Old-growth logs will no longer pass through one of Tasmania’s largest hardwood processors, effective immediately, after the Neville Smith Group told Sustainable Timber Tasmania it would stop taking the material and backed a statement calling for an end to old-growth harvesting statewide. That is according to chief executive Andrew Walker, who confirmed the decision on Thursday as the family business joined more than 30 signatories to a shared vision for the future of Tasmania’s forests.
Making up less than 3 per cent of the group’s intake, old-growth is a thin slice of a supply base Walker has spent four years steering toward plantation and regrowth logs. A former Victorian customer has also been told that surplus native regrowth volumes will end on 31 July, with Sustainable Timber Tasmania to field the notice as harvesting continues across the wider native estate.
“It removes the greatest point of contention,” Walker said of ending old-growth supply, telling Matthew Denholm of The Australian that the statement balances protection of old-growth forests as cultural and ecological treasures with the future of responsible native forestry. Walker claims the move paves the way for new innovation, on-island processing, and further investment in Tasmania.
Neville Smith is well placed to make the transition, Wood Central understands, with its modern sawmill already equipped to process plantation logs. Many other mills are not set up for the change, and some would struggle to secure finance from Australian banks, according to a Tasmanian with knowledge of the supply chain who spoke to Wood Central on the condition of anonymity.
Across the public estate, the volumes at stake are already small, with Sustainable Timber Tasmania reporting that 0.05 per cent of old-growth was felled in 2023-24 for high-quality timber products, and that less than 4 per cent of virgin forest was available for harvesting in production forests.
The pledge belongs to the Forest Congress, which opened at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art in 2023 and spent three years drawing environmentalists, timber figures, First Nations leaders, scientists, and artists to the same table. Its Palawa-led shared vision would protect old-growth stands as “enduring cultural treasures” while allowing the continued responsible management of the state’s other native forests, alongside support for forestry workers, regional communities, and cultural burning.
“While the two sides fight, we are losing precious forests,” said Kirsha Kaechele, the MONA curator who convened the congress and has long pushed for a Tasmanian forestry accord. Kaechele called the agreement a breakthrough and the first viable offer both sides can get behind, one that, she says, leaves the hardline, entrenched positions of the factions behind.
Not every group has stayed at the table, with the Wilderness Society Tasmania quitting the congress last week and peak bodies including the Australian Conservation Foundation and Bob Brown Foundation endorsing principles on Tuesday that demand “an immediate end to native forest logging on all public land.” The baseline puts the movement directly at odds with the vision’s commitment to ongoing responsible management of native forests.
Even a conservationist who walked away sees a start, with Ali Alishah, who withdrew from the MONA process over new harvesting plans, backing the statement as a first step toward industry recognising the forests’ other values. Among those still signed on are MONA founder David Walsh, log truck manufacturer Graeme Elphinstone, Alone Australia winner Gina Chick, actor Marta Dusseldorp, and food writer Matthew Evans.
It comes as Tasmania weighs its native forestry future under federal environment law, with the Wilderness Society warning the state could face payouts of $155 million to $300 million if it signs long-term native contracts before EPBC reforms take effect from mid-2027. The same push to move volume off the native estate drove this week’s $142 million Rushy Lagoon purchase, where a carbon-forestry fund plans radiata pine to feed local sawmills.
