Australasia's home for timber news and information

Iceland growing new forests for the first time in 1000 years

The landscape of Iceland has changed a lot in a thousand years. When the Vikings first arrived in the ninth century, the land was covered in 25% to 40% forest. Source: National Geographic Within a few centuries, almost all of the island’s trees were slashed and burned to make room for
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Winter storm fells 1.3 million cubic metres of trees in Switzerland

The amount of wood derived from trees uprooted by storm Eleanor in the first week of January is 1.3 million cubic metres, according to reports from the Swiss federal environment office (BAFU). Source: The Local. Eleanor – known as Burglind in Switzerland – battered Europe from 3-4 Jan
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Hyne and Devcon have it down to a T

Sunshine Coast builder, Devcon has been named in the Australian Financial Review Fast 100 list for two years in a row, now ranking as the 13th fastest growing company in Australia and the fastest growing builder in Queensland in 2017. Source: Timberbiz Company sales professional, Pete
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Quintis appoints administrators

Directors of the sandalwood company Quintis have called in administrators. Quintis owns and manages thousands of hectares of Indian sandalwood plantations across northern Australia. Source: ABC News The company has decided to appoint KordaMentha as administrators and it is expected Mc
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Timber and prefab to kick goals again with new projects

The timber and prefab sector is set to kick goals again this year if a raft of ambitious projects gets the go ahead, among them one of the biggest commercial timber building in the world by volume. Source: The Fifth Estate Adam Strong, group managing director of prefab timber powerhou
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Billion tree planting in doubt

The New Zealand Government is being accused of an about-turn which could undermine its proposed billion tree planting program and its climate change mitigation goals. Source: Otago Daily Times The Forest Owners Association (FOA) has come out strongly against a Treasury proposal that t
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Logging hours of making wooden furniture

When Millthorpe furniture maker Rod de Vries purchased 40 hardwood logs last year, those logs set him up for the renewal of his greatest passion, making solid pieces of furniture that show off the timber’s unique properties. Source: Central Western Daily The logs were part of about 11
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Juken jobs may go

Gisborne New Zealand’s Juken wood processing plant is looking to halve its workforce because of a weak Japanese housing market, affecting about 100 jobs. Source: Gisborne Herald Staff from Juken New Zealand’s timber mill here were told of the proposal to cut production of plywood and
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Negotiations to reopen Prime sawmill in NZ

Some of the 100 workers faced with losing their jobs at a Gisborne, New Zealand sawmill could find work at nearby mothballed sawmill which plans to reopen. Sources: Stuff NZ, Gisborne Herald Eastland Community Trust (ECT) said it was in the “final stages” of negotiations w
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Pan Pac keeps watch on NZ log prices

A weather eye is being kept on escalating log prices by Japanese-owned Pan Pac Forest Products, whose Milburn sawmill is becoming one of the largest in Otago. Source: Otago Daily Times Log demand from China, which has steadily pushed up prices for the past 24 months, is beginning to h
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