IMPORTANT NOTE

This web page is part of a web site that is no longer actively maintained by anybody at ANU SRES. It has been left on the web due to its apparent popularity (every time we've removed it, people have complained within 24 hours), but is presented AS IS - attempting to contact any individual named on the page is likely to fail, and the SRES webmaster doesn't want to hear about such failures or entertain any communication about updating of the page's contents. You have been warned.

Sourcing The Raw Material

Hardwood timber is timber from broadleaved, flowering trees (the botanical group Angiospermae) irrespective of hardness. In Australia, this group includes eucalypts, wattles and most rainforest species.

Australia has traditionally sourced hardwood timber from its woodland and forest areas. The main areas of production native forest are confined to the higher rainfall regions in the coastal sectors of north east and eastern Australia, to the south east highlands and to Tasmania. A small area of native forest which is important insofar as it contains the eucalypts Karri and Jarrah, is found in the extreme south tip of Western Australia. The vegetation of these forest areas is dominated by the eucalypts, of which there are 600 species occuring in a variety of habitats.

Forests over 10 metres in height (Dargavel 1995).

Australia's main commercially traded eucalypts to date have been;

E. delegatensis

E, regnans

E.pilularis

E.bosistoana,polyanthemos and melliodora

E. panicualta

E.siderophila, crebra, sideroxylon

E marginata

E.obliqua

E camuldulensis

E.globulus

E.maculata

E. saligna

E. microcorys

Hardwood logs (the majority Eucalypts) are obtained by sawmills from crown forests owned and managed by state forestry agencies and private land holders with some mills owning their own forest areas. In state managed forest areas, the allowable quota or total quantity of logs available per annum is usually set according to the amount of timber that can be harvested from areas dedicated to timber harvesting, to ensure production in perpetuity (sustained yield)..

Individual quotas are held by private sawmillers and other timber users for an annual log volume supply. Quotas are bid for as they become available and either part of whole quotas may be sold to another interest.

Increasingly sawmillers are looking toward private land owners from which to draw sufficient timber to remain in operation. Regulations regulating the areas and types of sawlog removal methods on private land differ between the states.

In the future state owned and private eucalypt sawlog plantations and private Agroforestry systems will supply quality sawlogs for processing. This resource is going to be younger and have a number of inherent qualities which will require changes in the methods currently used to saw timber. A discussion of this aspect of Australia's forestry future is discussed in Markets and the Future for Australian Hardwoods.

From Forest To Mill - Harvesting

Before timber reaches the mill a number of steps have occurred including; the felling of logs with a chainsaw or harvester, snigging or carriage of logs to a landing with a forwarder ( loading ramp or log dump), bark stripping, and loading and hauling logs to the mill using articulated trailers (jinkers). This page does not attempt to describe this part of the timber production process but concentrate on activities from the mill-door on. Logs may be assessed for their quality and volume at the landing or at the mill. Log volume measurement for royalty purposes usually occurs at the sawmill using dockets collected from trucks entering the mill. In N.S.W, logs are graded into the following categories with associated royalties for the cu.m volume of timber supplied;

the V log > 40 cm diameter ($ 33.80)
the Y log <40 -25 cm ($ 28)
the Z log - non quota ($17) usually of poorer form and quality.

If a woodchip mill is within economic distance of the operation, logs identified as suitable only for woodchipping may be transported there.

Sawlogs are usually stored in the log dump according to their diameter class and length. Logs are removed from the log dump as required usually by a front end loader and placed on the in-feed belt to the head rig, the beginning of the sawmilling process.

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URL: http://online.anu.edu.au/Forestry/wood/hwd/Sourc.html