CARBON

Tasmania to lead the world in forest carbon research T

ASMANIA IS set to become a world leader in forest carbon research with a number of projects either under way or ready to start under a carbon research program established by Forestry Tasmania.

“Climate change is a major issue and FT’s carbon research program will further increase our confidence in the reporting of forest carbon stores,” said Minister for Energy and Resources Bryan Green.

“One of the key projects will be the construction of a globally unique carbon flux tower at the Warra Long Term Ecological Research site south of Hobart.

“The Warra carbon flux tower will constantly measure exchanges of carbon dioxide, water and energy between the forest and the atmosphere.

“It will be established in a mixed age mature

and regrowth forest which will help quantify the contribution these forests make to carbon storage.

“It will also challenge assumptions that carbon stores in tall wet forests are stable once they reach maturity. This belief is flawed because eucalypts exist only in these forests through periodic disturbances such as wildfire.

“This project is unique because it will measure changes in forest carbon in real time, over the long term at a site where substantial data has been collected on biodiversity, forest dynamics and the response to management.

“Forest scientists will compare data from the Warra site with one established in a forest at Wallaby Creek in Victoria that is regenerating following the Black Saturday fires,” the Minister said.

Key to reducing carbon emissions cheaply “INNOVATION AND carbon pricing can combine to reduce carbon emissions more cheaply than we expect,” according to Professor John Daley, chief executive officer of the Grattan Institute.

“Technology innovation is the key to reducing carbon emissions cheaply.

Experience shows that markets are more likely to deliver more innovation, at lower cost, than specific government programs. However, technology needs certainty and a price.

A floor price should be set to encourage the market to do what it does best,” the professor said at the release of the institute’s second energy report, Markets to Reduce Pollution: Cheaper than Expected.

Grattan Institute investigated the experience of six pollution pricing schemes in Australia and overseas. In each case, costs

to reduce pollution, and actual prices, were much lower than Governments and their experts expected. Environmental markets routinely delivered substantially lower prices in practice than in forecasts.

Government consistently underestimated commercial innovation when money was at stake. They consistently got it wrong when predicting which technologies would deliver the cheapest reductions.

“Our analysis suggests a general price for carbon is preferable to Government funding for specific measures.

Markets unlock ingenuity across the community to find reductions cheaper than we expect.

“In addition, the poor record of forecasting shows that any scheme should have a floor price to provide certainty for investors.

Floor prices effectively reduce

the total amount of pollution permitted if it turns out to be easier than expected to reduce pollution,” he said.

“Markets may not be perfect, but they are consistently effective at identifying lower cost opportunities, promoting innovation, and responding flexibly to changes. Markets are likely to deliver more innovation at lower cost than specific Government programs.”

Grattan Institute was formed in November 2008, responding to the desire for an independent public policy think-tank focused on Australian domestic public policy. The Board comprises a cross-section of business, academia and Government and its research programs are supported by a public policy committee and reference groups involving experts from across the community.

It’s only a matter of time!

A CARBON credits offset scheme in forestry and farming activity could be operating in Australia within months if the Federal Government has its way.

The minority Labor government has released the broad framework for its Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), designed to generate emissions reduction in the land-use sectors in the absence of an overarching emissions trading scheme and received comments up until 21 January. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) bill was defeated in the Senate earlier last year.

The CFI would cover a wide range of activities including reforestation and avoided deforestation and in the forests sector. Livestock methane and manure management, landfill waste, fertiliser emissions, soil carbon sequestration, burning of stubble/ crop residue, rice cultivation and savanna fire management are other reduction activities.

Some activities, such as those in forestry, would be subject to Kyoto rules in order to generate offsets that could be recognised in international carbon markets, both voluntary and mandatory. Some of the land-use activities would be suitable for a domestic carbon market only.

The legislation is expected to be put before the Commonwealth Parliament in the first half of 2011, with the scheme proposed to commence on 1 July 2011.

The whole thing is an extremely complex issue and DLA Phillips Fox - one of the largest legal firms in Australasia and a member of DLA Piper Group, an alliance of independent legal practices. It is a separate and distinct legal entity – can help you navigate your way through the complex issues of the CFI. Among other things, DLA Phillips Fox can help you understand your obligations and liabilities regarding maintenance of the carbon stock used to generate the credits, and familiarise you with the standards that you need to comply with under the NCOS to ensure that your project qualifies for the CFI carbon credits.

Following the example in neighbouring New Zealand, the Government proposes that offset producers be given access to the international Kyoto markets by offering to exchange its Governmentlevel AAU credits for domestic offset credits. Foresters have so far realised healthy prices in New Zealand under this arrangement in a number of overseas sales of converted NZ credits.

But the Government is also hoping to kick-start a local market in carbon offsetting, with demand from industrial and energy emitters preparing for a future carbon price regime. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reiterated support for a price on carbon since an election in August. A committee of MPs and experts is considering options. The Government wants the scheme to be in place by July 2011, but the final bill will have to win cross-party support in both houses of parliament to pass.

-- From Carbonpositive. Carbon Positive Services provides consulting and project-management services for ships and land-based sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other air-borne emissions. Its services relate to environmental management, offsetting and sustainability. It develops programs to meet voluntary and mandated emissions compliance requirements. Our focus is on market-based approaches, such as emissions trading. Founded in 2004, Carbon Positive has launched a series of commercial initiatives to develop sustainable resource ventures and create tradable greenhouse gas emission reductions, employing its own talent and in conjunction with strategic partners. Today, Carbon Positive is extending to new initiatives that include working within the shipping industry to create environmental trading opportunities within this sector and between it and other sectors - mobile emissions sources, stationary emissions sources and land-based sinks, such as forestry.

Its name derives from the belief that being carbon neutral doesn’t have to be a cost. It can and should be a positive, profitable venture.

New business partnership continues the trend SCOTT FERGUSON and Steve Garrett have formed a new business partnership to continue the supply of proven Pulpmate forestry heads and other forestry/earthmoving products, through the formation of Hardwood Forest Products Australia.

Steve and Scott are well known in the industry, Scott having more than 10 years experience in the design and manufacture of this equipment, and Steve having more than 25 years experience in the industry with design, operation, field service and technical advice.

“We endeavour to develop and improve a product that is already at the top of its class within the forest industry,” said Scott.

The new workshop is at 5 Jersey Road Bayswater, Victoria, and has facilities in-house for CNC Turning and milling, drilling of small and large jobs, CNC oxy profile cutting,

hydraulic repairs, hydraulic fittings and hose making facilities, welding and boiler making, small pressing job, CAD design, general engineering repairs and maintenance, and field service vehicle equipped with tools and spare parts.

“We are dedicated to providing backup and support of spare parts and field service on all Pulpmate and Logmate Forestry Heads, cut-off saws and other products in the industry, along with the manufacture of new forestry and earthmoving equipment,” said Steve.

HFPA’s main forest products include: • PULPMATE 450: Suited to a minimum 20 tonne excavator base • PULPMATE 550: Suited to a minimum 24 tonne excavator base • PULPMATE 650: Suited to a minimum 28 tonne excavator base

IT’S ABOUT TIME SAVING IT. SPENDING IT WISELY. MAKING THE MOST OF IT. INTRODUCING NEW TECHNOLOGY FROM JOHN DEERE. WHEN IT’S TIME TO LEAD, IT’S TIME TO TALK TO THE WORLD LEADER.

TTHE HE HE N NEW EW E SERIES

FORWARDER 1510E

1910E

THE REVOLUTIONARY NEW E SERIES FORWARDER New rotating and leveling cabin creates a 360° view— easily follow boom movements for safer, faster loading Timbermatic™ automation included standard High ground speed over uneven terrain

TTHE HE N NEW EW E SERIES

HARVESTER 1270E

1470E

ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY IN HARVESTING Revolutionary E Series rotating and leveling cabin— features the same controls as the E Series forwarder Timbermatic™ automation included standard Higher tractive force and increased ground clearance

TTHE HE N NEW EW KH SERIES

HARVESTER 903KH

T

S

909KH

TOUGH EQUIPMENT FOR A TOUGH JOB Increased horsepower (330hp) CommandCenter™ display Infinitely variable track speed Comprehensive lighting package

S

THE THE NEW TH NEW H SERIES

SKIDDER 648H

748H

848H

SKIDDING PERFORMANCE THAT MOVES YOU FORWARD New Autoshift option automatically selects the optimum gear for the load—eliminating manual shifting and freeing the right hand to run the grapple High-debris grill sheds cooling cores of leaves and debris

NEW EASY-TO-USE NEW

SOFTWARE TIMBEROFFICE

TIMBERRITE

TIMBERLINK

SEE THE FULL JOHN DEERE RANGE AT www.hcma.com.au

BECAUSE SMART TRUMPS HARD, EVERY TIME Daily operating costs, productivity, fuel consumption, engine rpm distribution—get the full picture on your site Cost-effectively optimise the performance of your business Cut stress levels with in-depth problem analysis

John Deere Construction and Forestry equipment is distributed by Hitachi Construction Machinery (Australia) Pty Ltd

22 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

Computer technology plays a crucial role in modern forestry S

PARE A THOUGHT for the pioneers of forestry … when manual work wasn’t the name of a fictional Spanish character, when calculations had to be done mentally, when the eye was the deciding factor. Since those days technology has come a long way in all walks of life, including in the forestry industry Here are a few examples of how technology is used to better manage our forests:

Biotechnology Biotechnology is an important component in helping the forest industry increase productivity of modern forests. Forest sustainability depends on global interdisciplinary cooperation in silvicultural techniques and continued research to meet projected needs while maintaining a healthy ecosystem.

As less public forest land is available for commercial use, it becomes increasingly important to coax maximum productivity from existing commercial forests.

Biotechnology aids the forest industry in numerous areas.

Application of enzyme technology in pulp and paper manufacture has demonstrated environmental advantages. Tree genetics offers the possibility to resolve the increased demands on forest resources through the development of trees more tolerant to diseases, pests, and chemicals, which have a detrimental impact on forest health.

DNA sequencing As with human DNA, research teams are working to understand the genetic code of various species of trees. Forest genomics is rapidly shaping how we do sustainable, intensive forestry. It will help us farm trees with desired growth and wood quality characteristics, while protecting our forests from pests and diseases through the development of tools for early detection, diagnosis, and control, allowing for more vigilant conservation and forest management.

Forest simulation software

Global Positioning System (GPS)

resulted in an explosion of high tech mechanized machinery to harvest and process trees in the forest.

Computer science plays a leading role in the management of forest areas. Thus, several programs have been created to help foresters simulate forest growth depending on the type of intervention needed.

These tools are used to determine the quantity of wood that can be cut in a given territory using different management strategies.

GPS is a primary tool for Geographic Information Systems.

Foresters are able to more accurately plot location data (latitude, longitude, and altitude) for use in calculating timber volume, surveying timber plots and mapping roads and features in the forest.

This data, combined with other geographic data, helps foresters to accurately manage modern forests.

Using a handheld receiver, GPS takes advantage of a constellation of 24 satellites that orbit the earth as reference points to calculate position in three dimensions as well as in time. At any time, this constellation provides the user with between five and eight satellites visible from any point on the earth. GPS technology could accurately plot your position within a centimeter.

Foresters can download data gathered from handheld GPS receivers into databases and modeling programs that marry it to other GIS information that can help in planning.

Forest Operations

Geographic Information Systems Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computer based tool for mapping and analyzing geographic phenomenon that exist, and events that occur on Earth. Map making and geographic analysis are not new, but GIS performs these tasks faster and with more sophistication than do traditional manual methods. This gives land managers access to large amounts of data and information that was impossible to access before.

Information made available through tools like photogrammetry (aerial photographs and other imagery taken from airplanes and satellites) and remote sensing, help map large forest areas and help monitor and detect widespread trends of forest and land use.

Computers are used extensively from the office to the field, for the storage, retrieval, and analysis of information required to manage the forest land and its resources. GIS can also be used to model various management scenarios to optimize silvicultural goals.

Forest Engineering Advances in technology over the last century have allowed harvesting and processing techniques to keep up with demand for forest products while complying with economic and ecological demands.

The business of harvesting and processing trees was traditionally very labor intensive, dangerous, and often destructive to the sites.

Processing logs required much manual labor, which resulted in many injuries. Road building and some harvesting techniques degraded the environment and caused damage to residual trees.

Numerous roads were built to access harvesting sites, which contributed to erosion and watershed and habitat degradation. Past practices often resulted in much timber waste and unnecessary labor costs.

The need to address these issues and to achieve higher productivity

Most harvesting operations are now mechanized, requiring the operator to have a higher degree of training and competency but providing a better degree of comfort, safety, and productivity. Modern equipment is now able to harvest and process trees to log lengths in one motion, saving processing time in the mills and helping keep organic matter on-site. Computer systems are integrated into harvesting systems, allowing optimization of the harvest. The machines themselves are purpose-built and designed to be more versatile and to have lower impact on the site. Technology is the key to safety, productivity, reduced costs, and environmentally sensitive techniques.

Forest Management Foresters must be concerned with the long-term health of the forest and be able to execute management practices that adhere

to environmental policy and social goals along with the economic.

In order to stay competitive, the industry must do more with less, increasing the yield from forestland and individual trees.

Forestry today looks nothing like that of a century ago. Forest owners and foresters have access to a wealth of silvicultural information, which allows them to write forest management plans that plan for the long-term economic, social, and environmental needs of the stand.

In addition, there are many tools to help them implement these plans that minimize environmental impacts while maintaining the integrity of forests in the long term.

Remote sensing Remote sensing is a way to obtain information on forest biomass and stand conditions over large areas.

The term remote sensing, sometimes known as photogrammetry, refers to measuring objects on earth by capturing inventory information from great distances. Remote sensing utilizes aerial photographs, satellite images, laser altimetry, and radar.

 Green Hills pine plantation near Tumut as seen by Aerial Acquisitions colour infrared digital aerial camera. This type of imagery is used routinely by some forest owners for plantation health assessment. Imagery funded by ForestsNSW and Forest Wood Products Australia.

New system means more care for remote workers GPS MONITORING solutions have become the defacto standard in modern day vehicle security, fleet management and personal security services and the forestry industry is going for it, too!

Ezy2c, a division of Fleet Logistics Pty Ltd founded in 2003, is considered a market leader in the development of these technologies and has built a world class services business to deploy these technologies. Through a partnership with Air CTI in Gippsland Ezy2c developed a connection with the forestry industry. Air CTI developed Central Tyre Inflation systems for vehicles and has a long history providing services to logging trucks.

Through Air CTI’s relationships, Ezy2c set up a trial of the OH&S GPS tracking solution and presented results at the annual VFCA conference in Traralgon.

The trial with Victorian-based Perry Logging was a resounding success; business owner Shane Perry was so impressed he ordered five devices for his fleet of trucks.

“This is a low cost solution that protects my staff and gives me confidence to send my staff to remote areas alone, knowing they will alert me if something goes wrong. I was very impressed with the Ezy2c system,” according to Shane.

“We have developed our own technology

to meet the needs of organisations with remote workers. Being based locally we understand the needs of industries such as logging. Our considerable investment in research and development has enabled us to design world-class products that have been tested in the harshest of conditions,” said Managing Director Rick Firth.

“The impressive feedback we have received from operators within the forestry industry backs up our belief that we have developed a low cost solution that not only delivers a positive ROI but also more importantly offers protection and security to remote workers in potentially dangerous environments.”

 Managing Director Rick Firth.

Out here, when you’re working, you’re earning. That’s why serious loggers rely on Waratah to stay productive. Our heads not only last longer and perform better, but also deliver a remarkably low overall cost-to-run. And when you put a Waratah head to work, the whole Waratah team goes to work for you - from our unmatched field support committed to getting you up and running and keeping you there, to our engineering team charged with making the best heads in the business even better. There’s a Waratah head to fit your application and carrier. So get one.

And get to work.

Waratah Australia Office 03 97474200

Waratah Product Support Hotline 03 9747 4250

Waratah Parts 03 9747 4213 waratahausparts@us.waratah.net

www.Waratah.net

24 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

TRIED & TESTED

Pine plantations biomass harvesting THE BRUKS 805.2 STC chipper, a newcomer to Australia, is the fifth generation of Bruks mobile chippers with a drum diameter of 800mm. The 805.2 STC is the multi-function version based on the Bruks concept featuring infeed from the side and high-dumping chip bin. Its design is based on experience from some 300 same-size mobile chipping units manufactured by Bruks. The chipper is powered by a separate diesel engine and designed to be installed on self-propelling vehicles like forwarders, trucks or tractor-towed trailers.

Dr. Mohammad Reza Ghaffariyan, MSc Eng., CRC Forestry, harvesting and operations, University of Tasmania, closely monitored the new unit during trials late last year and lodged a report for Australian Forests & Timber News. HVP Plantations’ Business Development Manager Dean Turner also lodged a detailed report on the trials to make this Tried & Tested segment one of the most comprehensive yet

By Dr. Mohammad Reza Ghaffariyan

Study description The study site was located in a clear-cut area of Pinus radiata in Mount Gambier (HVP plantations).

The site was harvested by cut-to-length method using harvester and forwarder in July 2010 at the age of 31 years.

In this block 449.75 tn/ha of logs was extracted by CTL system.

The Bruks chipper was used to harvest residues in October 2010.

The study layout is presented in Table 1.

in steep terrain (slope>30-40%) is very limited.

General input (log diameters) The maximum diameter of softwood logs/trees is limited to 50cm. For hardwoods the maximum diameter is about 40cm.

Species best suited (including fire-damaged trees) Typically the machine is designed to chip the residues of any kind of species.

Chip size (variations possible) 25-40mm Collection system The Bruks chipper can be

Treatment

Operation place

Area of block (ha)

Stem wood collecting

Clear-felled area

1.95

Stem wood with branches

Clear-felled area

2.15

Stem wood concentrated by excavator

Clear-felled area

1.99

All harvest residues

Clear-felled area

0.53

Road-side chipping

Forest roadside

17.75

Table 1. Layout of research project

Biomass harvesting was operated using a Bruks chipper mounted on a forwarder and chip trucks for transport. For one of the study blocks (concentrated stem woods in the forest) a tracked excavator was used before chipping. In roadside chipping, the logs (Fibre-plus materials) had been extracted and stacked in the piles by forwarder prior to this study. The tested treatments are presented in the pictures.

The results showed that roadside chipping was cheapest option and yielded more biomass material.

Also the energy content of chips produced in each study block was measured. There was not a significant difference among calorific values.

Ease of attachment The chipper is attached to an Ecolog 594C. The attachment can be easily operated by machine driver.

Ease of manoeuvrability to selected sites The Bruks chipper is able to manoeuvre easily in flat terrain but since it is based on a forwarder, the manoeuvrability

installed on forwarder, truck or other type of vehicle. It can collect harvest residues or logs from cutover or thinning operation with its grapple and put them in chipping drums. When the bin load is full, the operator can travel loaded to the landing to unload the chips into a truck or on the ground.

The machine can also work on the roadside to chip collected slash/logs/trees by a forwarder or skidder.

Operational noise factor The noise of chipping like other chippers is high and the crew needs to have personal protection instrument (ear protection …).

Safety aspects of operation The driver cabin has been developed based on FOPS and ROPS standards which protect the operator from any work hazards.

However, any other worker in the chipping site must stand at least 60m away from operation site.

Controls and hydraulic systems Control system: Computerbased control system with colour touch-screen for engine and chipper, Individual adjustment

options to maximize production from any kind of raw material. Easy trouble shooting.

Hydraulic system: Load-sensing hydraulic system with proportional and flow-adapted functions. Large hydraulic tank with efficient filter and electrical filler pump.

Power source A powerful, fuel-efficient 450hp Scania diesel engine ensures effortless processing of logging slash. Power of the motor is 331 kW. Maintenance regime required Bruks chipper only need to be greased once per week. Oil and filter should be changed every 400 hrs on the Scania engine. The Eco Log 594C Forwarder requires oil and filter change every 500 hrs.

Overall operational value (any shortcomings) Although the machine is designed to collect the slash from cut-over area, the time study results indicated that the productivity of machine can be increased if the slash/logs are pre-concentrated by another forest machine such as an excavator or a forwarder.

Australian Forests & Timber News extends its sincere thanks to Dr. Mohammad Reza Ghaffariyan and CRC Forestry (you can contact CRC Forestry (www.crcforestry.com.au) for details on this study or other CRC Forestry forest operations research); and Dean Turner (HVP Business Development Manager) for this invaluable service.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 25

using the all-new Bruks chipper

By Dean Turner

I

n August 2010 Scandinavian Forestry & Engineering Pty Ltd (SFE) imported a Bruks 805.2 STC chipper mounted on an Eco Log 594C forwarder into Australia. After a month of modifications and commissioning in the workshop, the machine began operational trials in the Mount Gambier region in October 2010.

The machine spent two weeks undertaking trials for HVP Plantations chipping pine residue stacked at roadside, and various qualities of residue scattered across a final fell cut over, with the chip produced sold for boiler fuel and for particle board manufacture.

This trial was designed and managed by the Forestry CRC which is currently preparing a report on the trial. Local

forestry contractor KC & MR Boult supplied walking floor chip trucks for use during the Mount Gambier trial.

Chipping from roadside stacks straight into walking floor trucks proved to be highly productive with each 80m3 capacity truck taking about 30 minutes to fill. The Bruks was able to chip straight into the top of the truck chip bins.

Collection and chipping of residue scattered across the cut over took up to two hours per truck load, depending on forwarding distance.

Pre-heaping of residue on the cut-over using an excavator was found to improve productivity by more than 50%.

Chips produced during the Mount Gambier trial were sold as boiler fuel and for particle board manufacture Other forest growers also took the opportunity to trial the Bruks chipping residue post first and second thinning. The machine was able to successfully operate within the confines of thinning extraction rows.

The Bruks was also taken to a recently

felled blue gum site, where it successfully chipped blue gum residue, including bark and tree tops.

In November the Bruks moved to northeast Victoria and continued operational trials for HVP Plantations near Myrtleford and Shelley (near Wodonga): At one site near Myrtleford, 20-yearold trees killed in the 2009 wildfires were felled by a feller-buncher then chipped as whole stems by the Bruks, producing a remarkably clean product suitable for boiler fuel or particle board manufacture. The only modification to normal operations was more regular refreshment of the chipper knives.

At another site near Myrtleford the Bruks chipped residue heaps at a cable logging site. The product produced, which contained a larger proportion of pine needles, was suitable for boiler fuel and potentially particle board. Contamination of the residue piles with dirt was found to be one problem that could potentially be overcome by using more care during the harvesting phase.

At a site near Shelley, residue levels in excess 100 tonne per hectare was cleaned up using the chipper. This was an exfarmland site with extremely poor form.

The Bruks was able to chip a large portion of the scattered stem material, and leave the site in a much cleaner condition.

Johan Jaktman (Scandinavian Forestry & Engineering Pty) said that the Bruks was easily able to handle woody stem material up to about 40cm in diameter, but that some very large oversize stem sections, which were concentrated near the edge of the coupe, had to be left behind. He said that in operational conditions an excavator fitted with a log splitter would probably be a useful tool to have on site, as these oversize logs could be reduced to smaller piece size that was suitable for chipping.

The local re-establishment forester expected a reduction in re-establishment costs, and a reduction in the area requiring heaping and burning.

Chip from the Shelley trial is being trialled by local processors for the production of paper and medium density fibreboard.

Local haulage company Greenfreight provided walking floor chip trucks for use during the north-east trials.

Johan said that interest in the Bruks machine had been very good, with many local forest growers, harvesting and haulage contractors, and processors taking the opportunity to see the machine working in their local areas. The operational trials demonstrated the production capacity of the Bruks chipper and its versatility when mounted on a forwarder.

The operational trials are helping HVP gain a better understanding of the quantity of biomass available from its estate, the component that was operationally and financially viable to collect, and the quality of the chip produced from different operation types and its suitability for different end uses. The trials were also giving processors the opportunity to trial the use of the chip products in different processes.

The Bruks is slated for demonstration in the Gippsland area in March/April 2011.

Dean Turner is HVP Business’ Development Manager

26 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

BIOFUELS & CHIPPING ‘The market for wood pellets in Japan is forecast to grow rapidly over the next five years and we are pleased to be able to turn to Australia to meet the market’s needs.’

Aussie pellet power in strong demand P

LANTATION ENERGY Australia has signed a $70 million four-year supply agreement with one of Japan’s largest and oldest trading companies, Mitsui & Co. The agreement is the largest of its kind in Japan in both volume and value. Under the terms of the agreement, Plantation Energy will manufacture and export clean renewable energy in the form of wood pellets from the first of several planned pellet

manufacturing facilities operating in Albany, West Australia.

“Plantation Energy is delighted to conclude this off-take agreement with such a strong counterparty as Mitsui. Not only does it secure the long term future of Albany production, it also provides a secondary market to Plantation Energy’s existing European business and brings the company one step closer in its plan to expand production facilities in Victoria and South Australia,” said Bob

Warburton, chairman of Plantation Energy.

“As Europe has been doing for many years, Asian markets are beginning to understand the cost and logistical advantages of co-firing wood pellets to meet increasing renewable energy obligation targets and we believe Plantation Energy is wellpositioned to meet this growing demand.”

“Mitsui believes wood pellets will play an increasing role in

both Japan and the rest of Asia as companies take a portfolio approach to meeting their emission targets,” said Yukio Takebe of Mitsui. “The market for wood pellets in Japan is forecast to grow rapidly over the next five years and we are pleased to be able to turn to Australia to meet the market’s needs.”

Plantation Energy manufactures and exports clean and renewable energy in the form of energy wood pellets – using harvest residue from

Eco Log 594C Forwarder

Contact Johan on: +61(0)408 614 503 (Mobile) +61(0)2 6947 4505 (Office) +61(0)2 6947 2063 (Fax) Lot 10 Snowy Mountains Highway, (P.O. Box 86) Tumut NSW 2720, Australia

With 19,5 tonnes loading capacity, 24 tonnes tractive effort, and 7 m” of loading area, the Eco Log 594C forwarder is a superlative "Beast of Burden". In spite of 20,000 kg tare weight, and its huge capacities, the Eco Log 594C forwarder has attractive features such as an approach angle of 43° and a 44° mid-joint steering angle.

Technical specifications in brief - 299 hp - 1200 Nm torque - 19,5 tonnes payload - 240 kN tractive force - Cranab FC155 crane

sustainably managed plantation forest.

The manufacturing process involves reducing and compressing the raw material into cylindrical pellets of compressed energy. The biomass fuel pellets are used for industrial power generation and can be used alongside other fossil fuels to co-fire power generation plants without modification. There is no net increase in emission of carbon when biomass pellets are used to produce energy and the source material is readily replaced as the plantations are regenerated, thereby making the pellets carbon neutral. Wood pellets are currently used extensively in Europe, where they are burned with coal in coalfired power stations. Global demand for pellets exceeded 12 million tonnes in 2009 and is expected to top 30 million tonnes by 2015.

Plantation Energy is backed by leading US-based global private equity firm Denham Capital.

Plantation Energy is incorporated in Western Australia with its head office in Melbourne. The company has an experienced executive team with current operations in Albany, Western Australia and further capacity under development in the Green Triangle of Victoria and South Australia. The company’s pellet manufacturing business builds on and complements Australia’s large, well-established, plantation timber industry bringing economic benefit and employment to regional Australia.

Mitsui is one of the largest general trading companies in the world, with 151 offices in 65 counties as of June, 2010.

Denham Capital is a leading global private equity firm with offices in Boston, Houston, London, São Paulo, Short Hills, NJ and Singapore. With approximately $4.3 billion of invested and committed capital, Denham makes direct investments in all segments of the energy and commodities value chain including oil and gas, mining and metals, power and renewable investments and energy-related infrastructure and services.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 27

BIOFUELS & CHIPPING

Bio-technology focus T

HE FOREST Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) starts the New Year with a renewed focus on converting wood wastes and renewable resources into valuable bio-energy products.

The conference series is focused on the experiences of a growing number of process energy and heat users using wood.

John Stulen, FIEA’s event director for the “Residues to Revenues” Conference series says “thanks to the focused efforts of EECA wood energy projects team in New Zealand there has been a widening of the potential customer base for forest products companies selling renewable energy, particularly bio-energy from wood. Our 2011 conference will highlight this and other opportunities for both users and supplies of biomass.”

“We have seen a growth and diversification in wood energy markets in both New Zealand and Australia as wood producers move to better understand the needs of their bioenergy customers. As a result we’ve some excellent case studies from the customers’ perspectives, which feature in the conference series, he said.

The FIEA conferences are being held on 30/31 March at the Distinction Hotel in Rotorua and again at the Bayview

Eden Hotel in Melbourne on 4-5 April.

As well as paying particular focus on case studies with both suppliers and buyers/users discussing their ‘real’ experiences the 2011 Residues to Revenues Conferences will feature an international keynote speaker from John Deere Forestry in the United States. The event keynote speaker will be Nathan (‘Nate’) Clark who has for many years been working at a high level with Government officials to influence public policy in regard to renewable energy. Clark spent several years as the Director of Public Policy for John Deere Forestry in the US. He’ll be outlining the vision and role of their subsidiary company, John Deere Renewables.

With the 2011 running of this longstanding FIEA event there will be a new focus on recent developments in pyrolysis technologies for producing various products including biochar, but also a wider range of outputs. Several key developments are now in the final stages of commercialisation and as a result there will be at least one full session devoted to this fledgling-butnow-proven technology.

Biochar technology will feature in several parts of the conference with both New Zealand research being reported on by Dr Jim Jones from the centre of excellence at Massey University and

commercial biochar developments being covered by Dr Adrianna Downie from Pacific Pyrolysis in Australia.

For sawmills with wet wood wastes, commercial solutions are now close at hand from a New Zealand wood technology company, Lakeland Steel, based in Rotorua. The proof of the pudding, they say, is in the eating – and the proof of practical pyrolysis is in a pilot plant.

Lakeland Steel now has an operating pilot pyrolysis plant which will be running as a demonstration unit on the second day of the Rotorua conference.

Practical and originally targeted at sawmiller’s with wet wood sawdust waste flows, pyrolysis plant developer, Doug Stewart has extended the capability of this pilot plant to use several different waste streams to produce its three bio-products.

Delegates attending the Rotorua event will get to see a live demonstration the Lakeland Steel plant on their Rotorua site.

Other key presenters are Don Roberts, Vice Chairman of Renewable Energy and Clean Technology with major bank CIBC in Canada, Hakan Ekstrom, President of Wood Resources International, and Michael Burnside, President and CEO of Catchlight Energy LLC, USA. Finally, there will be sessions including Government officials and invited ministers from key state agencies relating to bioenergy from wood.

Powered by a Cummins 600 HP or CAT 580HP engine, this machine produces more than 75 tons per hour and is totally dedicated to biomass.

To see it in action, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ9cPHrHyQ8.

Contact: Andrew or John Ph: 03 5153 2722 Fax: 03 5152 5483 Email: info@jondod.com

28 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

BIOFUELS & CHIPPING

New technology on track for the biomass industry G

ERMAN MANUFACTURER AHWI, recognised as the experts in high level mulching for more than 20 years, has been developing a number of advanced technologies aimed at the expanding biomass market. The result of this three-generational development program is the AHWI BMH600 Biomass Harvester.

In Australia, as in Europe, renewable energy sources are fast becoming an imperative as traditional fossil fuels become more scarce and more expensive.

As well as utilising previously discarded waste materials, specialised biomass crops are now being specifically grown to produce feedstock for heating.

In Australia, sugar cane waste has been used to fuel furnaces within the industry for a number of years. This process also requires additional fuel to make up a shortfall during some months of the year and biomass is the ideal feedstock for these furnaces.

As the carbon economy becomes a reality, the use of biomass fuels for heating becomes more and more attractive. Its characteristic as a ‘closed loop’ system (where the carbon generated by burning is offset by subsequent growing of the new harvest) means that biomass will become a competitive alternative to traditional fossil fuels.

Design and development Over a four year period, AHWI engineers have developed their PTO-driven three-point linkage biomass harvesting technology in three generational stages.

The Gen I AM600 machines were developed essentially to confirm the viability of design, both technically and from a demand point of view.

Gen II H600 models were substantially redesigned and improved and have been subjected to rigorous testing and feedback over thousands of hours in the field, in vastly different locations and diverse feedstock.

After this intense development program to Gen III level, the BMH600 Biomass Harvester is now ready for market.

“We’ve probably done more field testing than any other manufacturer. Our close relationship with our overseas distributors

and their clients has enabled us to get valuable feedback at each stage of testing.

That means we can be confident that our production units will do the job,” said Jochen Kalkbrenner, AHWI’s export director.

Extensive testing Extensive testing has been carried out on the technology, in Europe, Africa and Australia. In Australia, a number of trials were initiated with the specific target of refining the biomass harvesting technology to achieve maximum productivity.

Being a relatively young industry, many claims of potential biomass harvesting productivity have been made by players in the market, with little evidence to back them up. AHWI’s approach has been one of methodical, evidence-based trials using non-commercial machines, followed by systematic improvements until a viable product is ready for market.

Trial 1 (Casuarina plantation) In this case, the biomass harvest was to be used to augment cane stock in a sugar cane furnace. The specifications for feedstock were chips no larger than 50 mm x 50mm. Initial runs using the H600 mounted on an RT400 crawler tractor, and fitted with normal HDT tools produced chips too large, and also tended to shred the timber. Replacing all the tools with HDT chipper tools produced an immediate improvement in chip size, almost achieving required specs.

Further modifications by AHWI to the anvils, followed by a redesign of the rotor achieved significant improvements.

At the conclusion of these initial tests, a production rate of 4.5 tonne/hour was achieved – impressive but still below the required rate.

Trial 2 (Blue Mallee) The RT400/H600 was set up in the same configuration as at the end of Trial 1.

Blue Mallee is a much drier timber than Casuarina, which impacted on the results of the test. No modifications to the machine, rotor or tool setup were made during the test, but different operating techniques were trialled to ascertain the best operating method for optimum productivity.

 Turpentine tree harvesting trial in Australia – H600.

Note bin to catch samples.

A production rate of between 6 and 7 tonnes/hour was achieved, although maintaining a slow and consistent ground speed was an issue.

The operators submitted comprehensive and valuable feedback suggesting a number of design modifications, particularly to the feed layout, and also some visual indication to the operator of height and tilt, which significantly affected operating speeds.

Trial 3 (Turpentine tree) The same setup as in Trial 2 was maintained for Trial 3. The Turpentine trees, being a native plant and not a plantation crop, so were not laid out in neat rows, so productivity was naturally affected. It was found that similar operating methods for Blue Mallee worked well for Turpentine, and that harvesting in a straight line worked better than aiming for each tree.

For this trial, particular attention was paid to assessing the right tilt and height of the H600, and also the amount of waste left on the ground. Production rates were lifted to between 7 and 8 tonnes/hour.

A number of interesting conclusions emerged from this test. As well as confirming the need for the machine modifications from Trial 2, it became evident that for some applications, a wheeled carrier would offer considerable advantages.

By incorporating the benefits of AHWI’s extensive testing program into the new design, production rates of 10 tonnes/hour should be easily achievable.

In production AHWI’s latest Gen III machine now in production, the PTO-driven BMH600 Biomass Harvester, shows the benefits of thorough testing before going to market.

For Australian conditions, it is recommended for tractors with three-point linkage outputting over 300 - 400 hp at the PTO, and a crawling speed capability. The BMH600’s ability to be fitted to a number of carriers allows operators the flexibility to select their preferred fleet options.

With its go-anywhere capability, the AHWI RT400 crawler tractor is an ideal carrier for difficult terrain, with

 Chip sizes were initially too large, but have been reduced to industrystandard requirements.

the additional advantage of low ground pressure.

A significant advantage offered by the AHWI product range is to be found in the unmatched range of rotor tools. HDT tools are now standard on most AHWI products and have set high standards for high productivity and low fuel burn. The HDT tools system is highly adaptable. Tools are completely interchangeable, and operators can mix and match different tool combinations depending on the task.

For instance, a combination of standard and chipper tools has proved ideal for harvesting some timbers, while others demand a complete set of chipper tools. By utilising the flexibility of the HDT tool system, high rates of production levels can be achieved.

Harvested product Markets for biomass are expanding in the Australasian region, with a number of facilities under construction. Harvested material is processed in a number of ways, including pelletising, which is then used for power generation.

In our own region, AHWI Australia is already set to capitalise on the successful product development process, with the BMH600 Biomass Harvester scheduled to hit the shores during 2011. Dean Kovacevich, AHWI Australia director, said: “Biomass is already established as part of Australia’s future energy mix, as well as a positive solution for dealing with waste timber”.

Eco industry in the future AHWI is already developing the future of biomass harvesting, including a selfpropelled harvester with tipping hopper, which will allow highly productive harvesting using a single operator. Additional models for specialised applications are also on the drawing board.

In addition to biomass harvesting AHWI offers two models of industrial biomass chippers which are capable of processing logs up to one metre in diameter.

For more information concerning AHWI’s biomass program and products, you can contact AHWI Australia directly: Dean Kovacevich: Head Office (08) 9258 9333 or Ivan Lauri: NSW/Qld and Testing/Research 0418 976 438

 Gen III biomass attachment showing feed rollers and main rotor fitted with alternating HDT standard and chipper tools.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 29

BIOFUELS & CHIPPING

Renewable energy from forestry and timber industries in Austria A model for Australia?

By Andrew Lang

T

HE EUROPEAN Pellet Conference and World Energy Days is one of the world‘s largest and longest running renewable energy conferences and trade shows.

This combined conference attracts up to 1000 participants from over 60 countries, and the parallel expo brings more than 100 manufacturers and service providers together and has up to 100,000 visitors. It has taken place for over 12 years in the state of Upper Austria, and is managed by the Energy Agency of Upper Austria - now one of Europe’s largest energy advice and information providers. The nature of this conference – a combining of energy-efficient building design and pellet heating – ref lects the focus and real achievements of the region.

Upper Austria is an industrialised region with 1.4 million people with Linz as its capital. It has demonstrated how a coherent and practical renewable energy policy (which started in 1991) can bring significant economic, social and environmental benefits. With over 30% of energy coming from renewable sources by 2008 the state has the ambitious target of getting 100% of its space heating and electricity from renewable sources by 2030. It is a European leader in use of pellet heating, passive-solar new buildings, small and largescale hydroelectricity, and of steadily retrofitting hundreds of older buildings to improve their energy-efficiency.

Upper Austria’s development of biomass-to-energy is based on sustainably managed mixedspecies native forest and a vigorous timber processing industry, entrepreneurial farmer cooperatives, and supportive Federal and State Government policies. It is in the context of small familyowned land and forest holdings, often difficult terrain, slow forest growth rates and strong international competition. One outcome of Upper Austria’s focus on turning forestry residues into chip and pellets for space and water heating is that seven of Europe’s leading pellet heater manufacturers are now based in the state. By 2008 in the region there were already 28,000 small wood pellet and woodchip domestic heating installations, 250 larger biomass-fuelled municipal or town heating plants, 75 biogas plants and 12 new biomass-fuelled power plants.

Overall these were supplying about 1700 megawatts (MW) of heat and electricity (heat energy is valued as it makes up about

half the total energy useage in the region). Most of the organisations and businesses involved are the 150 green energy companies in the state’s Oekoenergie-Cluster (www.oec.esv.or.at).

For information on Upper Austria‘s energy www. energiesparverband.at and for the conference www.wsed.at.

Nearly half of Austria’s 82,730 km2 (about the area of Tasmania) is forested, and about 65% of the forest is family-owned and sustainably managed.

Austria has ambitious targets for expanding renewable energy – almost entirely based on hydroelectricity, biomass residues from forestry thinning and harvest, and by-products and residues from Austria’s extensive timber processing and pulp and paper industries.

At present 72% of Austria’s energy is from imported fossil fuels, with renewable energy making up just over 21%. As one of the countries in the EU that has opted against nuclear energy it will reduce the fossil share of its energy by improving energy efficiency, encouraging passive solar building design, and by expanding its main renewable energy sources of hydro and biomass.

Energy from biomass (mainly from forestry) already provides over half of Austria’s renewable energy - mostly as heat energy.

Austria aims to increase energy from biomass by about 60% by 2020, with an increasing fraction being as baseload electricity

from combined heat and power stations. Adoption of pellet heating has been stimulated by generous rebates on conversion from fossil-fuelled to pelletfuelled heating and a reduced consumption tax on pellets.

Compared with 2004, use of pellet-fuelled heating across Austria had almost tripled ( by 280%) by 2010 and the target is a more than six-fold increase (to 640%) by 2020.

Andrew Lang will be speaking at this conference on Policies, potential and problems in development of bioenergy in Australia and New Zealand, in his capacity as the board member of the World Bioenergy Association

representing this region. At the expo he will collect information on small to mid-sized pellet and briquette presses and biomass handling and processing equipment, and on development of biomass and biofuels supply cooperatives and businesses. A summary of information from the conference and expo relevant to Australia will be in Australian Forests & Timber News and also posted on the new Wood Energy Group website www.woodenergy. net.au.  A softwood sawdust dump destined for pelleting at a Neova plant in southern Sweden.

 The forest, energy wood pile and chip piles at the Varnamo wood gasifier to biofuels research centre (and also the district heating plant) in southern Sweden.

The Cutting Edge in Biomass Technology 0 0 ter The new AHWI BMH600 Biomass Harvester is the result of years of intense testing, research and development.

H6 arves M B sH

as m o i B

Built for tractors with three point linkage and 300 – 400 hp at the PTO, the BMH600 is designed to meet the needs of the biomass industry, with high output and consistency of biomass product.

Backed by AHWI’s unmatched reputation in mulching technology, the BMH600 Biomass Harvester features robust construction, reliable componentry and the cutting efficiency of AHWI’s legendary HDT interchangeable tool system.

The BMH600 Biomass Harvester complements AHWI’s Biomass Chippers, the EC950 and EC1400, which are capable of high volume chipping of logs up to 1 metre diameter.

50 er ECa9ss Chipp

Biom

400 per EC1ass Chip

Biom

Contact your local AHWI representative now for more details.

www.ahwi.com.au

Enquiries WA, SA, NT AHWI Australia Pty Ltd Telephone: (08) 9258 9333 • Mobile: 0418 927 491

Enquiries NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS Ivan Lauri Tel: 0418 976 438

The Eco Engineering Experts

30 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

TYRES

Tyres tailored for demanding conditions N

OKIAN, A NAME synonymous with forestry, has the industry well covered, according to Dean Wylie, creative services manager for NSW-based Tyres4U. “Nokian last year introduced what is regarded as the world’s strongest forestry tyre customised for CTL (cut-to-length) harvesters.

The Nokian Forest King F 710/4526.5, a revolutionary, sturdy crossply novelty from the pioneer in forestry tyres, offers reliability and load-bearing capacity for modern harvesters and forwarders,” he said.

The Ply Rate (the durability of this special tyre tailored for demanding forest use) is 24. The load-bearing capacity of this stable, first-class product has increased by more than one tonne, from 6,900kg (Nokian Forest King F 20 PR) to 8,000kg (the new Nokian Forest King F 24 PR).

In six- and eight-wheeled forestry machines this increase in load-

bearing capacity corresponds to some 4 cubic metres of pinewood harvested in the summer. Thanks to increased reliability, full loads can also be safely transported despite tree species or humidity of the wood.

“The efficiency requirements of modern forestry tyres have increased year by year. In addition to environmental friendliness, machine manufacturers and contractors are looking for products that feature high quality and increasingly better load-bearing capacity and traction,” says Martti Päivinen, Product Development Manager at Nokian Heavy Tyres.

“Our new, carefully developed, ultra-strong material solutions enable a durable structure, higher operating pressure and first-class load-bearing capacity,” he said.

Thanks to the wide tread the tyre contact area is larger which lowers the surface pressure. The big contact area and low surface pressure ensure that the Nokian

Forest King F treats growing trees and sensitive undergrowth softly.

The straight sidewalls efficiently prevent damage to the sides. The groove profile, which deepens on the shoulder, and the straight tyre sidewall work together to increase the tyre’s superb cleaning properties and durability.

The design of this extremely reliable tyre supports the position of tracks and chains, ensuring that they fit optimally on the tyre.

Tracks stay well in place and work excellently in wet conditions, where grip is poor.

Nokian has designed special tyres for forestry machines that use the CTL (cut-to-length) method, developed in the Nordic countries, since the 1960s. Its product range includes tyres for cut-to-length (CTL) as well as full-tree (FT) machines, such as skidders. Popular top-of-the-range products include the Nokian Forest Rider, the world’s most advanced forestry tyre, and the Nokian Forest King F, which offers

Can’t help but pump up industry!

CHET CLINE, the man behind AIR CTI, likes nothing better than pumping up (no pun intended) the forestry industry and its associated works. Obviously, he’s bound to wave the flag for his business, but he’s a bloke who, generally speaking, takes positives out of most things.

Take the case of a recent trip he made to Alice Springs for the 15 year hall of fame reunion. “What an amazing place, and people.

Didn’t meet one Greenie either!

I reckon there were a thousand trucks up there. The Chev was a great talking point too,” he said in a message to AFTN.

“I met a couple of amazing people up in Alice, and after long talks it started dawning on me that some can’t read. One guy built his own Kenworth. Bought a damaged cab in the states while he was working there, pulled it straight, had an Aussie firewall sent over, which he grafted in. Then shipped all of his stuff back. Bought two new chassis rails, installed his axles, and everything else, along with his cab. He lengthened the bonnet, and widened it, built his own sleep from scratch, made molds, made his own fiberglass top and sides, everything, and it is neat.

“And talking to him, he candidly

World Leading Forestry Chains Forestry chains for all applications Studded chain mesh also available

Chain Systems Sydney ph. 02 9647 2588 Chaffey’s Chains Tasmania ph. 0428 140 466

www.chainpro.com or call your nearest dealer

said, I don’t read too good. I get in about half a page and the thoughts all get garbled. My wife dictates books onto CD’s and I listen to them on the road. He even told me I should buy such and such book, which I did.

“All this got me thinking that I need to reorganize my advertising and my business instructions.

“So, I’ve aimed a little out of the square in the hope that people will not only enjoy my advertising and my articles but also be informed and be interested in what I have to offer.

“Basically, we as an industry must be seen to be doing the right thing. AIR CTI is one of those things that needs to be pushed as it significantly helps to reduce track damage, silt run-off, and by extending tyre life and truck life, reduce carbon footprint, etc. If we don’t do the right thing, we won’t have an industry.

“I also think we need to start a political campaign, something like the Tea Party in the states. We need something to make noise with, to refute some of the totally dumb stuff out there, like the desalination plant. And of course that timber is actually carbon neutral. It is the only building product that is. And we should be harvesting timber for power generation, etc, as we are only returning the carbon to the sky that the trees took out. IT is the only renewable energy source that can provide base power generation.

Solar can’t. Wind can’t, but wood can!

“Incidentally, South Africa finally looks like it is going to pick up. We sent three kits off a couple of weeks ago, and have orders for another five. Every little bit helps.

Regards, Chet.

excellent reliability. The range also includes special tyres for tractors used partly or mainly in the forest.

Nokian Tyres products are known for their extremely high quality that guarantees a long service life and reliable functionality for a variety of uses and conditions.

Nokian Heavy Tyres is a pioneering tyre manufacturer in environmental matters, too. It was the first tyre company in the world to abandon harmful oils in its production processes and to use only purified oils. “Environmental friendliness is a key principle in our R&D philosophy. The rubber compounds, treads and structures of special tyres withstand wear and tear, which, from the users’ point of view, translates into many operating hours and functionality. The lightly rolling tyres also reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Continued reduction of tyre vibration and noise is another challenge for product development,” says Martti.

Nokian Forest King F: • Balanced shape, very stable in use, designed for CTL machinery • Durable straight sides and tread pattern • Excellent grip and reliability when used with tracks and chains Nokian Forest Rider: • The wide contact area provides supreme running capacity and is gentle on the surface.

• The radial structure ensures pleasant driving response and minimises vibration.

• The low rolling resistance results in lower fuel consumption.

Nokian Nordman Forest: • Bar angle and sharp shoulder ensure excellent lateral grip.

• Wide and high bars guarantee good movement.

• Cost-effective alternative for CTL forestry machines.

This gadget helps take the pressure off you!

MONITORING TYRE pressure can be very simple with the Tire Pressure Led indicator that Nokian tyres has produced ... you can’t miss noticing any drops in pressure.

This reduces the need to check tyre pressures with a gauge. The pressure indicators are available for all Nokian special tyres tailored for heavy machinery.

The pressure indicator is a led light fitted in the tyre valve. The light starts to flash when, for example, a forestry machine’s tyre pressure goes down 0.6bar (9psi). In order to ensure that the flashing light can be noticed at a glimpse, the black valve cap is replaced with a white cap. This simple solution saves time and money.

The right tyre pressure is important for forestry and farming machines in order to avoid punctures and other damage to the tyre. In cold weather, the air inside the tyre shrinks, which lowers the tyre’s pressure. You can inflate the tyres to a slightly higher pressure for the winter season.

Tyrers4u is the importer for Nokian tyres and Led pressure caps. Tyres4u is offering a promotion where a customer can purchase four Nokian tyres and receive a set of Nokian pressure caps (four caps) free.

To find out more information or for your nearest Nokian tyre dealer please contact the Tyres4U Ag & OTR hotline on 1800 788 688 or visit www. tyres4u.com.au

Chaffey’s Chains under new management.

As a long time friend & business partner of Brian & Mary Lou Chaffey, it is with pleasure that I announce the continuation of Chaffey’s Chains with me as Managing Director, John Curtis (Manager) & Adam Hampson continuing as fitter.

We are Tasmanian distributor dealers for: • “Trygg” Stud & Ring Chains • “Clark” Forwarder Tracks & Components • Loader Quarry chains • Four Wheel Drive chains John Treloar

For all your traction & protection requirements please call: John Treloar – 0428 140 466 John Curtis – 03 6491 1686 or 0417 585 546

CHAFFEY’S

CHAINS

W E N

Tyre Pressure LED’s from

New

New

Tired of checking your tyres with a pressure gauge... we have the solution!

Tyre Pressure LED

Easy tyre pressure check available on all Nokian tyres

Tyre Pressure LED

How to use Easy tyre pressure check available on all Nokian tyres • First adjust the tyre pressure to the recommended value.

•Screw the Tyre Pressure LED tight by hand, using the anti-theft tool provided with the kit.

• The Tire Pressure LED is now calibrated and is constantly monitoring the tyre pressure.

How to use

• First adjust the tyre pressure to the recommended value.

•Screw the to Tyredo Pressure tightstarts by hand, using the anti-theft tool provided with the kit.

What whenLEDLED flashing •Unscrew the Tyre with the and anti-theft tool.

• The Tire Pressure LEDPressure is nowLED calibrated is constantly monitoring the tyre pressure.

• Adjust the tyre pressure to the recommended value.

•Reinstall the Tyre Pressure LED.

What to do when LED starts flashing

•Unscrew the Tyre Pressure LED with the anti-theft tool.

Benefits • Adjust the tyre pressure to the recommended value.

• Constant pressure control.

• No need regular pressure •Reinstall the for Tyre Pressure LED.gauge checks anymore.

• The led indicates the need for pressure adjustment.

• Increase in tyre and tube lifespan due to right operating pressure.

• No more tyre break-ups due to running tyres underinflated.

Benefits

• Constant pressure control.

• NoTechnical need for regular pressure gauge checks anymore. properties Led indicates activated when a dropfor from the calibrated value exceeds 0.6 bar (forestry tyres).

• The •led the need pressure adjustment.

• Battery used only when led is activated (pressure drop).

• Increase in tyre and tube lifespan due to right operating pressure.

• No more tyre break-ups due to running tyres underinflated.

› Easy to use tyre maintenance › Reducesproperties Trust the Natives.

Technical V A L www.nokiantyres.com/heavytyres U tyre break-ups • Led activated when a drop from the calibrated value exceeds 0.6 barE (forestry tyres). › Reduces D A • Battery used only when led is activated (pressure drop). T O money › Saves VE

$200 R

› Easy to use › Reduces tyre maintenance BUYtyre 4 break-ups Forestry tyres & receive › Reduces › Saves money

Trust the Natives. www.nokiantyres.com/heavytyres

4 pressure caps for FREE Nokian tyres are imported & distributed by

SEE INTERNET FOR DEALER LOCATOR

www.tyres4u.com.au

FOR YOUR NEAREST DEALER

1800 788 688

32 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

FIRE EQUIPMENT

High-tech machines get high-tech fire protection L

EADING FIRE protection specialist Wormald has installed its AS5062 compliant Foam Water Spray Vehicle Fire Suppression System (VFSS) onto the first Bruks 805.2 Mobile Chipper just introduced to Australia, as well as an Eco Log 594C Forwarder onto which the chipper is mounted.

Distributed in Australia

by Scandinavian Forestry & Engineering, the new Bruks 805.2 Mobile Chipper is a groundbreaking solution for the industry, boasting improved productivity and easier operation.

Dealing with such high tech, sophisticated vehicles, Scandinavian Forestry & Engineering wanted to equip them with quality vehicle fire suppression systems to help protect the operator in the event of fire. Wormald was approached to carry out a fire risk assessment in accordance with AS5062 for the vehicles in order to determine their key risk areas and recommend the most appropriate system to address such risks.

Wormald’s Foam Water Spray VFSS was chosen as a result of its high pressure, small droplet nozzles that target high risk areas such as engine and transmission compartments, brakes and hydraulic areas. The system is designed to discharge a continuous stream for approximately 60

seconds to rapidly suppress flames and dramatically cool hot surfaces to help prevent re-flash. At the same time, the foam additive, Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), smothers fuel and oilspill fires to help avert re-ignition.

The installation included the mounting of cylinders; fitting manual and auto actuators; fitting fire monitoring panels and detection lines; fitting hoses; and carefully positioning nozzles where they can target potential hot spots. The fire panels and actuators were mounted in the cab of the forwarder, assisting the operator in easily monitoring or discharging either the manual or auto system in both the forwarder and chipper.

Should a fire break out, the system can provide the operator with the additional time necessary to safely evacuate. The Wormald system also helps protect against business interruption, minimising damage to the vehicles and equipment by aiming to quickly detect and suppress the fire.

Wormald’s Foam Water Spray VFFS is CSIRO ActivFire™ listed to be compliant with AS 5062.

Once the vehicles are in operation, Wormald has the expertise to undertake the regular inspection, testing, preventative maintenance and survey procedures for the systems should this be required.

Keep our forests healthy and take a

tabloid regularly!

Subscribe at

www.timberbiz.com.au

Back-up power systems ideal for bushfire-prone areas BRISBANE-BASED RedFlow Limited is currently installing 10 zinc-bromine battery–based remote area power systems (RAPS) with Energy Safe Victoria (ESV).

Each RAPS system comprises a RedFlow 5kW packaged zincbromine battery–based energy storage system, together with roof-mounted solar panels and a packaged diesel generation set.

The approximate contract value is $1 million.

RedFlow is installing the systems in the Daylesford and Euroa districts of Victoria. The installation is part of the Victorian Government’s initiative of setting up a Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce to investigate alternative measures to reduce bush fire risk following the report of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

“This order illustrates yet another application for our energy storage systems based on our high performance zinc-bromine batteries, and RedFlow’s ability to integrate these with both solar PV and diesel systems for power

generation,” said Phil Hutchings, chief executive officer of RedFlow.

“These units are designed to demonstrate how selected parts of the overhead electricity network can be turned off on high risk fire days in the Victorian summer.

The RedFlow systems will allow electricity supply to be maintained to households when that occurs and do so in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.”

RedFlow is acknowledged as a world leader in the supply, manufacture and design of packaged electricity storage systems and comprises two key divisions: ESS – Electricity Storage Systems Supply and installation of packaged AC and DC electricity storage systems with capacity from 10 kWh to 200 kWh based around our zinc bromine battery module (ZBM). These are plug-and-play units combining power electronics, communications and control systems in high quality enclosures suitable for utility grade electricity storage.

 Phil Hutchings, chief executive officer of RedFlow

ZBM – Zinc Bromine Battery Module Manufacturing Manufacture of RedFlow ZBMs, which are low-cost, high performance 5 kW/10 kWh flowing electrolyte battery modules. They are the building block for the company’s products – effectively the central ‘engine factory’ for our ESS division.

Large vehicles, large risks With the mix of heat, flammable liquids, fumes and electrics in an enclosed engine compartment, the potential for a furious fire is high.

With Wormald, you have a vehicle fire suppression partner that is always right behind you when you need us most.

We’ve helped businesses prevent and suppress fires for over 120 years.

From foam water spray systems to dry chemical and dual agent systems, our proven end-to-end solutions are designed to rapidly suppress fires in all kinds of vehicles from huge mining and quarrying plant and forestry equipment to mobile equipment such as portable generators and drilling rigs.

So, you can get on with the job confident that your people and property are supported by one of the world’s fire safety leaders. That’s peace of mind.

Trust the heavy vehicle fire safety experts.

Call 1300 556 015 or visit wormald.com.au/vehicles

34 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

TCA REPORTS Yards of water with a ‘yard’ of water NORTHERN NSW and SouthEast Queensland have been copping a bucketing for the past four months culminating in extreme (and in some cases repeated) flooding in both States, with Queensland copping the worst of it.

The cost in human lives has been considerable with many people still unaccounted for and the extensive and widespread damage to dwellings and infrastructure is expected to take several years to repair and the cost is expected to run into many

hundreds of millions of dollars.

To give readers a bit of an idea of the amount of rain that has fallen, here is a copy of our personal records in the Clarence Valley…

• October - 2010, 14 rainy days resulting in 390ml.

• November - 2010, 16 rainy days resulting in 165ml.

• December - 2010, 19 rainy days resulting in 196ml.

• January - 2011, till the 20th -11 rainy days resulting in 200ml.

The total amount, 951ml (or more

Transport the wood at the least cost Maximise Safety

Maximise Traction

Minimize Road Damage

Minimize Downtime Maximise Profits

Minimize Costs

AIR CTI is the only Central Tyre Inflation built for Australian Conditions.

Ring Andy on 03 5127 6128 NOW Free Advice 1,000,000 km Guarantee

than a yard in the old scale) in less than four months. And that, I think you will agree is a lot of H2O. These continuing adverse weather conditions and resulting floods have inflicted huge financial and property losses upon many members of our wonderful timber communities, and quite a large number of sawmills had no choice but to close down for many weeks as their log supplies dwindled.

I was both pleased and proud when I realised that many of our harvesting contractors had chosen to voluntarily cease operations when the weather conditions deteriorated to such an extent that they felt only by halting operations completely in some areas until the weather improved, could unnecessary environmental damage be avoided.

On another note, the Greens have stepped up their propaganda campaign in NSW, and are specifically targeting our region (anyone would think we were approaching an election).We must remain vigilant, and more importantly than ever, make sure we present our good news stories and events to the media.

This being the International Year of Forests, we shall have no better opportunity than now to make other Australians aware of the numerous positive benefits (social, economic and environmental)to be gained from managing our fabulous world class forests in a truly sustainable manner.

Following is a copy of an email received on 10 January by members of the organising committee for the Brunswick Heads Fish & Chips Wood-chops, an event held each January in Brunswick Heads, north-east NSW. On our trip home from Armidale today we were stranded with other motorists on the Bruxner Highway approximately 10k west of Drake.

The highway was completely blocked by a huge fallen gum tree and all travellers were expecting a long wait for any help to come. To our disbelief a strong young man travelling with his family, pulled a very large axe from his van,

which we were parked behind, and proceeded towards the tree. With many amazing swings at the tree we all realized HE really knew how to “swing an axe”. This hero cleared enough branches to open a lane and get the lineup moving.

We don’t know his name, but he is travelling from Victoria to attend your Woodchopping Festival!! He is a ‘CHAMPION’ in our’s and many other motorist’s eyes, all unknown to him. I have attached a couple of photos and hope you may be able to acknowledge this great young man. Kind regards, Graeme & Wendy Sutton, Gold Coast, Queensland.

So there you go, just when you thought the age of chivalry was dead, along comes a complete stranger and ignites the flame once more.

It would be remiss of me not to reveal the true identity of this unassuming modern day knight in shining armour, so here are the details… The mystery Axeman is Brad Hains from Ballarat, who is only 33 and has been competing in

New South Wales

 Tony Wade Northern NSW Manager

the Brunswick Woodchops since 1997. Brad has two young children, one 2 years of age and the other just 4 months.

It’s the privilege of associating with the likes of Brad Haines that makes me proud to be an Aussie, and my job so enjoyable.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 35

TCA REPORTS That was last year: 2011 is the future THE LAST Australian Forests & Timber News now seems a lifetime ago - Labor Government in Victoria, we were still officially in drought.

Come to think of it, I haven’t heard a minister of the Australian Government announce that it’s over yet!

The landscape has changed, physically and politically in two short months. Devastating floods throughout eastern Australia are a stark contrast to the landscape 12 months ago. Politically, the drought may be over for Victoria’s longsuffering timber industry and its stakeholders as well.

In the previous F&T News I wrote of the mess developing in forests management and timber production policy in Victoria. Too many media advisers and not enough doers, it seemed.

Believe it or not, even the Greens delivered the timber industry a gift prior to the State election, preferencing timber-hating Tammy Lobato last of 10 candidates in the Gembrook electorate. Liberal Brad Battin, the new member, understands small business and appears supportive of the timber industry and communities in the electorate. Gembrook covers timber towns of Yarra Junction, Poweltown and Warburton and includes large area of Melbourne’s water catchments.

Coalition Leader Ted Baillieu waited until a fortnight before the election before casually announcing the Coalition was placing The Greens last in all electorates. It was a masterstroke that won him a lot of kudos and, subsequently, Government.

The Greens were effectively neutered.

The VAFI dinner in November was the forum where Peter Ryan, somewhat unknown in the metropolis

of Melbourne, unleashed his proindustry credentials. Our industry’s metro-dwellers received a cameo of our now Deputy Premier’s colourful personality. It would be fair to say everybody at the dinner was impressed by his candour and knowledge.

I felt Labor would hang onto power until a fortnight before the election.

Ten minutes listening to locals in the main street of Alexandra swayed my thoughts. I wrongly thought the anger over the North – South pipeline and bushfire recovery would have toned down. Not so. Labor suffered a massive swing to lose the electorate of Seymour.

Experts expected the Greens to win three or four inner Melbourne seats.

They won none. The party claims they had a successful result despite attracting just 11.21% of Lower House first preference votes against a predicted 20%.

Perhaps the party’s poor mathematical skill, evidenced by its economically devastating policies, makes it believe it is still a force?

Writing this article I listened to Victorian Green’s leader Greg Barber being interviewed on the local ABC. He was waiting to catch a train to the Latrobe Valley to talk about emissions trading because, as he put it, the Greens “still went pretty well in the election in Gippsland”.

Oh really? Gippsland East 5.22% of the primary vote, Gippsland South 9.92% (Country Alliance 7.39% Peter Ryan 63.82%!) and Morwell – home of the “dirty” Hazelwood Power Station – 4.81%!

The Greens’ definition of a disaster would be interesting. These figures suggest the broader community is not easily fooled by windbags imposing flawed polices and untruthful ideals on them.

Labor still claims it only just lost (one seat was the margin) but overlooks Liberal preferences, not just the Greens, winning it few seats.

The remaining independent from the three that handed Labor power in 1999, Craig Ingram, lost the crucial timber seat of Gippsland East. A supporter of the industry, Ingram was still favoured to win despite the Nationals putting massive resources behind its candidate Tim Bull to win back the seat it held since its inception except for Ingram’s tenure.

Bull won in a landslide with Ingram conceding just an hour after polls closed. The notion that a vote for Ingram was a vote for Labor was a likely cause of his fall from favour.

What does the change of Government mean for the timber industry-reliant communities? A well represented and attended community meeting at Orbost just prior to Christmas did a stocktake of issues facing the local industry and came up with some possible solutions.

Asix-persondelegationrepresenting all sectors of the local industry was nominated to meet with the Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Peter Walsh, and the Parliamentary Secretary for Forests and Fisheries, Gary Blackwood. The latter was formerly a forestry contractor and CEO of the Victorian Forest Harvesting and Cartage Council Dr Bill Sykes, a veterinarian and Member for Benalla, is Minister Walsh’s Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Industries. You get the feeling that common sense rather than factional deals may have been used when deciding making Ministerial appointments.

Or, perhaps, the ministers read TCA’s “People Not Like Us?” report?

Peter and Gary along with Tim Bull

Forestry … it’s an industry that grows on you MARCH 21 is World Forestry Day, which is celebrated around the world each year as people take time to consider the benefits of forests to the community, and aims to provide opportunities for people to learn how forests can be managed and used sustainably for these many purposes.

This is also the International Year of Forests.

The National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) is hosting a World Forestry Day dinner in Canberra at Parliament House’s Great Hall on 21 March for WFD and the UN International Year of Forests.

Also in Australia, a national steering committee has been formed to coordinate and promote the celebration of the International Year of Forests across the nation. yForests will work with individuals, community groups, businesses and government representatives to coordinate and conduct activities that promote the UN International Year of Forests and its aims.

Chairperson of the committee is Professor Jerry Vanclay, who heads Southern Cross University’s School of Environmental Science and Management. Jerry was recently awarded the prestigious Scientific Achievement Award, from the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO), for his distinguished scientific achievements in the field of forestry research. The award, which is given to only 10 forest scientists once every five years, was presented to Professor Vanclay at the 23rd annual IUFRO World Congress in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in August 2011.

The committee also includes members and representatives of other national organisations, including Australian Forest Growers (AFG), The National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI), The Subtropical Farm Forestry Association and Cassandra Spencer, CEO of the Institute of Foresters Australia (IFA).

Cassandra said it was imperative that Australia used this opportunity

to promote its natural resources in a positive way. yForests is excited to announce the launch of a new national website, which will provide information about planned activities, functions and tree plantings across the country throughout the year: http://www. internationalyearofforests.com. au. Organisations who intend to conduct activities for International Year of Forests are invited to contact yForests, to have their event listed and linked to our website. Email: yforests@forestry.org.au.

(Gippsland East) and Philip Davis (Eastern Victoria province) gave delegation members Bob Humphreys, Garry Squires, Peter Rutherford, Malcolm Beveridge, Scott Gentle and myself ample opportunity to table the issues and suggested solutions.

The delegation was impressed with the grasp the new Government already had on the issues confronting the East Gippsland industry and the steps it has already undertaken to ensure security of resources.

It appears we have a Government willing to listen to our concerns and act appropriately to strengthen the industry. The Coalition won government not so much through poor performance by its predecessor or just by metropolitan issues but on the much improved Nationals vote in winning 10 rural and regional seats.

Rural Victoria proclaimed it’s had enough of being governed for minorities which contribute to their demise. It is now has unprecedented Ministerial representation through the likes of Peter Walsh, a former president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, and fellow Nationals Peter Ryan (Police and Emergency Services; Bushfire Response; Rural and Regional Development) Terry Mulder (Public Transport; Roads) Hugh Delahunty (Sport & Recreation; Veterans Affairs), Jeanette Powell (Local Government; Aboriginal Affairs) and Peter Hall (Higher Education and Skills).

Other rural and regional-based ministers include Dennis Napthine (Ports; Racing; Major Projects; Regional Cities), Wendy Lovell (Housing; Children and Early Childhood Development)... suggesting Victoria exists beyond the end of Melbourne’s tram lines.

Large regional centres - Geelong,

New South Wales

 Trevor Brown

South-East Regional Coordinator

Ballarat and Bendigo remain with Labor.

There is cause for optimism for Victoria’s forest industries and timber communities based on first impressions. No doubt the several dozen media advisors in the employ of the Department of Sustainability and Environment, mentioned in our last edition, will be kept busy in coming months carrying out the new Government’s will.

The NSW Coalition should be paying close attention to how its Victorian counterpart has gone around its business.

There are valuable lessons to be learned from Victoria about governing for all of the people, the Riverina red gum debacle being a case in point.

2011 just might be the year that forest industries get dealt with by common sense rather than flawed ideology.

36 – February 2011, Australian Forests & Timber News

TCA REPORTS Continuing the fight for a secure and sustainable industry I TRUST you all enjoyed a joyous Christmas with your friends and loved ones and that your well earned break has put you in good stead for what looks like yet another interesting year for the industry.

On behalf of TCA in the west I would like to extend our sincere condolences to those of you who have suffered such loss and fear during the horrific floods on the east coast and the north-west of WA.

It seems in some respects that our problems pale to insignificance compared to the catastrophic problems facing the victims of Mother Nature, but I guess life must go on and so must our fight for a secure, sustainable and profitable timber industry.

Manjimup at this stage is still waiting on news from Gunns regarding the sale of the Deanmill sawmill and the production

centre but, as yet, no word.

There are a few proponents in the melting pot and to my knowledge all with very different proposals so I guess we will just have to ‘watch this space’.

We were privileged enough in WA to have a little bit of quiet time from the anti-forestry sector for the immediate period of time after the initial Gunns announcement, but unfortunately for readers of the local papers

Western Australia

in particular, they are back with vengeance blurting their nonsense full of mistruths, drivel.

The development of the next forest management plan should be well under way this year so I guess that gives rise to the exacerbation of their idiocy and an excuse to demand more news space for their twaddle.

Something to look forward too??

L etisha (Tish) Rakich

WA Regional Coordinator Perth

Extremely challenging times WITH THE new year upon us the over-riding goal of long term certainty for Tassie timber families remains the most important goal for TCA; the goal always appears to be one requiring “just a few more steps” to bring it home and that’s about where our State’s timber folk are right now. Rightly or wrongly TCA has accepted the challenge to achieve the final step by entering into formal negotiations with past adversaries, the ENGOs. Without doubt for all timber families involved the path to this point has presented extremely

challenging times and decisionmaking.

For a proud timber dependent family it’s not just about a job it’s much deeper than that; it’s about values and beliefs, a generational way of life, the ability to provide for the next generation via a commitment to the working forests they know; it is something you don’t retrain or structurally adjust.

This generational connection is the very reason we still have a viable forest industry, it is some thing you just don’t simply walk away from.

To accept the notion that the

Tasmania

negotiation process may bring about the goal of long term certainty is also very challenging as the process in itself brings about uncertainty, but our world is not prefect, there is a thing called reality, the locomotive of change has left the station and the only real option for timber folk is to get on board and endeavour to steer it onto tracks that will hopefully take us towards the destination of our choosing. Yes it will be a very challenging journey but it also presents positive opportunities for our industry to gain much needed

help for contacting families and to promote a broad awareness of the never ending value adding investments that are happening within the greater sawmilling, rotary veneer and special timbers family. (With a continuing viable resource supply these Statewide community enhancement opportunities can continue.) The challenge is before us, and yes with a united effort we can maintain and build upon these positives and at the same time we may just finally bring home the goal of long term certainty.

 Barry Chipman Tasmanian State Manager

Farm forestry and firewood expo NORTHERN United Forestry Group (NUFG) - a not-for-profit community group with a focus on growing trees for sawlogs and firewood - will host the South Eastern Australia 2011 Farm Forestry and Firewood Expo at the City of Greater Bendigo’s 242 hectare Huntly plantation, 15km north of Bendigo on 8 April.

Some trees (all hardwoods) within the Huntly plantation that need to be thinned will be available for demonstration purposes on the day. This provides an excellent drawcard for the event. By way of example, Ian Rankin, NUFG President, will demonstrate the cutting head attached to his excavator that removes all branches, tops the standing

tree, cuts the tree off at the base and loads it into a trailer, all in one, swift, but safe, sequence.

“I am sure you can appreciate that this type of equipment is attracting plenty of interest from farmers. In addition wood fire retailers and researchers will answer questions about how to get the best heat from firewood,” said Mal Brown (NUFG). There will be displays by nurseries and tree plantation management suppliers, along with demonstrations of wood fires, mini gassifiers, portable sawmills, as well as guided forestry walks, and talks by researchers who will participate in a speaker’s program.

“The audience for this Expo is really

very large. Nothing else of a similar nature is planned for 2011. Farmers interested in additional income from farm forestry, along with urban residents interested in the topics of revegetation, firewood, bioenergy and sustainability will be attracted to this event. Participants are expected to come from across Victoria and southern New South Wales. The Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the City of Greater Bendigo, Australian Forest Growers, North Central Catchment Management Authority and Trees Victoria are supporting this event.

“I am inviting you to consider exhibiting your products and/or services to a diverse

audience on the day. Please let me know if you are interested in receiving more information from me about the EXPO, exhibitor sites (just $100 each) and/or sponsorship opportunities. Please note, a limited number of powered sites are available for the day.

More information is available from: Mal Brown Northern United Forestry Group Secretariat for the South Eastern Australia Farm Forestry and Firewood Expo, 8 April 2011 2455 Calder Hwy Leichardt via Bridgewater VIC 3516 Ph (03) 5435 2588, Mobile: 0419 108 817

CSIRO intensifies search for wood trait markers IN A new project dubbed ’Blue Gum Genomics’, a CSIRO forestry research team is set to undertake a search for genetic markers to improve the productivity and sustainability of plantation forestry.

The team, led by CSIRO Plant Industry scientist Dr Simon Southerton, will screen more than 1000 genes in Australia’s major plantation eucalypts in the hope of finding those genes responsible for superior wood traits.

The team’s previous project, the ‘Hottest 100’, carried out in collaboration with Gunns Ltd and Forestry Tasmania with support from Forest and Wood Products

Australia (FWPA), identified molecular markers associated with pulp yield and growth rate.

Tree breeders can now use the markers found as part of the Hottest 100 project to identify trees with these qualities, substantially increasing the speed and intensity of the breeding process and increasing the sustainability of the plantation forest industry.

“With just six markers out of possibly several dozen that are out there we have shown that we can increase pulp yield by over 2% and growth rate by 10%,” said Dr Southerton.

“This will translate into a large increase in plantation productivity as millions of tonnes of pulp are produced globally each year from eucalypt plantations. Less land and resources will be required to produce the same amount of pulp.”

A total of 11 molecular markers (or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)) associated with pulp yield were identified in the ‘Hottest 100’ project after studying variation in about 100 genes in shining gum (Eucalyptus nitens). In the new project, jointly funded by the CSIRO, FWPA and four forestry companies, the team will take advantage of improvements in

genomic technology to examine variation in over 1000 genes in Australia’s major plantation eucalypts, shining gum and blue gum (E. globulus).

“We are confident that in the Blue Gum Genomics project we will identify molecular markers that will enable tree breeders to breed trees with pulp yields of over 60%. We are also seeking to identify markers for selecting plantation trees that produce better quality sawn timber.

The findings of this research will make plantations much more profitable and help reduce our reliance on native forests,” Dr Southerton said.

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 37

Australian Forests & Timber Classifieds Sell your used equipment, advertise your tender, offer your real estate or find your next employee.

For rates and deadlines call Laurie (03) 9888 4834 or email: lmartin@forestsandtimber.com.au

Assorted forestry machines dismantling and attachments, wrecking CAT 320 C FM high wide, Timberjack 608 tracked harvester, OSA280 and Volvo 462 Log Forwarders.

Also Log grabs for loaders and excavators, Grapple buckets, Waratah 20 “ Harvesting head, Hamworthy and ZF Diffs, Chippers, Stump Grinders, Cranes and most Excavator attachments ex : Buckets, Rippers, Shears, Crushers, Vibroploughs, Longreach booms, Ext booms, Rakes, Thumbs, Quickhitches and other machine attachments new and used.

Photos emailed. Cheap Austwide freight.

Transag Phone 03 9719 7483 or 0419 503 912

New 2010 Western Star 4964FXC Log Truck Cummins ISX @ 600hp Roadranger RTLO22918B Transmission RT46-160GP Tridem rear axles - 4.30 ratio Airliner suspension Must Sell this month $200,000+GST as is With full new truck warranty (CTI additional)

Phone 03 9394 0000

Hitachi EX400 40 Tonne Excavator, 18,000hrs. LC Track Frame.

Fitted with purpose built pierce knuckle loading boom.

Prentice 410B Log Loader Fitted to Kenworth (1968 W Model) 15sp Road Ranger. 58,000 pound Rockwell Diffs. 6 Rod Suspension.

$32,000 + GST

$25,000 + GST Morbark 22 inch Electric Chipper Infeed & outfeed conveyors, screen & several spare parts.

Peterson Pacific Debarker 15,000hrs. Capacity of 30” log diameter. Been converted to Electric.

Infeed & outfeed conveyor.

$155,000 + GST

$205,000 + GST Komatsu WA500-1 15,000hrs. Fitted with bottom Log Forks & slide on bucket.

Komatsu WA350-3 7,000hrs, Fitted with Don Howe Log Forks & bucket.

Very well maintained Full service history.

$62,000 + GST

$105,000 + GST Komatsu WA500-3 12,000hrs. Fitted with either; Don Howe Log Forks, OR Dirt Bucket. Well maintained. All service records.

$210,000 + GST Madill 122 Swing Yarder 1989. 12,000hrs.

Very Tidy.

All maintenance records available.

$490,000 + GST

Morbark 30 inch Portable Chipper V12 Cummins 500hrs since total rebuild.

Comes with the following spare parts; - rebuilt gear box - chipper wheel - loading boom - cab - V12 rebuilt motor

$185,000 + GST

Contact: Kevin Muskett 0428 144 984 - Tasmania

38 – February 2011 , Australian Forests & Timber News

4 Sided Planers Rex 610 wide, 5 head with multirip, full electronics on sizing, large hp unit with outfeed system.

Pinhero MF, 450x200 opening, in very good condition. $12,000 Pinhero, fixed bed height, late model (2003) in very good condition.

Docking Saws All new under bench, 2 button safety operation, 18”, 24”, 36”, all available ex stock.

Auto docker 18” blade, 4 metre infeed with programmable sizing. $13,000 Sander SCM Uno, twin belt, combination roller and platen with single drive motor with low hours. $9,000 All prices are plus GST and subject to prior sale.

Contact: Jim Wills Ph: 02 9907 3699 Mobile: 0418 646 440 Email: jim@sawmillservices.com www.sawmillservices.com

Harvesting contractor wanted Slash pine plantation Heatherbrae, NSW. Immediate start for successful applicant

Visit www.timberbiz.com.au/dtn to sign up today.

Double End Tenoner - SCM Model D80K, 5 heads a side.

Log on Today!

FOR SALE

Moulders Wadkin 5 head GC with sound cover and infeed table. $13,000 Wadkin 350 wide, 6 head, through feed with long infeed table. $14,000 Sicar 4 head, 180 wide with sound cover and infeed table. $10,000 Wadkin K23. 6 head moulder, late model unit. $33,000 Wadkin FD, 6 head moulder with tilting side head and manifold, in excellent condition, ex TAFE. $26,000 Ledamac 4/230 moulder. $14,000

FOR SALE For Sale 12mtr aluminium & stainless steel Hi/top Reefer container kiln (new conversion).

- Gas fired heating, - electric steamers, - touch screen control, - trolley & track load.

Simply align, bolt down, connect power, gas & water (32 amp 3 phase neutral & earth).

$115,000+GST ex works.

Contact Hugo 0418 708 206 or Dave 07 3260 6291

FOR SALE Brunner Hildebrand Pre Drying Building

We require a harvesting contractor for first thinnings of slash pine for the preservation log market; and clearfall of mature plantation trees for sawlogs.

Thinnings must be by mechanical harvester and forwarder.

Clearfall machinery is negotiable.

Approximately 40 hectares of T1; 30 hectares of T2; and 30 hectares of clearfall immediately ready for harvest.

Estimated volume of standing timber to be harvested is 15,000 tonnes, 125-500mm diameter.

Markets are established, with demand in the range of 400-600 tonnes per month.

For more details, contact the plantation manager: Steve Collet (02) 6558 9595

TIMBER MANUFACTURING

BUSINESS FOR SALE

Models: Kiln 2 and Kiln 3, Galvanised Iron Clad, Alluminium Frame. Approximately 20m x 12m.

570m3 capacity with steam curing system.

Very clean. High tech.

Expressions of interest required.

Located at Mansfield Timber Mill Ring Blair Fry on 0409 863 297 or 03 5777 3711

FOR SALE

NEW 2010 HYUNDAI R210LC-7 FORESTRY SPEC UNIT (25 TONNES)

Harvest & Haulage Contracts For information please contact Barry Quinn 03 5144 4566 Confidentiality clauses will apply.

FOR SALE Kato: 1250 V11, Serial Number 5486, 23000 hours, Track gear is 80%, machine is in good condition. $35,200.00 inc GST

Komatsu: PC200-6, Serial Number 107554, 14538 hours, Track gear is 80%, 20” Waratah Harvester, machine is in good condition. $100,000.00 inc GST

Komatsu: PC300-5, Serial Number 23180, 15575 hours, Forestry guarding, Fire system, Track gear is 70%, Boom and stick has had all pins and bushes replaced, machine is in excellent order. $150,000.00 inc GST

30kms west of Melbourne

Komatsu: D85A-18, Serial Number 27754, Track gear is 70%, Esco grapple and winch, machine in good condition. $90,000.00 inc GST • Manufacturing new timber pallets, crates, cases & bins • Secondhand pallets • Established since 1996 • Simple operation, no experience needed • Supplying a variety of industries from multi-nationals to small business • Semi-managed, owner works approx 25 hour per week • 2009 - 2010 turnover $965,000 • Adjusted profit $165,000 • Owner will assist with handover if needed • Business can be relocated

$475,000

Asking price plus stock (approx $70K) Includes equip (value approx $200,000) Contact owner on 0421 283 764 No time wasters please

· Heavy Duty High Wide Undercarriage · Spare auxiliary spool in MCV · 20” cab riser with side access doors and removable alloy floor · Cabin window protection with 12m Marguard and mesh screens · Forestry Cab-Guard, side guarding and over-body sweeps · Heavy duty hydraulic oil cooler box fitted with hydraulic oil cooler and thermo fans · Rubber slew well protectors · Under-slung boom lift cylinders + GST · Additional lighting package Please note: Price excludes · 6mm Heavy Duty under motor guarding processing head and associated · Tropical AC package plumbing and electrics. · Boom & Arm Hose Burst Protection Valves · Finished in two-pack Paint

$268,000

Phone 1300 727 520

Kenworth: W Model, 1984, 900AR, Registration OFW379, Cat 3406, 15 speed, 6 rod, Tri air bag Jinker with scales, both in very good condition. $59,000.00 in GST

Contact 0427 260 569

Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2011 – 39

For Sale Morbark 2455 Flail/Chipper • Good Condition • New disc installed Aug 2010 • Key knife system • Large range of spares including PTO’s, crane booms, flail drums, hydraulic pumps, bearings etc • Oil sample history on engines plus Cat receipts for recent work • Chip sample reports also available • 400 tonne/day machine with excellent chip quality

POA 0419 227 411

FOR SALE

John Deere 909JH Harvester 8900Hrs Waratah 624 Super/Timberite POA Cat 320DLL Log Loader 1000Hrs GLL 60 Grapple $344,000 + GST

FOR SALE Floatation tyres off Valmet 890.

Timberjack 460 10000Hrs Dual Arch Grapple and Winch + Wheel Chains $85,000+GST

Valmet 890 6 wheel forwarder.

Timco 455C Feller Buncher 13550Hrs Barsaw head POA Timberjack 1710 6 wheel forwarder.

PHONE: 0428 148 857

Docking saw bench (Elbeck) heavy duty unit ex Bunnings sleeper milling operations. $6,500 incl GST ono.

Located Perth WA 0414-784-570

Plant and equiPment

for sale Log In-feed Log Deck three strand 60,000lb chain feeding log loading deck with loading arms and log turners. $6,000+GST Carriage Line, MacSim 3 knee sizing carriage complete with on board flitch turners, Jaymor electronic sizing, with operators cabin (carriage recently reconditioned) Raymond hydraulic feed works. $30,500+GST Roll Case Heavy Roll case out-feed & flitch storage deck. $12,000+GST Grey Bench, right hand gauge, with double roundabout out feed systems, including in feed decks, and flitch transfer from breaking down saw. $55,000+GST Rex Planer, Rex 5 spindle four side planer (UNI630) Capacity 630mm wide x 250mm thick, the machine comes with tooling some spares and operators manual in very good condition $40,000+GST Multi Saw Edger, Turner 3 saw over arbour edger, 1 fixed & 2 moving saws, including 4 with board transfer system from breaking down saw, chain in feed deck and roll case, out feed roll case & separator, laser saw position indicators, & hydraulic set works. $32,500+GST Planer Thicknesser, Tru-Pro Thicknesser, maximum width 1250mm maximum depth 250mm this machine is in excellent condition, comes with setting jigs and operating Manuel. $5,500+GST Band Re-saw, Robinson 48” band re-saw in good condition, $6,500+GST Multi Rip Saw, SCM model M-3 carpet feed system complete with motor starter & control also fitted with safety interlock system, saw spacers and arbour, $10,500+GST Moulder, Weinig 22AL 6 spindle machine profile & straight knife jointing 60 metre per min feed machine in good condition complete with sound enclosure some spares available. $28,500 +GST Laminating Press, Taylor multi leaf rotary laminating press 3.0 x 750 x 15 leaf unit complete with tensioning unit. $10,500+GST Chalk line Docker, Lakeland chalk line docking saw capacity 200mm x 50mm including in-feed belt & marking station, $6,000+GST Moulder, Weinig 30N Moulder, four spindle through feed machine in fair condition $22,000+GST A wide range of sawmill, timber processing & handling equipment, including log loaders & fork lift trucks are available on enquiry.

Contact: Garry Henthorn Phone: 03-51397000 Email: Garry.Henthorn@gunns.com.au

AVAILABLE NOW

Softwood Bandsaw Processing Mill For high recovery sawmilling Valen Kone VK26 Debarker

Log bin and handling equipment.

In and out feed conveyors. Log Transfer deck. $57,000+GST

Timbco 416 base

Forano Twin 60” Bandsaw Log Breakdown line

Top dogging. Log handling. Remote operator.

Log diameter 60cm – 12cm, 6m - 2.4m.

Hydraulic sizing 30cm – 7.5cm. $188,000+GST

Salem Twin 54” Band Resaw

Timbco 425B being fitted with Timbco 33” Sawbar felling head.

Roundabout. Operator cabin. Hydraulic sizing, fence, line bar, cant turner and handling equipment.

Sawn timber transfer deck. $279,000+GST

Manitowoc flail debarker.

Moreen Johnston 50” Horizontal Band Wing line

With roundabout and wing transfer deck. $44,000.00+GST

Windsor board twin edger

With laser guides, pneumatic sizing and conveyor waste transfer. $37,000+GST

Windsor double docking and end trimming recovery line with conveyors and unscrambler $29,000+GST

Austral Timber Group Contact Ken Baker 0438 643 992 kjb@agnew.com.au

$10,000+gST

WRECKing nOW

Wrecking. Timbco, Valmet, Waratah, Rosin, Cat, Komatsu, etc.

Many customer machines and parts for sale. List available.

Wrecking now. Various Timbco’s. Valmets. Komatsu, Cat, Waratah, Rosin, Dasa, Logrite, Motomit and more.

Buying and selling forestry equipment.

Biomass Chipping...Anywhere!

Peterson's 4310 Drum Chipper is perfect for biomass chipping operations that need frequent moves between piles or work on rough terrain.

The 4310 has the important features that biomass producers demand: • Caterpillar C-18 power available in 2 power ratings up to 765 hp • 6-Pocket Rotor with easy to change knives • Over 100-tons per hour output capacity • Optional sizing grates to eliminate stringers • Optional Accelerator packs chips into the van increasing load density Want to see what a Peterson 4310 can do? Give us a call at 800-269-6520 or visit us at www.petersoncorp.com. Let Peterson prove to you why the best part of the tree is the chip!

4800E

2710C

BTR

4700B

5000H

5710C

800-269-6520 • www.petersoncorp.com • PO BOX 40490 • Eugene, OR 97404

Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd 11 / 4 Avenue of Americas Newington NSW 2127, Australia T: + 61 2 9647 3600 F: + 61 2 9647 2540