Plantation Forestry in the South West Slopes Region (NSW)

Presentation by

Christopher Adams

General Manager

Tumut Shire Council

Tumut Shire Statistics

• Area 4600sq km• Population 11500• Towns are Tumut, Batlow, Adelong,

Talbingo, Cabramurra, Brungle• Council budget in 2006/07 $30M. • Economy based on plantation timber,

power, water, horticulture, tourism, sheep/cattle

• 62.3% of the Shire is non rateable

Overview of the Plantation Industry

• Mainly Pinus Radiata• 116,300 hectares on SW Slopes• 62,500ha Murray region of Victoria • 74% publicly owned, 26% privately owned• Plantations in Tumut, Tumbarumba, Greater Hume and

Gundagai Shires• Processing centres in Tumut, Wagga Wagga,

Tumbarumba, Albury. Only fully integrated timber industry in Australia.

• Direct employment – 1680 jobs• Indirect jobs – 3,250

Processors

• Tumut – Visy (paper), Weyerhaeuser (sawn timber), Carter Holt Harvey (panels)

• Tumbarumba – Hyne (sawn timber)

• Wagga Wagga – Ausply (ply and laminated beams)

• Albury – Norske Skog (newsprint)

Areas of Softwood Plantation in 2004

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

Source: Bureau of Rural Sciences, National Forest Inventory

Are

a o

f P

lan

tati

on

(h

ec

tare

s)

Volume of timber transported in the SWS (‘000 tonnes or cubic metres)

1991 2001 2006 est.

Logs 1,000 2,050 2,455

Wood products and residue

710 1,612 1,966

Total 1,710 3,662 4,411

Note: includes a small proportion of native forest timber

Source: PEECE Consulting (2005)

Employment

• Has remained relatively steady, despite increases in production

• Over 95% full time employment• 5% part time or casual• 2003 – 2004, 66% direct employment • 90% of direct jobs in the region• Tumut – over 900 jobs• Tumbarumba – over 200 jobs• One new job in region for every 63ha of new

plantation

Socioeconomic Change and the Plantation Industry

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

% c

han

ge

in p

op

ula

tio

n o

f to

wn

, 19

96 t

o 2

001

Socio-Demographic Change and the Plantation Industry

• Small towns with strong timber presence had higher population growth

• Stronger growth in working age population

• More consistent growth in household income

• Communities were becoming more highly qualified

Forest Production Vs other Agricultural Production

• Plantation Pine 20 t/ha/a• Plantation hardwood 22 t/ha/a• Rice (irrigated) 9 t/ha/a• Wheat (dryland) 5 t/ha/a• Apples 25 t/ha/a• Grapes 15 t/ha/a• Milk 14 t/ha/a• Sheep 0.7t/ha/a• Cattle 0.75t/ha/a

Production from hypothetical 1000 ha plantation

• First thinning, age 13 years 132,000t all pulpwood

• Second thinning, age 23 years, 165,000t mix of pulp wood and sawlog

• Harvest, age 33 years, 363,000t, mainly sawlog

• Total production from plantation 660,000t

Forest Resources in the South West Slopes

Softwood plantations - 116,323 hectares

Timber production - 68,000 ha of native forest

Forest resources in the South West Slopes region (2002 / 2003)

Forest Type Area (ha)

Public Private Total

Softwood Plantation 85,078 31,940 116,323

Native forest 68,256 0 68,256

Forest Product Processing in the South West Slopes Region

Direct and indirect economic impacts of the forest sector in the South West Slopes (2002 /2003)Sector Value of production

($ million)

Employment

(number)

Direct Indirect Direct Indirect

Plantation Softwood 574.47 1,148.95 1,748 3,496

Native Forest 8.65 17.31 80 160

Total 583.13 1,166.25 1,828 3,656

Resource Utilisation (present)

South West Slopes:• Total of 1.87 million m3 forest resources• 964,450 m3 of sawlogs • 907,000 m3 pulpwoodOutside Region• 266,750 m3 of sawlogs and pulpwood and• 87,250 m3 of sawmill residues

Current and Planned Investment in Wood Processing

Current raw material intake

Future raw material intake

Value of future investments

($M)

Sawlog (’000m3)

Hyne & Son 450 1,054 $127

Weyerhaeuser 530 650 $40

Woodchip (’000m3)

Norske Skog 320 384 $130

Visy 795 2,000 $460

Regional Plantation Development

• Availability of softwood resources expected to be inadequate to meet the demand for wood resources

• New plantings required of 2,500 – 3,500 ha over the next 10 – 15 years across public and privately owned plantations

• Plantation owners: Forests NSW, Willmotts, Gunns, Hume Forests

Future Timber Demand

• Vision 2020 – trebling of Australias plantation timber resource by 2020

• Current softwood supply 8M cu m rising to 10 M cu m by 2020

• Domestic demand is expected to be 12 M cu m by 2020.

• Shortfall met by imports

Asia/Pacific Demand for Timber Products

• Paper products increasing at 3.8% pa

• Panels increasing at 3.1% pa

• Sawn timber increasing at 1% pa

Asia/Pacific Supply

• Currently a 21M cu m shortfall in production

• Deforestation occurring at 3.9 to 4.5 M ha pa

Australian Softwood Sawlog Availability

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

2005-09 2010-14 2015-19 2020-24 2025-29 2030-34

Projected Softwood Timber Consumption

-

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

2002

2005

2008

2011

2014

2017

2020

2023

2026

2029

2032

2035

2038

2041

2044

2047

2050

M3

Series A - Consumption Series B - Consumption Domestic Capacity

One Radiata Pine Rotation

Other Future Changes?

• Climate change

• Carbon trading/sequestration

• Salt credits

• Mass limits on transport vehicles

• Configurations of transport vehicles

Strategic Road Network

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Tumut

Gundagai

Henty

Batlow

AdelongTarcutta

Talbingo

Holbrook

Khancoban

Tumbarumba

Lake Hume

J ingellic

Wagga Wagga

Albury

Rosewood

Hume

High

way

Olym

pic W

ay

Snowy Mountains

Highway

Hume Highway

BloweringDam

TantangaraReservoir

Murray River

20 0 20 40 60 80 100 Kilometres

NState Roads

Regional Roads

Roads - Unclassified

River

Plantations & Native Forest

Nat. Park, Nat. Reserve etc

Figure 1.1Strategic Road Network

N

Detailed Road Network

Figure 3.1Detailed Road Network

N

10 0 10 20 30 40 50 Kilometres

State Roads

Regional Roads

Local Roads

Forest Roads

Haulage Classification

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BloweringDam

TantangaraReservoir

Jingellic Road

Bat low Ro ad

Adelo

ng R

oad

Snowy Mountains

Highway

Wagga Wagga -Tumbarumba Rd

Won

dalga

Roa

d

Elliott W

ay

Tooma Road

Maragle Road

Argalong Rd

Bombowlee Creek Rd

Gocup Road

Billap

aloola

Rd

Wee J

aspe

r Fo

rest R

oad

Coc k

a too R

d

Brindabella Rd

Snowy Mountains

Highway

Lower Bago Rd

Walteela Road

Willigobung Rd

Forest Road

Green Hills Access Rd

McD

onnells

Roa

d

Lochinvar Feeder Rd

Maginnitys Gap Road

Tumut

Batlow

Adelong

Gundagai

Tarcutta

Talbingo

Adaminaby

Tumbarumba

J ingellic

Hume

High

way

Proposed Rail Route

Shire Boundary

Plantations & Native Forest

National Parks and Reserves

Transport Impact of Visy’s Expansion Plans

Tonnage, tonnes per annum

Loaded B-double trips per annum

Stage

Tumut to Gundagai

Gundagai to Tumut

Tumut to Gundagai

Gundagai to Tumut

Current 52,000 148,000 1,486 4,229

Redirection of export to Sydney

202,000 148,000 5,771 4,229

Stage 2 Development

450,000 838,000 13,771 23,943

Actions to Date

• Softwoods Working Party been going for over 20 years – log haul strategies, socio economic studies, economic studies of transport routes.

• Roads to Recovery applications for projects across the region

• Lobbying - $5M from Feds in 1999; $4M from State in 2003

• Auslink application for reopening of Rail• Seats membership?