Australia has a long and proud tradition in wooden boatbuilding. With almost 60,000 kilometres of coastline and access to the world’s best timbers, Australian boats were prized as national treasures, central to exploration, trade, fishing and transport. And whilst the industry is still celebrated in public, it is now suffering in silence.
Faced with a shrinking and ageing skills base, fragmented and often adverse policy, and ever‑tightening access to suitable timbers, its future is under a dark cloud. Added to this is the impact of new and emerging technologies, making the future of centuries‑old skills passed down through generations uncertain. Together, these headwinds place its heritage at real risk. Without a change of course, these skills, practices and traditions could be lost forever.
That warning underpins a new 65‑page Churchill Fellowship report by Tasmanian boatbuilder Andrew Denman, one of the country’s last remaining traditional craftsmen. Denman is a major success story in the craft, having retrained as a boatbuilder in 2004 after an early mid‑life change. Since then, he and his team have built or restored more than 80 vessels. Alongside his own work, he has trained apprentices and mentored younger craftspeople, determined to pass on knowledge that has been handed down for centuries.
Churchill Fellowships, created in honour of Sir Winston Churchill, allow Australians to travel abroad to study issues of national importance and return with solutions that strengthen the nation. Awarded in 2023, Denman spent last year travelling to France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, Scotland and the United States — visiting museums, trade schools, policymakers and boatyards — to build a broad picture of what success looks like in this field. “I aimed to identify what worked and why, and to see how those lessons could be translated into supportive federal and state policy settings in Australia,” he wrote in his report, now published on the Churchill Fellowship website.
Across the countries visited, Denman saw the same challenges emerge: ageing workforces, insecure timber supply chains, fragmented government policy and fragile funding models. “None of these issues on their own is insurmountable,” the report notes, “but dealing with them collectively requires effective coordination, sound policy, targeted funding, and thinking well beyond the electoral cycle.”
Timber security is singled out as vital.
Much of the craft depends on species from old‑growth forests, particularly Tasmania’s Huon Pine and other “special species” timbers such as Celery Top Pine, Blackwood and King Billy Pine. Denman has long argued that the enduring techniques of traditional boatbuilding are inextricably linked to the timbers used, and that access to those species is essential to the craft’s survival. A strong advocate for sustainability, he has worked extensively in the specialty timber policy arena to ensure Tasmania’s endemic boatbuilding timbers remain available for future generations.
To address these challenges, Denman has identified eight recommendations
At the federal level, ratifying the UNESCO 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage would anchor recognition of wooden boatbuilding as living heritage and provide a coherent framework for inventories, safeguarding and funding. A cross‑portfolio review of timber access policies is also urged to prevent siloed decisions from undermining heritage outcomes.
Tasmania was identified as the testing ground for several initiatives. These include a legislative review to enable ICH recognition and transmission, a pilot inventory and skills audit of maritime crafts that could be scaled nationally, and the creation of a Centre of Excellence in Wooden Boatbuilding. Supported by accredited training and an industry skills pipeline, the Centre would ensure skills are passed on to future generations. Alongside this, a Hobart waterfront “Living Heritage Workshop” would showcase and teach the craft, lifting public awareness.
Resource stability is another priority. Full implementation of the Special Species Management Plan, a formal policy on Huon Pine, and matched state funding to double the size of the Wooden Boat Board Bank are recommended to secure a long‑term supply. Finally, the report proposes an International Wooden Boat Congress in Hobart ahead of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival. This three‑to‑four‑day gathering would convene global boatbuilders, conservators, educators, policymakers, timber suppliers and forest managers to share solutions on policy, funding, technology and training.
Quoting Churchill, Denman writes: “You will never get to the end of the journey if you stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks.” Distilling “myriads of meeting notes, transcripts, documents, and photographs into a final report has been difficult,” he admits, but the focus has been on areas that can make the greatest contribution. Some recommendations are ambitious, yet “one cannot leap a chasm in two jumps.” Unless Australia changes the conversation around intangible cultural heritage, much will be lost, and future generations will be poorer for it. As Churchill once said: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is perhaps the end of the beginning.”
Please note: Wood Central has reached out to Denman for further comment. To read his full Churchill Fellowship report, click here to download a PDF version of the report from the Churchill Fellowship website.
