Bob Gordon has been awarded the N.W. Jolly Medal, Forestry Australia’s highest honour, in recognition of a distinguished career that has shaped Australian forestry and forest science for decades.
“I’m very honoured and it’s great to be in a profession that recognises achievement but also a profession that’s extraordinarily supportive and worthwhile,” Gordon told Wood Central. “I think it’s a recognition of all the people that helped me in my career, from lecturers who taught us at the forestry school through to my colleagues, through to the people that mentored me and gave me advice over the years, and I can see that that culture of support and mentoring is continuing with Forestry Australia.”
First awarded in 1959, the N.W. Jolly Medal recognises outstanding contributions across sustainable forest management, research, education, policy and community engagement. Named in honour of Norman William Jolly (1882–1954), the award now counts among its recipients 58 of the country’s most distinguished forestry professionals — many bearing honours such as MBE, CBE, AO and AM — each recognised for exceptional service to the development of professional forestry in Australia. The medal is conferred by Forestry Australia’s board on the recommendation of a Merit Awards Committee composed of Forestry Australia members and previous Jolly Medal recipients.
Gordon’s selection celebrates one of the industry’s most influential figures. Beginning his career with the Tasmanian Forestry Commission in 1978 and advancing through forest management planning and district operations, Gordon transitioned into marketing and trade development, where he helped open new markets for Tasmanian products in China and other parts of Asia. From 1991, he held a succession of senior and executive roles that placed him at the centre of the profession’s most contested debates.
As managing director and chief executive of Forestry Tasmania from 2006 to 2013, Gordon steered the agency through intense public scrutiny and structural reform, navigating complex negotiations and helping to reframe governance amid sharp political and community pressure. Colleagues credit his consultative, steady style with delivering outcomes that balanced technical forest practice with social and economic imperatives.
At the national level, Gordon was instrumental in modernising governance and professional pathways. As president of Forestry Australia, he worked with Kevin Harding to navigate the 2021 merger with Australian Forest Growers, providing the “critical mass” the profession needed. That merger has allowed the body to thrive with more than 400 professionals in Adelaide for this year’s conference.
Whilst in 2023, he was named the inaugural chair of Australian Forest and Wood Innovations, a $100 million research and development program co-matched by industry contributions, which has been instrumental in accelerating research and commercial development of Australian forest products: “A lot of people deserve credit for helping to set up AFWI,” Gordon told Wood Central, who is proud that the initiative “now has widespread support across the political spectrum.”
A consistent theme across Gordon’s four-decade-long career has been engagement with First Nations communities and a commitment to social justice. He developed partnerships to increase Indigenous participation in forest management and to support local use of timber for housing and construction, mentored many junior foresters, championed diversity and succession planning, and served as a trusted adviser to government, industry and unions on forest policy. Whilst his public service also extends far beyond forestry, he is also the deputy chair of MyState Limited, president of Football Federation Tasmania, chair of the Supported Affordable Accommodation Trust and honorary consul of Finland for Tasmania.
- To learn more about Bob Gordon, click here for Jim Bowden’s exclusive interview with Bob from July 2023 – including his passion for Australian forestry.
