Australia’s foresters are now doing a 180 on how they approach managing forests as a multi-generational asset, turning traditional exploitative forestry models on their head. That is according to Andrew Hurford, one of Australia’s largest hardwood foresters, chair of the North East NSW Forestry Hub and a member of the steering committee of the AFWI-supported Centre for Climate-Smart Forestry (CCSF) hosted at the University of Melbourne.
“What does the forest need, what does it produce, and what do we do with that resource?”
A third-generation hardwood forest owner and processor, Hurford travelled from northern NSW, where he has spent decades investing in natural and plantation forests, to attend the 2026 launch of the CCSF in Melbourne, where he joined a diverse group from of industry and research leaders including Professor Patrick Baker, Director, Dr Robert Waterworth, CCSF’s new Deputy Director & Carbon for a Green Economy Theme Lead, and Dr David Brand, ex-Chair of New Forests and another member of CCSF steering committee.
“From my perspective, it’s about looking at how silviculture can provide answers to the many challenges around forest health, managing fire risk, engagement with indigenous people, and the science,” Hurford said. “I think there is a real synergy for all of those things.”
For Hurford, the key is to better understand what constitutes a healthy forest: “What is a healthy forest, how do we best manage for that, and ultimately what might we do with some of the output from those forests?”
Is radiata the answer, or do we need to keep looking for more species?
And that could also mean changing planting and harvesting rotations. “We heard from a number of softwood growers at the CCSF launch, who said there is a real risk of trying to get a plantation forest through to a full 30-year rotation based on some of the drought and heat wave events that are causing tree mortality,” Hurford said.
“Do we need to improve tree genetics, or perhaps more significantly, change the type of species that we are planting. If we’re seeing mortality into the second half of the rotation, perhaps radiata isn’t the answer to everything that we may have thought it was. Perhaps there are other species that need to be investigated.”
It’s not necessarily about tons of wood per annum
“If we flip that around and ask what’s best for the forest and what does that yield…and what might the industry do with that?” he said. “That’s a different approach – and a challenge to think of things differently.”
Located in Melbourne but with a national scope, the CCSF delivers its work through four interlinked research themes: Integrated Landscape Management; Carbon for Green Industry; Silviculture for Climate-Change Adaptation; and National Forest Monitoring Innovations.
These are underpinned by two cross-cutting themes: Indigenous Australians and Economics, Policy & Society, which ensure that cultural, social, and policy considerations are embedded across all activities.
It’s about using more forest fibre in the built environment
A growing priority across all themes is increasing the use of Australian forest fibre in the built environment, supporting domestic value-adding and reducing reliance on imports.
While the Centre is only just beginning its work, the shift Hurford describes is already evident in the early AFWI-funded research, which is reshaping how Australia thinks about forests, wood products, and their role in a low-carbon future
One of the first projects looks at how Australia might rebuild its wood supply by moving beyond the old binary of industrial plantations versus small‑farm forests. Researchers are exploring a “missing middle” – medium‑scale plantations tied closely to local processors – as a model that could deliver both community acceptance and reliable supply. The Gippsland case study, involving Heartwood and Radial Timber Australia (RTA), is testing whether this more integrated approach can strengthen regional processing while improving biodiversity and carbon outcomes.
Whilst another is looking at the economic foundations of the value chain, examining how regional communities can support medium‑scale hardwood production and processing. And with social licence for public native forestry declining and farm‑forest supply proving unreliable, researchers are developing a feasibility framework to guide future investment.
And a third is addressing a long‑standing weakness in forest management: the lack of consistent, high‑resolution data. To close that gap, the CCSF is developing an open, auditable monitoring platform that uses very high‑resolution satellite imagery and machine‑learning tools to track forest condition, structure and carbon stocks. New South Wales is the initial testbed, with the aim of building a national system capable of monitoring drought, fire, and other climate‑driven impacts across the entire forest estate.
- To learn more about the Centre for Climate-Smart Forestry, or other research centres involved in the commonwealth-supported Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI), click here.
