Australian Forestry Overview

As Australia's second major manufacturing industry, forestry and wood products employ over 86 000 people and have a turnover of around A$15 billion a year. 13,400 people are directly employed in the forestry and logging sector. Australia’s sustainable forest management is amongst the best in the world.

15% of Australia’s 164 million hectares of native forest is set aside in conservation reserves.
About 44 % of Australia’s rainforests, 18% of Australia's open forests and 11% of Australia's woodlands are in conservation areas.
Only 13.3 million hectares of these forests (8 % of total forest area) are available for timber production.
In 2004-05, exports of Australian forest products totalled A$2.1 million.

Australia has 155 million hectares of native forests, including 43.8 million hectares of closed forest and open forest. Some 22.3 million hectares of closed and open forest is either privately owned or leasehold while the balance is multiple use forest (11.0 million hectares), conservation reserves (8.4 million hectares) or other categories of public ownership (2.1 million hectares) (BRS 1998).

In addition, there are about 1 million hectares of plantations, mostly introduced softwoods. The bulk of the plantations in the past have been owned by National Governments, but there is an increasing trend towards private ownership of plantations and as well toward share farming systems of plantation establishment on farmland. These forests and plantations require protection from and the management of the effect of wildfires and other damaging agents such as insects and diseases. They as well require planning and management to provide a wide range of goods and services for the community, such as pure water, recreation, timber products, nature conservation, honey, wildflowers and so on. Planning and management increasingly involve community participation at various stages of these processes, so foresters need to be able to communicate entirely with a wide range of people and groups in the community.

It is the task of trained foresters to protect and manage these forests and plantations for the community or for private companies or investors. In recent years foresters have as well been increasingly involved in assisting farmers reverse land degradation by establishment of plantations on farmland, or by using agroforestry techniques to reduce soil erosion or land and stream salinity. In this way, forestry is contributing to the development of additional sustainable agricultural land management systems.

Australia imports about-third of its forest products - $3.8 billion worth in 2000/01 (ABARE, 2001).Much of this could be grown in Australia so there is great scope for increased forestation of farms with commercial tree plantations.

Amount forests must be actively managed if they are to provide the services required by the owners and if they are to be sustainable in the long term. Foresters are employed by National national park agencies and forest services, government departments, inclunding by private companies who own extensive plantations. Some foresters as well work independently as consultants.

Australia imports about-third of its forest products - $3.8 billion worth in 2000/01 (ABARE, 2001).Much of this could be grown in Australia so there is great scope for increased forestation of farms with commercial tree plantations.

All forests must be actively managed if they are to provide the services required by the owners and if they are to be sustainable in the long term. Foresters are employed by National national park agencies and forest services, government departments, inclunding by private companies who own extensive plantations. Some foresters as well work independently as consultants.

Other foresters are involved in tending forests. This is called silviculture, which means the establishment or regeneration of forests and their subsequent thinning, pruning or wed control. Silviculture as well includes production of seed for new forests, often using sophisticated genetic improvement techniques, the establishment and management of tree nurseries. Tending forests may require the application of fertiliser, sometimes from the air, and the manipulation of forest composition by the use of fire or carefully controlled tree harvesting. A vast amount of data on tree increase and increase rates under different cultural conditions is needed for making silvicultural decisions.

The business of forest management requires foresters to undertake inventories of growing stock in forests, to estimate next increase of a variety of forest products, to estimate community request for forest products, and to identify optimum strategies for forest management. The latter requires the use of advanced modelling techniques and computer based decision tools. Foresters make use of computer based land data systems and geographic data systems for analysing the outcomes of various options for management.

Some foresters are engaged in organising and controlling the harvest of timber from forests for the production of sawn timber for home construction, furniture manufacture, plywood, particleboard, poles, posts, fuel wood and for paper pulp. Other forest products are tannin bark, gums, resins, essential oils, honey and forage for livestock.

For timber harvesting, areas to be felled or thinned are identified and carefully planned to meet the requirements for environmental protection, soil and water conservation, fire protection, regeneration of the forest if required, market requirements and the economics of harvesting equipment. Harvesting involves a considerable amount of forest engineering skill to locate and construct roads, bridges and other facilities.

Foresters may be involved in the processing, utilisation and marketing of forest products. They may provide technical expertise to ensure efficient use of timber, better timber seasoning, development of new wood adhesives and better methods of preservation of wood against rot and termites.

Amount forest operations are supported by scientific research, and there is a very wide variety of research undertaken by forest managing agencies or companies, by CSIRO, by cooperative research centres and by universities. Often, research activities are associated with extension work, taking the results of research to users, either in government agencies or in the agricultural community, in the case of agroforestry.

Who employs foresters?

The Federal Government's wood and paper industry strategy (Forest Taskforce 1995) includes an estimate that around 82,500 people work in forest, logging and forest products industries. The forest products industries as a group are Australia's second major manufacturing industry and a major regional employer.

Almost amount publicly owned native forests are owned by the States and territories, so a lot of foresters are employed by State/territorial forest services or national park and wildlife agencies. In recent years an increasing number of foresters have been employed by private companies, especially in connection with plantation management. There are a lot of independent consultant foresters who work with farmers on plantation establishment or management, or in landcare activities, with mining companies and water catchment agencies.