The presentation was made during the two-day congregation by board chair Dr Tony Bartlett, who said the award acknowledged Dr Drielsma’s tireless contribution to the organisation and PEFC International spanning more than 20 years.

Dr Drielsma was presented with a plaque crafted from Responsible Wood-certified Tasmanian Huon pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii).

Outgoing board member Dr Kerrie Catchpoole was also formally thanked for her valued service and contributions over the past three-plus years. She was presented with a timber chest made frompencil cedar (Polyscias murray) sourced from Queensland and handcrafted by John Muller, past president and life member of the Blackall Range Woodcrafters Guild Inc (the Woodies) on the Sunshine Coast.

The board also welcomed its newest member, Tara Pederson, who brings extensive operational expertise from the forestry sector.

Organised by the Timber Preservers Association of Australia, the forum is designed as a “hybrid” of traditional conferences and interactive workshops.

“This will ensure delegates don’t just listen but actively participate in shaping the future of our industry,” said TPAA national secretary and conference coordinator Jack Norton.

Sessions will include global research initiatives in relations to the latest national and international wood protection development, super critical treatment and why this technology deserves close consideration; market expectations – what the government and retail sectors demand for preserved wood; operations and sustainability – managing waste and product quality testing management in preservative operations; and, importantly, industry standards and an introduction to the new TPAA Code of Conduct.

The conference venue is the Swiss-Belhotel in Brisbane, located in the heart of Woolloongabba, next to the iconic Gabba Cricket Grounds, and offering excellent facilities.

Conferenced capacity is limited to 80 delegates – best in, best dressed! Registration cost is $196 p.p., which covers the full 1.5-day forum, two hours of drinks and a BBQ dinner. Parking is available across the road for $10 a day (detailed instructions to follow). Also, a major bus station is located just two blocks away.

Specially negotiated accommodation rates are available. All room rates include a continental breakfast plus one hot menu item. Superior room (King or King Split) is $199 per night, and a deluxe room (King or King Split) is $219 per night.

Why attend?

Jack Norton said that while we use digital tools for daily tasks, nothing beats the value of face-to-face connection.

“This forum is as much about the ‘dark corner’ conversations and networking as it is about technical sessions,” he said. “Come share a meal, a drink, and a story with your peers in the beautiful Brisbane winter, and if there is a specific challenge or topic you’d like to see discussed during the workshopping sessions, let me know.”

For more information, visit the TPAA website today.

Editor’s note: Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem solving, perception and decision-making.

It is a field of research in computer science that develops and studies methods and software that enable machines to perceive their environment and use learning and intelligence to take actions that maximise their chances of achieving defined goals.

An unyielding principle sustains the growth of the Ta Ann Group’s rotary veneer peeling enterprise in Tasmania – a high-tech operation that uses innovative concepts to transform low-grade eucalypts into high-value products.

“The real story is the company’s origins and its belief that there is no alternative to sustainable development,” says Ta Ann director and respected forester David Ridley.

The Malaysian-based company opened its first purpose-built mill in the Huon district in 2007, and the second at Smithton in the state’s north-west, a combined $79 million investment utilising Japanese, German and Malaysian technologies and supporting more than 160 jobs.

So, how has Ta Ann developed using a low-quality, but sustainable resource?

“First we established the markets, then the expertise in manufacturing,” Ridley said. “And there were many reasons to invest in Tasmania – a 20-year wood supply agreement, an approved site ready for investment and the customer’s preferences for forest certification in place.

“This was all mixed with a desire for the sustainable development of a sustainable resource.”

Ta Ann operates on an agreed 20-year wood supply from Forestry Tasmania – 115,000 cubic metres at Smithton and 150,000 cubic metres at the Huon mill, with recoveries of about 50% of the sales volume.

The mills have an international competitive advantage, producing strong and durable rotary eucalypt veneers from logs that were previously only suitable for wood chipping, which meet international requirements for forest management sustainability and chain-of-custody certification.

The export market is focused on Malaysia, Japan and China, with the range of ply products increasing to include shipping container flooring, laminated veneer lumber and new decorative floor products.

Shipments to Malaysia are made every 3 to 4 months.

David Ridley says Ta Ann’s processing technology and market strategy draw on the inherent properties of eucalypts and a sales partnership developed over more than 20 years.

“This strategy also included partial manufacture in Tasmania and completion of the product closer to export markets,” he said.

“Our first step has been to produce veneer and manufacture plywood in Malaysia, but ultimately we will manufacture plywood at our Tasmanian mills.”

With an investment of $790 million, Mr Ridley says Ta Ann’s resource security is still the key to the future.

“If the resource is available. We can do more. We have room at the Smithton mill for another peeling line.”

Mr Ridley said the current forest conflict in Tasmania was a test of the company’s sovereign risk.

“We were invited to establish our operations by the Tasmanian and federal governments, so this is the basis on which we must go forward,” he said.

“We’re here to add value, which is an obligation to government requirements, so we would expect them to address the sovereign risk issues.

“We are looking at further value-added growth plans and job creation as we face challenges out of the global financial crisis and the high Australian dollar.

“I would expect that this would be part of the swings and roundabouts in any decisions made in the current process,” he said.

Editor’s note: Ta Ann was founded by a group of entrepreneurial Sarawakians in the 1980s who have grown the company from a small timber-trading firm to a public-listed corporation with global footprints. Interests now encompass timber, oil palm and other agricultural products.

A cornerstone of the company is a commitment towards sustainable development. This led to one of the first forest plantations in Sarawak, and to date, the company has achieved sustainable certification in all operational forest and oil palm units.

Ta Ann was established in Tasmania in 2005 to better use previously woodchipped eucalypt regrowth log billets by peeling them to produce a high-value veneer for domestic and international markets.

Originally, the company invested more than over $79 million to develop two veneer mills – a Huon mill built in 2007 and a Smithton mill in 2008. Subsequent changes to wood supply and market conditions led Ta Ann to change direction in 2015, commissioning a new plywood manufacturing plant at Smithton with an installed capacity of 24,000 cubic metres a year.

When at full production, the plywood plant would have injected $20 million into the local economy each year.

However, after multiple attacks by ENGOs, the Malaysia-based Ta Ann Group decided to quit Tasmania, closing two sustainable mills that employed more than 100 workers, following a historic forest peace deal that was voted down by the state’s upper house.

The OAM recognises Australians who have demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievement, providing an opportunity to honour select individuals for their hard work and dedication.

Barry and his brother Keith managed and developed their family business, Fagg’s Mitre 10, from 1980 for more than three decades, before the business became a joint venture company in 2012. They are strong supporters of the Victorian forest industry, supplying Faggs is the eighth oldest family business in Australia, and it is still part owned by a direct descendant of one of its founders Samuel Fagg

The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, competes in the Australian Football League, the sport’s premier competition. The club, formed in 1859, is the second oldest AFL side after Melbourne and one of the oldest football clubs in the world. Barry Fagg joined the club board in 2020 and was appointed a club director.

Barry’s impact has stretched to all corners of his local community, including his work with Anam Cara House Geelong as an Ambassador. He also served as president and campaign director of Give Where You Live, was the inaugural director of the Geelong Community Foundation, along with stints at the Geelong Art Gallery and Geelong College School Council.

The OAM is well deserved recognition for Barry who was previously awarded Centenary of Federation Medal (2001) and the Geelong’s annual Leadership Award (2012).

Faggs Mitre 10 is a respected long-time member of the National Timber & Hardware Association (NTHA) which represents more than 700 members across Australia from the timber, hardware, and building materials industries. The association was created after the successful merger of the Timber and Building Materials Association (TABMA) and Hardware Australia in March 2023.

In this 2008 flashback, senior editor Jim Bowden spoke with Anderton, who responded to a call by the Sustainability Council for agriculture to enter the ETS immediately and pay full liabilities for emissions above 1990 levels.

“We need to remember that New Zealand is the first country in the world to consider bringing the agriculture sector into an emissions trading scheme. This is not a small matter and there are significant challenges to overcome,” Anderton said.

“The agriculture sector is the most important source of export income for New Zealand, representing around 65% of total merchandise exports.

“By phasing agriculture into the ETS over time and in a measured way the taxpayer is actually investing in a transition that benefits the economy as a whole. It is true that the costs are being shared about and managed in a pragmatic way, but the alternative would create too violent a shock for businesses.”

Anderton said the Sustainability Council had identified mitigation opportunities for agriculture, but none had been accepted internationally – as yet – and therefore did not qualify for carbon reductions in New Zealand’s carbon accounts.

At present, the European Union considers that bringing the agriculture sector into its emissions trading scheme would be impractical.

“The New Zealand government made a promise to the sector back in 2003 not to introduce a price measure on the sector in the first commitment period as long as the sector invests in research, which the sector is doing,” Anderton said.

The government has undertaken to work with the agriculture sector to explore whether a farm level point of obligation would be feasible or cost-effective, which would represent a whole new order of magnitude of complexity with more than 30,000 possible participants.

“Farmers are not getting let off the hook here; they are also large energy and fuel users and will be paying the carbon costs associated with these in 2009-10 like every other business and household in New Zealand,” Anderton said.

“Meat and dairy processors will also face increased costs from 2009-10 and these are likely to be passed on to farmers.

“Furthermore, the sector will be responsible for all of the growth in methane and nitrous oxide above 90% of 2005 emissions when it comes into the scheme in 2013, so the clock has already begun ticking. It is for this reason the Government is already working closely with the sector on developing and implementing technologies to reduce emissions.”

Peter was a devoted supporter of Timber Queensland and served on the board in the early days of TABMA Queensland (now the National Timber and Hardware Association).

In 1983, he brokered a deal with former employer Ron Versace to purchase Versace Timbers, a small timber merchant in the back blocks of Wavell Heights. For the company to grow, a new site was required, so Peter set out to find a suitable property in Virginia, close to the Brisbane CBD.

In 2005, the new site was up and running. Not long after this, with his four boys now in the business, Peter retired … “it was time to explore Australia”.

Founded in July 1956 by Ron Versace milling timber logs at Wavell Heights, Versace Timbers is today a family owned and operated timber supplier.

Managing director Graham Leddy, after graduating from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Commerce and working in a truss and frame plant at Geebung in Brisbane, he spent three years in Darwin working for a corporate bookmaker before joining the company then run by his father in 1998.

After learning the business under his father’s tutelage Graham took over the day-to-day running of the business with the assistance of his three brothers who look after the production plant, accounts and the Virginia operations. Versace Timbers now has a staff of 55 and operates out of more than 6000 sq m of yards and offices.

The company has a wide level of services to customers that include renovators, general builders, new home builders and resort builders, dealing in only in high quality sustainable timbers supplied by, among others, Hyne Timber, Tilling Timber, Simmonds Lumber, Carter Holt Harvey and ITI Queensland.

In 2012 the company was judged Best Building Materials Centre Metro at the Queensland Timber Awards.

“With more than 100 years of collective knowledge as timber wholesalers, our experience has shown us that over the years times do change, products do change and even faces do change,” reflected Graham Leddy.

“The one thing that should not change is service. We believe that dedicated support and ongoing attention to detail should never be outdated and for this philosophy we thank our dad.”

Peter Leddy was also a long-serving member of Brisbane Hoo-Hoo Club 218 carrying the Hoo-Hoo International badge number 83206. He served with the Australian Army during the Vietnam conflict in 1968.

Peter is survived by his wife of 55 years Kerry, his four boys, Graham, Bill, Doug and Josh, and 10 grandchildren.

Peter’s life will be celebrated at Pinnaroo Cemetery and Crematorium Chapel, 285 Graham Road, Bridgeman Downs, on Tuesday, December 23 at 11 am.

The low-grade logs are a by-product of an existing FPC operation to thin and export logs from 3500 ha of radiata pine planted around the region in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Plantation Energy executive director Gavin Harper said the company was constructing Australia’s first industrial-scale timber fuel pellet plant, scheduled for completion early next year at Albany’s Mirambeena timber precinct. The finished fuel pellets will be exported for domestic and industrial heating.

FPC general manager Dr Paul Biggs said the new contract would help increase the profitability of the Albany radiata plantation operations for all parties – landowners, harvesting and transportation contractors, the FPC and Plantation Energy.

“In any form of primary production, it was always important to minimise wastage and extract the best possible value from the resource,” Dr Biggs said.

“Finding a way to add value to this low-grade resource to manufacture and export a renewable energy fuel product is better for the environment, and at the same time, it will help the entire plantation industry become more profitable.”

Biggs said this was an excellent example of the FPC partnering with industry to produce a win-win-win for the triple bottom line of environmental, economic and social sustainability,” he said.

Gavin Harper said Plantation Energy had been developing the fuel pellet concept at Albany for several years before formally launching the company in 2006. “The new plant will bring total investment in excess of $20 million to the Albany region, with significant further investment planned in other regions,” Harper said.

“The new plant will create around 12-15 full-time permanent jobs in Albany, with additional short-term positions during the construction phase. The operation will also employ local contractors supporting the plantation industry in the Great Southern region with the associated general economic benefits to local suppliers and service industries.”

Harper said using fuel pellets sourced from sustainably managed plantations instead of fossil fuels would make a significant contribution to reducing global carbon emissions.

Studies by the Insulation Council of Australia and New Zealand (ICANZ) and the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation (FWPRDC) have confirmed that, with very limited changes, suspended timber floor construction can easily exceed a 5-star rating.

Commissioned independently by FWPRDC and ICANZ, both studies provide homeowners, building designers, and builders with a selection of simple, cost-effective options to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

Trevor Lee, director of buildings with Energy Partners and one of the FWPRDC report’s authors, says the study identified 10 top techniques for improving the calculated efficiency rating for suspended timber floor houses across hot, temperate, and cool climates.

The preconception of numerous builders, energy raters and general consumers that dwellings with suspended timber floors could not simply and cost-effectively achieve a 5-star energy rating have been dispelled by the Energy Partners report.

“In all climates, the two most effective techniques alone were sufficient to increase the rating by more than a star,” says Lee.

“Various techniques will be more suited to warmer or colder climates. But ceiling and wall insulation are always important in all climates for achieving a high star rating,” he said.

ICANZ president Dennis D’Arcy says it is as simple as making smarter use of existing low-cost options, such as increasing wall and ceiling insulation, installing ceiling fans, better glazing and draft proofing.

“The 5-Star Building Code of Australia and the NSW BASIX energy efficiency provisions can easily and cost-effectively be achieved,” he said.

The two reports also independently support Bernard Hocking’s in-field experience as a technical consultant for the Association of Building Sustainability Assessors (ABSA), who says, “Timber, plus smart design and the right insulation in the right place, makes achieving 5-Star and BASIX easy.”

In May 2006, the Building Code of Australia (BCA) raised the energy-efficiency requirements for all new houses to the 5-star standard. At the time, the Australian timber industry protested that the BCA had over-emphasised increasing thermal mass in house design, materials and construction as the primary means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There was widespread belief that timber was not getting a fair go.

That was supported by a Productivity Commission report on energy efficiency, saying, “The commission is concerned that the analytical basis for these regulations [computer simulations of energy loads within buildings in each climate code] may be flawed”.

The AccuRate software used to determine 5-Star rating in Australia was developed using a ‘thermal mass’ philosophy. But timber frame construction is generally lightweight and thus penalised in terms of its performance and the maximum rating score that can be achieved.

Greg Nolan, associate professor at the Timber Research Unit, School of Architecture University of Tasmania (UTA), says the system is not deliberately unfair if you only look at operational heating and cooling.

“However, if you look at the whole energy picture, the low embodied energy of timber is not recognised,” Nolan said.

“Also, the dominant view of those involved for many years in thermal performance issues has been that the high mass house is good. This is true if conditions are good, but not the case once you lose a predominantly north orientation.

“So, one might observe that the benchmark has been pegged so that a slab house is generally just acceptable, and its timber floor equivalent is generally just not acceptable.”

Nolan says there are also factors that could improve the thermal performance of timber, and all other houses, that don’t get much attention in the regulations – like air infiltration.

Nolan believes the AccuRate computer model is very sophisticated for what it does but notes that there are some big assumptions. “The stated aim of the BCA is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using energy efficiently. But the only types of energy considered when designing housing are heating and cooling energy, modeled to maintain an assumed level of thermal comfort.

“There is no guarantee that people actually operate the building this way, or that heating and cooling are the main forms of energy use. Other types of energy use, such as the energy embodied in the materials and the energy to run appliances, get little or no attention.

“And as The Age reported recently, in Victoria energy usage for new 5-Star houses is actually on average far in excess of older houses – all because people have bigger homes, more downlights and other high-energy gizmos.”

Nolan also questions the veracity of the 5-Star process, particularly as the things that have to be done during construction to meet the requirements are not actually inspected!

“Also, there has been very little testing against Australian construction practice. This means that things can be happening on the building site that negate many of the things that the regulations originally intended. Combine that with no inspections and you can see that the regulations mean well but can’t be guaranteed to deliver on their intent.”

Nolan’s suggestions to building designers looking to improve thermal efficiency of Australian houses in cool and cold climates include:

•  Adequately and correctly install insulation.

•  Wrap the building and tape all joints.

•  Fill gaps around windows, doors and sub floor openings.

• Use double glazed timber windows.

• Put living spaces on the sunny side.

•  Provide eaves and other devices to shade windows that get too much summer sun.

Editor’s note paradigmatic error: A recent study House Energy Rating Systems (HERS) by a group at the University of Adelaide School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design concluded that there was little indication HERS worldwide were based on robust evidence. In fact, a likely source of paradigmatic error can be recognised in all HERS. Rather than producing policy framings on the basis of actual energy consumption, as recorded in ‘real’ households, policy makers and their advisers have focused on specifying the physical properties of construction, informed by data developed by simulation, with the building theoretically emptied of [its] unruly occupants and replaced by model ‘visual’ inhabitants.

“The differences between theoretical results and the real outcomes ‘out there’ if detected are attributed almost entirely, with negligible evidence, to the ‘rebounds’ effects,” say the authors Terry Williamson, Veronica Soebarto, Helen Bennetts and Antony Radford.

“Research by social scientists looking at this issue tells us, not surprisingly, that the difference most likely lies in the fact that houses are inhabited and controlled by real [not virtual] people”, the authors assert.

Meanwhile, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects has called for more government action and incentives to cut energy emissions – particularly in existing buildings.

“Improving energy efficiency in new buildings, particularly new homes, doesn’t always require advanced and expensive high-tech solutions,” says RAIA national president Alec Tzannes.

“Smart design such as sun shading and natural ventilation, better insulation and using recycled building materials can help make a difference, and still allow us to maintain a high quality of comfort.”

A more pressing challenge, he says, is to achieve energy efficiency in existing buildings, where targets and incentives to accelerate refurbishment were needed.

The book Paradise Preserved: A History of Forestry on Fraser Island by veteran forester Robert Onfray presents more than a century of documented evidence that challenges the dominant narrative about the world’s largest sand island.

“The forests that tourists admire today were shaped by 120 years of professional management, not left untouched,” says Onfray, who spent over 40 years in forestry across Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania.

The book was launched in Brisbane on Wednesday at the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, with further presentations scheduled for Maryborough on Thursday and Gympie on Monday, November 17.

“Yet this history is being deliberately erased,” he said.

The 366-page book draws on extensive archival research, historical photographs, and interviews with forestry workers and their families to document Fraser Island’s timber industry from the 1860s through to logging’s cessation in 1991.

But Onfray’s work goes beyond history. With catastrophic bushfires increasingly linked to fuel load buildup from fire suppression policies, the book’s findings have urgent contemporary relevance.

“We’re seeing the results of hands-off management across Australian forests – more intense fires, invasive species takeovers, and ecosystem decline,” Onfray explains.

“Fraser Island demonstrates that active, science-based management produced healthier forests than ideological preservation.”

The book documents sustained yield practices, forest regeneration data, and silvicultural techniques that maintained productive forests while preserving biodiversity. It also examines current management challenges including fire mismanagement, tourism impacts, and problematic dingo policies.

“As fire historian Stephen Pyne wrote: “What thrives on disturbance dies in its absence,'” Onfray notes. “Australian eucalypt forests are fire creatures. The evidence from Fraser Island proves this.”

Onfray worked on Fraser Island as a forestry student in the 1980s, experiencing firsthand the remote areas few visitors ever see. His research includes access to William Pettigrew’s diaries, Queensland State Archives, and the McKenzie family photo collection documenting early 20th-century operations.

Paradise Preserved: A History of Forestry on Fraser Island features a foreword by renowned mountaineer and forestry advocate Tim Macartney-Snape OAM, who climbed Mount Everest from sea level to summit and studied forestry at ANU.

The book was published by Connor Court Publishing and includes historical photographs, original maps of tramlines and logging areas, and comprehensive technical appendices.

FWPA managing director Dr Glen Kile said work has already begun on the campaign, with the Sydney-based marketing firm Sherbon and Osborn appointed to lead the project. He said the principals of the firm, Chris Sherbon and Richard Osborn, had experience with other forest-related and environmental issues for industry groups and government, and had worked for companies such as CSR, Boral, P&O, and Qantas, dealing with issues management, brand positioning, trends in product use, and changing social attitudes.

“The change from the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation to Forest and Wood Products Australia allows us to take a more active role in the promotion of wood products,” Kile said. “We will be working with our stakeholders across the forest industry value chain in developing and implementing this campaign,” he said “Our aim is to help dispel some of the myths about wood products and to promote their environmental benefits. Qualitative market research to find out what customers actually think about wood products will be the first step.”

FWPA consulted with peak associations to establish an industry reference group to assist with the development of the promotion campaign. Group members met with the consultants in Sydney for the first time on February 15.

The development phase of the campaign is expected to take around six months.
Kile said a positive campaign would promote the environmental credentials of wood and support the growth of the industry and the sustainable use of wood products in Australia. Industry reference group members for the project include Kathryn Adams, David Angus, Christine Briggs, Andrew Dunn, Neil Fisher, Ron Green, John Halkett, Douglas Head, Ken Jeffreys and Catherine Murphy.

FWPA was established in September 2007 as a not-for-profit organisation aimed at promoting the use of wood products and supporting the Australian forest and wood products industry. FWPA collaborates with government and industry stakeholders to enhance the market for forest and wood products, focusing on sustainability, innovation and research development.

The organisation also provides resources and education about wood products, including initiatives such as WoodSolutions, which offers information and resources for professionals in building design and construction.

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The National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) was the ‘cradle’ for the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation and the Forest and Wood Products Australia

Established in 1986, NAFI was an initiative of senior forest industry executives, state forest services and state forest associations, unions and CSIRO. NAFI’s vision was for an ecologically sustainable Australian society based, in part, on dynamic, internationally competitive forest industries. Activities were funded entirely by its members who between them represented all facets of the forestry industry and produced most of Australia’s forest output.

The NAFI’s charter included representing members by promoting environmental responsibility and the prosperity of Australian forest industries. The key role was to present the forest industries’ views to the people of Australia, governments and public authorities on matters relating to the national development and use of forests and forest products, including plantations. NAFI also promoted community awareness of the forest industries by providing information and educational materials to the broader community.

In all its activities, NAFI presented a critical analysis of available research and other scientific information and provided a national voice for the hundreds of firms and thousands of individuals who comprised the Australian forest industries.

Jim Bowdeen, now senior editor of Wood Central, founded the Australian Timberman in 1977 and in 1987 committed his resources to promoting the aims and objectives of NAFI and all it stood for. He was among the first to be granted associate membership, presented by NAFI inaugural president Dick Darnock, Weyerhaeuser, and executive director Tim O’Sullivan, with the certificate number 074.