Australia’s push toward modular and prefabricated construction is gathering steam — but as leaders look overseas for answers, a new study tour aims to show exactly how the world’s most advanced timber construction systems actually work.
Expressions of interest are now open for Wood Central’s ten‑day UK and Sweden timber off‑site manufacturing tour scheduled for September 2026. Limited to just 25 participants, the tour promises rare access to factories, robotics labs, mass‑timber plants, and construction projects that are otherwise strictly off‑limits.
Led by Timber Development Association CEO Andrew Dunn and Wood Central founder Jason Ross, the tour is designed for architects, engineers, developers, and construction professionals seeking a deeper understanding of industrialised timber construction.
Dunn said the tour comes at a pivotal moment for Australia as it grapples with a shortage of detached, semi‑detached, mid‑rise, and high‑rise housing. “The tour will give engineers, architects, and construction professionals a unique understanding of how industrialised timber construction happens overseas.”
He said the UK offers one of the closest parallels to Australia’s lightweight timber‑frame market, while Sweden “has been at the forefront of prefab and off‑site construction for decades.”
A veteran of international study tours — last year he led a delegation to Osaka’s World Expo — Dunn said the 2026 itinerary promises to be “a trip of a lifetime” for anyone working at the intersection of timber, design and advanced manufacturing.
And the tour’s timing could not be any more relevant. In October, Building 4.0 CRC CEO Mathew Aitchison warned that whilst modern methods of construction (MMC) offer “huge potential to boost productivity and lower costs,” Australia cannot simply import foreign systems.“We’ve got an immense amount to learn from other countries,” Aitchison said. “But we have to be very cautious about the way we apply those lessons in Australia.”
“And that’s the basis of this tour,” Dunn said. “We want to learn from the best overseas and create a model that is fit for purpose for Australia.”
Inside Europe’s most advanced timber factories
The 2026 tour aims to bridge that knowledge gap by showing Australian professionals how industrialised timber construction works at scale. Participants are slated to visit world‑leading robotics and automation facilities, production plants manufacturing engineered wood products, modular apartment factories, robotic “house factories,” and a series of timber buildings across Sweden — including Växjö’s pioneering eight‑storey timber apartments.
Dunn said the tour will open doors that are usually closed to outsiders. “These are facilities and projects you simply cannot walk into,” he said.
We’re talking about world‑leading timber modular fabrication plants — the places shaping the future of global timber construction.”
The tour comes as governments ramp up investment in domestic timber manufacturing. Earlier this month, the Victorian and Australian Governments jointly backed THE PRECINCT, a feasibility project designed to accelerate prefabricated timber housing using plantation fibre from the Green Triangle.
The project — supported through the Albanese Government’s Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) program — aims to boost local engineered‑timber production and reduce reliance on imports. Victorian minister Ros Spence said prefab timber will be essential to delivering “faster construction, reduced waste and more affordable housing.” Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the initiative will help reshape Australia’s timber manufacturing capability, calling it “a win for jobs, innovation and sustainability.”
