The Crisafulli Government’s 25-year Queensland Future Timber Plan will lock in native forest logging until 2050 and grow the state’s forestry plantations by 25,000 hectares.
Around 300,000 hectares of state forest are currently under licence for plantation production.
The timber plan allows ‘sustainable and environmentally responsible selective harvesting of native hardwood to continue in state-owned and privately owned native forests’.
This throws out the previous Labor Government’s plan to end native forest logging in SEQ by the end of 2024.
IMAGE of native forest in southern Queensland by Tyron Venn
Primary Industries Minister Tony Perrett said the Queensland Future Timber Plan would help rebuild Queensland’s forestry and timber industry to build more homes for Queenslanders.
‘We’ve delivered… a plan that will secure the timber needed for one million homes by 2044.’
Minister Perrett said the plan delivered certainty and uninterrupted supply with new sales permits to be issued in 2026 for state-owned native hardwood supply in forests outside the southeast corner.
Minister Tony Perrett
There will be no reintroduction of native timber harvesting from state-owned native forests within the South East Queensland Regional Plan area (from Noosa in the north to Robina in the south and west to Toowomba).
SEQ regional plan area
Timber Queensland, the peak body for the forest and timber industry, welcomed the Queensland Future Timber Plan, describing it as a balanced and forward-looking strategy that provided long-overdue certainty for the sector and regional communities.
‘This plan is a major step forward for Queensland’s forest and timber industry,’ said Timber Queensland Acting CEO, Clarissa Brandt.
‘Priority actions we hope to see include a targeted planting program to expand plantation resources and support downstream processing, long-term crown resource contracts for native hardwood beyond 2026 and a world-class, industry-led forestry extension service partnering with private landholders and First Nations communities’, Ms Brandt said.
An HQPlantations spokeswoman said with demand for housing growing, the new timber plan would ensure the industry could supply future needs for timber, provide certainty and increase opportunities for regional timber growing areas such as Gympie.
‘We are yet to see what mechanisms will be put in place to encourage plantation expansion and will consider these as the opportunity arises,’ the spokeswoman said.
Queensland Conservation Council CEO Dave Copeman said the plan presented ‘a worrying vision to continue overcutting and degrading biodiversity and carbon values of the state’s unique native forests outside the southeast corner’.
Queensland Conservation Council CEO Dave Copeman
‘Locking in a 25-year promise to continue logging native forests and killing endangered animals like greater gliders is a tragically misguided decision that is out of step with other states.
‘Victoria and Western Australia have ceased native forest logging completely in the last few years,’ Mr Copeman said.
Mayor of key forestry region welcomes plan
Central Queensland and Wide Bay Burnett hold significant native hardwood and softwood plantations and Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig welcomed the Queensland Future Timber Plan.
‘We welcome the State Government’s support for a significant industry in Gympie,’ Mayor Hartwig said.
Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig IMAGE by Vivienne Wynter
‘There is a long, proud history of timber farming in Gympie and of sustainable harvesting practices to ensure the forests are maintained for all time. This resource can be extracted in ways that are not detrimental to forests.’
Mayor Hartwig said council was supportive of more active management of state forests to manage fire hazards and trails ‘because they have not been properly managed for the past couple of decades’.
‘Council looks forward to future State Government announcements to support this industry.’
