Timber Towns Victoria (TTV) has used a pre-election mission to Parliament House to call for a whole-of-government forestry and fibre strategy that would write the sector directly into the state’s climate and housing policy. That is according to Cr Karen Stephens, President of Timber Towns Victoria, who led a delegation in meetings this week with the incumbent Victorian Labor Party, the Nationals and Liberals, as well as One Nation, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, and the Libertarians, ahead of the 28 November state election.
Speaking after the cross-party briefings, Stephens said TTV wanted Victoria’s state policy settings aligned with the Australian Government’s Timber Fibre Strategy to give plantation investors, processors and regional employers the coordinated federal-state framework needed to plan and grow with confidence. “We ask for a commitment to develop a whole-of-government forestry and fibre growth strategy,” Stephens said.
The strategy TTV is calling for would streamline planning and environmental approvals for plantation and processing projects, back investment in engineered timber and advanced wood manufacturing, and embed forestry and fibre directly into Victoria’s climate and housing strategies. Stephens positioned the alignment as a precondition for plantation investment confidence under Victoria’s current policy settings.
A statewide expansion of AI-enabled fire detection cameras operated by the Green Triangle Fire Alliance is the second priority on the TTV brief, with the network already credited with detecting almost 90 unplanned fires across Victoria over the past two danger seasons. The 86 verified detections break down as 40 in 2023-24 and 46 in 2024-25, according to data provided to TTV by the Victorian Forest Products Association and the Green Triangle Fire Alliance.
South Australia operates the same system across more than one million hectares of fire-prone country, where the cameras have logged almost 90 detections since rollout and 90 per cent of coverage extends beyond plantation boundaries into surrounding communities. Victorian coverage remains uneven by comparison, with operational funding inconsistent and integration with the Country Fire Authority, Forest Fire Management Victoria and the State Emergency Service still limited despite the proven detection record.
Rural road and freight-critical bridge funding rounds out the third TTV priority, citing accelerated deterioration across key regional corridors under heavier freight loads and more frequent severe weather events. Logs cannot be moved by rail due to the rural spread of plantation areas, leaving Victoria’s regional transport network to carry the entire weight of the state’s timber freight task.
The detection system itself uses AI, ultra-HD 360-degree cameras and satellite data to continuously monitor smoke and ignition points across large landscapes, with human analysts verifying every alert before dispatch to emergency services. TTV is calling for statewide expansion of the network, sustainable operational funding and a fully integrated fire intelligence system connecting camera feeds with emergency services across every agency.
Each of the six parties briefed will now be asked to provide formal written responses on each priority ahead of polling day, building on TTV’s April submission on Victoria’s 2025-26 summer fires, lodged in the wake of the most recent fire season.
Timber Towns Victoria is now writing to the Labor, Nationals, Liberal, One Nation, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, and Libertarian parties for pre-election commitments on engineered timber investment, climate-strategy forestry alignment, fire camera rollout and rural road funding before 28 November.
