More than 80 stakeholders in the Australian Research Council’s Research Hub to Advance Timber for Australia’s Future Built Environment gathered at The University of Queensland on November 22 for a strategic planning day which recapitulated 2023, the year of the hub’s establishment.
The ‘hybrid’ event linked 44 national and international participant organisations showcasing their large collaboration, the hub’s strategic direction and proposed research projects under its eight research nodes.
The ARC Advance Timber Hub aims to develop the resources, enablers and drivers to advance timber as a natural resource – “the material of choice” – leading towards a net zero future for Australia’s built environment.
“The hub has built a large partnership of organisations that believe in its strategic vision, mission and purpose,” said hub director Professor Keith Crews in his welcoming address.
Key points were:
The Vision – to transform Australia’s timber and construction sectors by stimulating rapid growth in timber innovation and uptake of use of sustainably produced timber and timber products in buildings, and the mission and purpose.
Professor Crews said the ARC Advance Timber Hub existed to enable an advanced manufacturing transformation of Australia’s timber and construction industries through creation of innovative solutions.
“This includes developing a roadmap to change that unlocks substantial value and transformative benefits for industry, society and the environment,” he said.
“The hub has built a strong foundation with stakeholders who want to transform the Australian timber and construction industry through their commitment to collaboration and willingness to provide practical support and perspective across the full value chain.”
Professor Crews added: “Collaboration and an understanding how various nodes support and inform one another’s research is critical to how this hub will operate.”
Timber processing at the planning day was represented by industry innovators such as AKD, the Hyne Group, Multinail, Peikko, Loggo IP and Simpson Strong-Tie.
On the demand side are Megawall Australia, Lendlease Construction, Rubner Holzbau (construction); Meta-Mate, CLT Toolbox (construction technology); ARUP, Aurecon, Lendlease Digital, Northrop, Robert Bird Group and TTW (design); BVN, Tzannes (architecture); and Bloom Fire Consulting, Hydrock Consulting and Semper (fire engineering).
Forestry and government stakeholder groups include the NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, along with groups dedicated to delivering regional and timber-system transitions – Forest and Wood Products Australia, the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia, Indufor, Timber Queensland and Responsible Wood.
This is strengthened by chief investigators from 11 Australian universities and partner investigators from five international universities and research institutes.
The ARC Advance Timber Hub is administered by The University of Queensland’s School of Civil Engineering and is funded by its partners with major support from the federal government through the Australian Research Council.
In total, the hub has close to $16.5 million in funding ($7.4m cash and $9.1m in-kind) to deliver a comprehensive research and development program over the next five years.
The ARC Advance Timber Hub will be officially opened by the Australian Research Council on January 31, 2024.
On the demand side are Megawall Australia, Lendlease Construction, Rubner Holzbau (construction); Meta-Mate, CLT Toolbox (construction technology); ARUP, Aurecon, Lendlease Digital, Northrop, Robert Bird Group and TTW (design); BVN, Tzannes (architecture); and Bloom Fire Consulting, Hydrock Consulting and Sempe (fire engineering).
consulting engineer Loggo IP, John Mangan, Emeritus Professor, Australian
Institute for Business and Economics University of Queensland, and Toby
Hodsdon, senior structural engineer, ARUP.
Forestry and government stakeholder groups include the NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, along with groups dedicated to delivering regional and timber-system transitions – Forest and Wood Products Australia, the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia, Indufor, Timber Queensland and Responsible Wood.
This is strengthened by chief investigators from 11 Australian universities and partner investigators from five international universities and research institutes.
The ARC Advance Timber Hub is administered by the University of Queensland’s School of Civil Engineering and is funded by its partners with major support from the federal government through the Australian Research Council.
In total, the hub has close to $16.5 million in funding ($7.4m cash and $9.1m in-kind) to deliver a comprehensive research and development program over the next five years.
The ARC Advance Timber Hub will be officially opened by the Australian Research Council on January 31, 2024.
Partners who presented at the ARC Advance Timber Hub strategic learning day: AKD – Mateo Gutierrez; ARUP – Toby Hodsdon; Aurecon – Ralph Belperio; Loggo IP – Peter Blair; Bloom Fire Consulting – Adam Ervine; Neil Logan; CLT Toolbox – Adam Jones; EWPAA – Harrison Brooke; Hyne Timber / Xlam – Tony Dakin; Indufor – Andrew Morton / Jeremy Allen.
Online: Lendlease – Tim Butler / Melissa Chandler; Loggo IP – Pat Thornton; Multinail – David Zhang / Dean Ashton; Northrop – Ali Habibi; Peikko – Harri Onikki; Responsible Wood – Simon Dorries; Robert Bird Group – Arash Behnia; Semper – Cristian Maluk; Simpson Strong-Tie – Matt Smith; Timber Queensland – Mick Stephens; Tzannes – Tony Lam; QDAF – Tim Smith; NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fabianno Ximenes; Scion – Diego Elustondo; University of British Columbia – Minghao Li; University of Canterbury – Thomas Lim; University of Victoria, Canada – Sardar Malek; Griffith University –Benoit Gilbert; University of Melbourne –Priyan Mendis, Tharaka Gunawardena; University of Technology Sydney – Dikai Liu; University of the Sunshine Coast – Tripti Singh; RMIT – Nic Bao.
During the event, Kelly Rischmiller, manager of the ARC Advance Timber Hub and the Centre for Future Timber Structures at UQ, extended an invitation to the gathering to take part in the World Conference on Timber Engineering to be held in Brisbane from June 22 to 26, 2025.
“The use of timber in building construction is growing at a rapid pace in Australia and there is a rise in engineering and architectural firms, developers and investors, now emphasising timber engineering as a preferred solution for many projects,” Ms Rischmiller said.
“This provides further relevance to the research carried out by the timber design and construction community.”
Ms Rischmiller noted Brisbane is hosting the 2032 Olympic Games, an ideal location for WCTE 2025.
