Australasia's home for timber news and information

Map topography, nutrients and biodiversity with drones

One startup wants to use drones that can reforest our increasingly tree-strapped Earth, on a big enough scale to replace slow and expensive hired humans. Source: Gizmodo The small company, called BioCarbon Engineering, says unmanned aerial vehicles are a great way of covering ravaged
Continue Reading →

World machinery demand to rise 4.5%

World demand for forestry equipment including purpose-built and converted machinery is forecast to climb 4.5% annually to US$9.3 billion in 2019. Source: PR Wire This will represent a moderation from the 2009-2014 pace of increase, a period during which market gains were bolstered by
Continue Reading →

DiscBot wood detective

Developed and built in-house, Scion’s new ‘DiscBot’ is a novel scanning technology designed to assess a range of wood properties that affect the quality of sawn timber and other end products. Source: Scion The automated disc scanner uses a robot to move wood discs past different senso
Continue Reading →

Tree climbing arborists in competition

Competitive arborists from around New Zealand will be scaling the trees around Nelson’s church steps as fast as they can. Source: Stuff.co.nz, Nelson Mail Around 30 climbers, with several world champions amongst them, have gathered for a two-day national tree climbing competitio
Continue Reading →

Lower dollar increases value of Linkletters estate

Plans to remediate the 8900-hectare Linkletters estate in Esperance in the Western Australian wheatbelt, valued at $17.65 million, have been put on hold by its owners and managers as they consider ways to extract value from its vast bluegum plantations. Source: The Australian Financia
Continue Reading →

TPP provides advantages for agricultural producers

Major gains are in store for Australian agriculture producers in the world’s largest regional trade agreement with Australian farmers set to gain major new market access for agricultural products according to the federal government. Source: Timberbiz Minister for Agriculture and Water
Continue Reading →

Timber cluster needs rail to provide solution

Fears have been expressed that a plan to create a NZ$7.4 million wood processing “cluster” to boost economic development here could be stifled if the Gisborne-Napier railway line is not re-opened in the next five years. Source: The Gisborne Herald Eastland Community Trust approved the
Continue Reading →

NZ Forester of the Year

In recognition of his contribution to the forestry sector, Dr Brian Richardson, Scion’s General Manager Forest Science, was recently presented with the New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF) Forester of the Year Award. Source: Scion “The announcement came as a complete shock,” Dr Ri
Continue Reading →

Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers begins limited production

Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers’ (KIPT) Timber Creek timber mill near Parndana, Australia, has begun limited operations, treating local pine thinnings to produce fence posts for sale on the Island. Source: Lesprom Local contactor Brett Haggett has an agreement with KIPT to un
Continue Reading →

AFPA joins National Farmers’ Federation

The Australian Forest Products Association has joined the National Farmers’ Federation as a commodity member. Source: The Land AFPA is a national industry body representing the timber growing, sawmilling, other wood processing, and pulp and paper industries, including plantations and
Continue Reading →