Jamax Forest Solutions

24/09/2025

Forestry Australia wrote to the Hon. Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, to express serious concern about recent statements by the NSW government linking the establishment of the Great Koala National Park to the ”successful registration of a carbon project under the [INFM] Method”. In the letter, President Dr Michelle Freeman said the perception of political influence that this announcement creates further erodes confidence in the ACCU Scheme at a critical time for Australia’s climate policy.

Chris Minns Prue Car MP Daniel Mookhey MLC Kate Washington MP Mark Buttigieg MLC Yasmin Catley MP Sophie Cotsis Paul Scully MP Courtney Houssos Jenny Aitchison MP Jihad Dib MP Ron Hoenig MP Tara Moriarty MLC Emily Suvaal Greg Warren MP Lynda Voltz MP Edmond Atalla MP Stephen Bali MP Anoulack Chanthivong Julia Finn MP Nathan Hagarty MP David Harris MP Charishma Kaliyanda Steve Kamper Dr Joe McGirr MP David Mehan MP Liesl Tesch MP Anthony D'Adam Taylor Martin MLC Tania Mihailuk MP Mark Banasiak Peter Primrose MLC Carpentry Australia Wes Fang MLC Michael Kemp MP Gurmesh Singh MP Timber & Forestry Enews Australian Forests & Timber News Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union

23/09/2025

From Sydney, Australia, to Washington, D.C., one of the world's most beautiful embassy buildings has been crowned the 2024 Australian Timber Design Awards winne

22/09/2025

Forestry Corp helps young riders take to the hills

Forestry Corporation, supporters of the Woolgoolga Mountain Bike Club, has commended the club’s members for turning the Wedding Bells State Forest and Mount Coramba trails into top-tier mountain biking destinations. Source: Timberbiz

The MTB Park in Wedding Bells State Forest, near Arrawarra, was developed following extensive planning and environmental assessments in consultation with local Garby elders.

In 2021, the club received a $400,000 Stronger Country Communities grant from the State Government.

The Woolgoolga Mountain Bike Club hosted three days of action when Rocky Trail Entertainment returned with two of its major events.

The North Coast edition of the Rocky Trail Academy schools’ event took place on Friday, September 19 followed by the Fox Superflow gravity enduro across the weekend at Mount Coramba.

The club has partnered with Forestry Corporation for almost a decade, establishing the mountain bike park, near Arrawarra and the downhill trails at Mount Coramba under State Forest permits.

“It’s fantastic that a local sporting group can literally build facilities with their own hands from the ground up in local State forests and attract events of this calibre. The club’s consistent effort and strong focus on children and women’s participation have transformed the sites into something really special. It’s such a great thing for the community,” Forestry Corporation Partnerships Leader Ryan Ellis said.

“The Wedding Bells site near Arrawarra continues to grow in popularity and is a great example of mixed forest use, with the area harvested in 2009 and hazard reduction burns successfully staged around bike infrastructure late last year.”

Woolgoolga Mountain Bike Club President Rory Evans said they were thrilled to help bring these majors events to the region.

“It’s a credit to everyone involved past and current members who’ve contributed countless volunteer hours to build and maintain this trail network. It’s fantastic to see riders from across the country travel to race in our backyard,” Mr Evans said.

Rocky Trail Entertainment Co-Founder Juliane Wisata said that these events are a powerful driver for the local economy.

“We expect to bring hundreds of competitors and their families to the Woolgoolga area, injecting a significant economic benefit into local businesses.

“It’s fantastic to see how facilities like those in Woolgoolga State Forest, with the support of Forestry Corporation and the local club, have created a fantastic community riding destination of regional and State significance that benefits both the community and the sport,” she said.

This year Rocky Trail Entertainment will host 20 events in NSW State Forests over 24 days of competition.

These events are expected to generate an estimated $2 million for local and regional economies attracting an estimated 1500 competitors and up to 1000 non-competing visitors to regional NSW.

19/09/2025

As reported in The Land, a Government spokesperson stated that “the majority of research confirms that timber harvesting has negative impacts on numerous threatened species, including Koalas.” https://www.theland.com.au/story/9065307/nsw-logging-halt-threatens-bush-jobs-and-koala-park-plan/

This is an outright LIE to justify the Minns Government's GKNP decision. Public servants and officers of Government are required to be honest, ethical, lawful and act in the best interests of the public. The question was asked in Parliament but evaded.
https://youtu.be/CjpekupZ-dw?si=MWKAbhMnA5hI7uwm

The Government's own scientists since 2015, including through the Black Summer fires, have discovered koalas are not impacted by well-regulated timber harvesting across the north coast, both on State forests and private property. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08013-6

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205075

Similar results were found from earlier work in the Pilliga https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR06126

Transcript: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Hansard/Pages/HansardResult.aspx #/docid/HANSARD-1820781676-101014/link/2262 The PRESIDENT: I call the Hon. Scot...

18/09/2025

More than 10x more expensive than actively managing State forests for biodiversity but not quite 2x as expensive as benign management of a National Park!!

Chris Minns Daniel Mookhey MLC Prue Car MP Tara Moriarty MLC

Nine landholders in southern New South Wales have agreed to keep 1,500 hectares of land protected for conservation in perpetuity.

The landholders are paid an average of $217 per hectare annually, and they can also apply for carbon credits.

The New South Wales Biodiversity Conservation Trust wants to find more land to conserve as biodiversity declines.

Full story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2025-09-18/locking-up-rural-farmland-for-conservation-nsw/105758786?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

Choose your news on the ABC NEWS app and stay in the know: https://ab.co/abcnewsapp

16/09/2025

Suspicions confirmed

16/09/2025

I can never quite understand the ENGOs blind opposition to bioenergy from biomass (plant waste material) as the material ultimately gets burnt in the next fire or rots away, releasing carbon back into the atmosphere, which is where it came from originally.

To my way of thinking, instead of digging up carbon that has been fixed underground for millennia in coal or gas, aren't we better off recycling the carbon that has already been more recently removed from the atmosphere by plants? Better still, why not use material left over from producing timber and wood products that again store carbon (semi) permanently, while regrowing new vegetation in its place ready to absorb even more carbon!

Why not make use of existing infrastructure to recycle carbon, rather using it as it was designed for ........ to release "new" carbon back into the atmosphere after millennia??

The Independent Planning Commission of NSW knocks back plans to restart Redbank Power Station in the Hunter Valley, fuelling it with biomass instead of coal tailings.

16/09/2025

Koala Park Could Kill Off the Aussie Dream

The NSW Minns Labor Government’s announcement of the Great Koala National Park has sent shockwaves through Australia’s housing and timber industries, with timber prices already spiking 50% in the last week.

The move, while celebrated by conservation groups, comes at a time when Australia is grappling with a housing affordability crisis and growing reliance on imported timber. In 2024, Australia imported 46% of its solid timber needs, despite being the 7th most forested country in the world.

Industry experts warn the government’s decision to further restrict access to native forests could “kill off the Aussie dream” of home ownership, as builders, families, and first-home buyers bear the brunt of soaring construction costs. Hardwood timber - which makes up one-third of the timber used in the average single or double-storey detached home - will be hardest hit by the new restrictions.

“This announcement pushes Australia deeper into dependence on imports at the very time we should be backing local, sustainable supply. Every new house just became tens of thousands of dollars more expensive,” said Mr Steve Dobbyns, Chair of Forest & Wood Communities Australia (FWCA).

FWCA has already been contacted by several businesses throughout the timber supply chain and downstream manufactures who say their suppliers have already advised of immediate price increases "because of these new koala sanctuaries that have affected multi mills that supply the timber".

With local production squeezed, the shortfall will increasingly be filled by imports from countries that operate under lower environmental and sustainability standards than Australia’s world-class forestry industry. Experts warn this shift not only undermines Australian jobs but also drives up the nation’s carbon footprint, as imported timber is shipped thousands of kilometres to reach local builders and builders turn to more carbon intensive alternative materials.

“It’s a bitter irony,” said Mr Dobbyns, “Australia is one of the most forested nations on earth, with some of the strongest environmental protections anywhere. Instead of using our resources responsibly, we’re now outsourcing supply to countries with weaker standards and higher emissions.”

With the housing crisis already biting, FWCA says this latest policy could mark the end of the great Australian dream of owning a home for many Aussies.

Chris Minns Prue Car MP Daniel Mookhey MLC Kate Washington MP Mark Buttigieg MLC Yasmin Catley MP Sophie Cotsis Paul Scully MP Courtney Houssos Jenny Aitchison MP Jihad Dib MP Ron Hoenig MP Tara Moriarty MLC Greg Warren MP Lynda Voltz MP Edmond Atalla MP Stephen Bali MP Anoulack Chanthivong Julia Finn MP David Harris MP Charishma Kaliyanda Steve Kamper David Mehan MP Liesl Tesch MP Tania Mihailuk MP Mark Banasiak Peter Primrose MLC Carpentry Australia Wes Fang MLC

16/09/2025

Workers betrayed for koalas

Independent MPs: "We care about people!" Reality: Ditch injured workers' protections for a mega-park that sounds cute but kills regional economies. Full GKNP? More like full betrayal. Sydney elite vs. real workers—guess who loses?

16/09/2025

Ray Hadley calls out the Great Koala National Park con job.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/awv9n938ax58gl43z8s1m/Ray-Hadley-12092025-DT-audio.m4a?rlkey=5x5zdb50kshf6t1ui61dp5tj6&st=oks8conm&dl=0

Chris Minns Prue Car MP Daniel Mookhey MLC Kate Washington MP Mark Buttigieg MLC Yasmin Catley MP Sophie Cotsis Paul Scully MP Courtney Houssos Jenny Aitchison MP Jihad Dib MP Ron Hoenig MP Tara Moriarty MLC Emily Suvaal Greg Warren MP Lynda Voltz MP Edmond Atalla MP Stephen Bali MP Anoulack Chanthivong Julia Finn MP Nathan Hagarty MP David Harris MP Charishma Kaliyanda Steve Kamper Dr Joe McGirr MP David Mehan MP Liesl Tesch MP Anthony D'Adam Taylor Martin MLC Tania Mihailuk MP Mark Banasiak Peter Primrose MLC Carpentry Australia Wes Fang Timber NSW

Everyone loves koalas – but Ray Hadley says the Minns government’s koala park plan won’t save them, blasting it as an emotive push that ignores science and threatens thousands of timber jobs. WATCH ▶️ https://bit.ly/4mZ2qgv

15/09/2025

No credible plan for workers losing jobs to koalas

The NSW Government’s decision for a huge Great Koala National Park will mean 300 people lose their jobs. But more than 750 jobs will be directly affected through the area, and the government does not have a credible plan for new employment options. Source: Timberbiz

CEO of the Australian Forest Contractors Association Tim Lester said World Bank data shows that every dollar generated by forestry multiplies 2.5 times through the economy. The economic analysis commissioned by the government showed the average worker in forestry has 2.5 times the earnings of hospitality.

“Forestry workers are integral in their communities. The money they earn is spent in local businesses, their kids go to the local schools, they volunteer for community groups. Like a supermarket in a shopping mall, a forestry workforce pulls in and facilitates a broader economic and community life in rural and regional areas,” Mr Lester said.

“The decision to create a park is not just affecting 300 workers and families, it multiplies and changes the dynamics of whole towns across the region. This decision immediately wipes out 40% of the timber supply from the north coast, an industry that employs 5,700 people and generates $1.8 billion. You can’t strip back that volume and not expect any impact on other businesses and jobs.

“Where are all the new tourists going to come from? And why will they behave differently to every other National Park visitor by supporting small town services such as mechanics, solicitors and accountants? The promise of an economic boon for locals and businesses is a mirage but the loss of $730 million will be keenly felt.”

Mr Lester said that State forests were managed for forest health and a balance of uses between conservation, recreation and sustainable timber production. It has been a successful model for more than a century.

He said the new park would not protect koalas from any actual threats and risks doing the opposite. But the impacts on workers, families and affected communities were very real and well known.

“We are extremely disappointed that the NSW Government has chosen to ignore the considered input of its own expert panel which could have secured a win-win outcome. Our towns and communities will pay the price,” Mr Lester said.

Chris Minns Prue Car MP Daniel Mookhey MLC Kate Washington MP Mark Buttigieg MLC Yasmin Catley MP Sophie Cotsis Paul Scully MP Courtney Houssos Jenny Aitchison MP Jihad Dib MP Ron Hoenig MP Tara Moriarty MLC Emily Suvaal Greg Warren MP Lynda Voltz MP Edmond Atalla MP Stephen Bali MP Anoulack Chanthivong Julia Finn MP Nathan Hagarty MP David Harris MP Charishma Kaliyanda Steve Kamper Dr Joe McGirr MP David Mehan MP Liesl Tesch MP Anthony D'Adam Taylor Martin MLC Tania Mihailuk MP Mark Banasiak Peter Primrose MLC Carpentry Australia Alex Greenwich Wes Fang

15/09/2025

“If we’re going to mitigate the climate and extinction crises, we need to supply more of our own timber domestically, rather than rely on high risk countries to grow the wood for us.

“Farm forestry has got enormous potential to reduce our reliance on imported wood products.”

With demand for timber accelerating, aligning cattle and timber production on grazing properties is seen as a major opportunity to strengthen both sectors while also producing a range of environmental benefits - provided policy settings can catch up, a conference in Brisbane on Tuesday was told...Re...