The increased value of a forest product as a result of processing. Producing a product of higher quality and having more monetary value.
Harvesting
In the early days of the timber industry, trees were felled from native forests using axes and hand-held cross-cut saws. It was a slow process of hard manual labour. Logs, often of very large dimensions, were dragged by teams of bullocks or horses, and rolled onto bush-trains using innovative equipment and wire ropes.
With the introduction of chainsaws in the 1960s, considerable harvesting time was saved (FEF 2008). Further progress in mechanisation saw early model tractors and tracked bulldozers used. Manpower requirements were high and accidents not uncommon.
These days harvesting is done by small teams of contractors, using modern tracked harvesting machines and rubber tyred forwarders (large articulated tractors), worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Very large trees are far fewer and still fallen manually using chainsaws, but smaller trees are more common and often mechanically felled by machines which grab them, cut them off, and lay them down.
In the 1930s, road transport started to become important for the sawmilling industry. Roads enabled fast and easy access for supervision and fire-fighting, and provided ready extraction routes for forest products. They also had a dramatic impact on the social framework of sawmilling communities. With ready road access to forests, the families of loggers and millers no longer needed to live in remote locations in the forest as they had traditionally done, but could live in townships close to hospitals, schools and other amenities.
Sawmilling
Sawmills were traditionally located within the forests, and the logs often had to be transported over long distances and difficult terrain by convict o or by bullocks. It wasn’t long though before rivers and other waterways were being used to carry forest products. Timber was also transported from the forest to the sawmill along specially constructed tramlines, first by steam-powered log haulers then by steam-powered locomotives, and finally diesel and petrol-powered locomotives (FEF 2008). These advances in technology improved the efficiency of log transport.
The first Australian sawmills consisted of little more than a power source (either a waterwheel or a steam engine) and a single saw. By the twentieth century, there had been advances in saw technology, with traditional vertical saws being replaced with circular saws and bandsaws, creating greater efficiencies and savings (FEF 2008).
Freshly milled timber needs to be dried to prevent it shrinking and warping. Timber was traditionally laid out in racks around the mills to air-dry until by the 1930s some larger sawmills had built drying kilns into which large volumes of timber could be stacked and quickly dried (FEF 2008). Today, timber is still dried in kilns.
Getting timber to markets
In 1854, the first steam railway in Australia was opened in Melbourne. This revolutionised timber transportation and enabled the fledgling sawmilling industry to move inland away from the coast. At the same time, the Australian colonies were expanding rapidly, providing new markets for timber products.
Sawmills could shift further from the coast, and those along connected roadways could move timber out using bullocks or draughthorses. Animals were eventually replaced with steam-powered engines, and then by trucks (FEF 2008). Now large trucks, often B-Doubles transport logs, sawn timber and wood chip from forest to mill to port/retailer.
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Changing technologyCompare forestry technology over time. |
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Evolution of technology and practicesRead about how forest practices and technologies have changed over time. |
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Forest PhotosDifferent photos of forestry and the industry. |
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Forestry Matters!Forestry matters! is a free, comprehensive education resource that provides teachers with relevant, up-to-date information about South Australia’s forests. |
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History of Tasmania's forest services Part AFind out about Tasmania's forest service during early settlement, federation and WW1. |
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History of Tasmania's forest services Part BFind out about Tasmania's forest service post WW2. |
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History of Tasmania's forest services Part CFind out about Tasmania's forest modern day service |
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History of forests in South AustraliaThis factsheet talks about the history of forests, from Aborginal history through to today. |
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Forestry Matters!Forestry matters! is a free, comprehensive education resource that provides teachers with relevant, up-to-date information about South Australia’s forests. |
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Forests then, now and tomorrow.Investigate the past and ponder the future with this activity sheet. |
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Make the linksA safe forest visit means being aware and planning ahead. This activity encourages making the links with forest safety. |
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Planet Ark - Schools Tree dayEach year in July, around 2500 schools across Australia take part in Schools Tree Day. Students nation-wide have learnt how to plant, and care for the seedlings they grow. Become involved. |
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Sustaining forestsSee how decisions affect the forest over 100 years. |
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Wild Forest Adventure Activity BookWild Forest Adventure is an activity based companion booklet especially designed for use with the Forests NSW website. |
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Wild Forest Adventure online gameThe Wild Forest Adventure section has been especially designed for students, to provide interesting and relevant information about the forest environment, in a stimulating and fun way. |
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Forestry Matters! websiteForestry matters! is a free, comprehensive education resource that provides teachers with relevant, up-to-date information about South Australia’s forests. |
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Going Bush - Forest's role in the carbon equationThe boys talk to a trio of carbon specialists about the part forests and its products can play in the fight against global warming. They see how it’s measured in Victoria’s Wombat Forest and hear how storage of carbon in forests should be compared to a dam, with inputs from growing trees and regular withdrawals especially for timber to replace fossil-fuel intensive materials, rather than simply locked away. |
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Planet Ark - Schools Tree dayEach year in July, around 2500 schools across Australia take part in Schools Tree Day. Students nation-wide have learnt how to plant, and care for the seedlings they grow. Become involved. |
To view this link
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2. Multi Media task: Value adding to woodWhen trees are harvested, the various parts of the tree are graded for different end uses as seen in this 'Going Bush' series video on value adding. Technological advances have helped mechanise harvesting and processing operations. Tree replanting is conducted after harvest to assist with forest regeneration. Forest Ecologists are the scientists that help with identifying rare and endgangered species to ensure areas of forest remain for habitat protection. |
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Forest management goes high techJoin remote sensing specialist Dr Russell Turner as he talks about LIDAR technology in forests. |
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Going Bush - A Northern NSW timber family answering the industry’s challengesMeet a tight-knit timber family from northern New South Wales, which has responded to the vagaries of the forestry industry by getting bigger when the option was to get out and vertically integrating their operation so that in years to come a significant share of their resource will be harvested from their own plantations. |
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Going Bush - Innovative ways of keeping the home fires burningWe investigate the future of timber production . not using a crystal ball but armed with Forestry Tasmania's Innovation Plan. The on-going challenge of getting more from less has Forestry Tasmania looking further into maximising returns from its resource by increasing recovery rates from logs and investigating a range of new engineered timber products and rayon production for clothing. |
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Going Bush - South Australia’s pine tree expertsSoftwood plantations have become a staple of the forestry industry and South Australians say no-one does it better than them … They’ve had plenty of practice having started growing radiata pines 130 years ago. |
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Going Bush - A timber product for the future from an antique Newcastle factoryWe visit a factory near Newcastle that looks as ominous as a horror movie set … and that’s just what it doubled as for the filming of Tomorrow when the war began a few years back. But from this archaic looking mill comes an all-natural cladding product fit for the 21st century. |
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Going Bush - Forest's role in the carbon equationThe boys talk to a trio of carbon specialists about the part forests and its products can play in the fight against global warming. They see how it’s measured in Victoria’s Wombat Forest and hear how storage of carbon in forests should be compared to a dam, with inputs from growing trees and regular withdrawals especially for timber to replace fossil-fuel intensive materials, rather than simply locked away. |
To watch this video |
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Going Bush - Latrobe Valley environment benefits from factory upgradeAt Australia’s biggest paper mill and only office paper maker in Victoria’s LaTrobe valley everything is on a BIG scale. Andrew and Nick discover that flows through to Australian Paper’s approach to environmental improvement. As part of a $600 million plant overhaul the company not only introduced a bigger proportion of recycled material into production lines but dramatically improved its standard and quantity of effluent and through co-generation produces more than enough electricity to power the plant. |
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Going Bush - Planning for innovation in Tasmanian forest productsWe investigate the future of timber production not using a crystal ball but armed with Forestry Tasmania's Innovation Plan. The on-going challenge of getting more from less has Forestry Tasmania looking further into maximising returns from its resource by increasing recovery rates from logs and investigating a range of new engineered timber products and rayon production for clothing. |
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Going Bush - The journey to a safer workplace in Tassie forestsWe visit a Tasmanian harvesting operation to see the massive improvements in bush safety. Forestry Tasmania some time ago now set about changing the safety culture both for its own workforce and contractors with dramatic results, which are demonstrated at an awards day where top performers are rewarded. |
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Going Bush - Tracing the power poles back to North East Tasmania’s forestsYou see them along the roadside throughout the land and they’re an easy fallback for long road trip games of I spy with my little eye … PP? Power poles of course. We go bush to find where the tallest and straightest trees grow and how they’re handled with kid gloves to provide the poles to carry electricity cables. |
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Going Bush - Value addingThis series of 'Going Bush' presents valuable information on value adding to our native forest resource from harvesting, through processing the various grades of saw logs and defect wood, to end uses in high value flooring and furniture, and low value pulp wood and waste for paper and electricity production. It highlights the valuable contribution the native forest industry makes to supplying hardwood solid timbers in Australia, and the importance of sustaining this industry into the future. |
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Wild Forest Adventure online gameThe Wild Forest Adventure section has been especially designed for students, to provide interesting and relevant information about the forest environment, in a stimulating and fun way. |
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Forest management in Tasmania - The truthReport highlighting the management of Tasmanian forests for multiple values, supported by a commitment to sustainable charter and certification process for harvested timber. |
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