Australian Wood Review - June 2018

78 Australian Wood Review

TIMBER

Making the venture work has required

considerable input in terms of scoping

the resource and creating harvesting

and production systems which will

allow ongoing supply. Over two years

of groundwork and $9 million are

the investment that Dale and Meyers

have made. Creating a reliable source

also rests on paying landholders fair

prices and royalties.

Sustainability is a long term aim.

‘What we basically look for are trees

that are damaged, and as you know

they get a lot of cyclones up there’,

said Curly. ‘We take older trees where

the growing life is all but over, and

get value out of it before it’s not worth

anything to anyone. We are restricted

to five trees per hectare and we look

for the five trees that probably won’t

be there when we’re back for another

harvest in ten years time.’

‘People in cities think we’re knocking

down trees and destroying the earth’,

said Curly. But to his mind supply will

always be limited in order to maintain it

and on top of that he also sees benefits:

‘Where we have gone in and opened

up the canopy and put our tracks in to

snig the timber out, the regeneration of

young trees coming through is totally

mind-boggling’, he said.

A staggering range is now on offer

including acacia cedar, black bean,

black wattle, briar oak, damson

plum, Darwin stringybark, maple

silkwood, Miva mahogany, northern

silky oak, Qld maple, Qld silver ash,

red cedar, red silkwood, red tulip oak

and silver quandong, as well as others

when available.

See http://www.branch95.com.au

Stockists include Brittons Timbers

http://www.brittontimbers.com.au and Swadlings

Timber & Hardware in Sydney.

Right: Assessing logging viability is

carried out on a tree by tree basis.

Below: The spectrum of native

species that are now stocked

include (clockwise from top left)

Qld maple, northern silky oak, Qld

silver ash, red cedar, black bean,

black wattle, briar silky oak and

silver quandong.