The Region
Current regions
Willmott Forests is dedicated to creating a sustainable and evolving plantation resource and land base, servicing the major domestic markets of Victoria and New South Wales.
Softwood plantation regions
The Murray Valley region - New South Wales
The Murray Valley region comprises the foothills of the Murray Valley west of the Great Dividing Range extending from Melbourne in Victoria to Tumut in New South Wales encompassing the north east of Victoria. The Murray Valley is one of the largest plantation regions in Australia (over 170,000 hectares) with a capacity at the current time to produce 23% of Australia's sawlog harvest and 20% of Australia's pulpwood harvest. The region also has a well established processing industry and strong demand for sawlog and pulpwood. Plantation productivity (16 to 25m3/ha/year) is acceptable across the region with historical average rainfall ranging from 650mm to 1,200mm per annum. There is a wide variety of processing plants including six sawmills, two veneer plants, two pulp mills, two particleboard plants, and a medium density fibreboard (MDF) plant.
The Bombala region - New South Wales
There are over 45,000 hectares of softwood plantations currently growing in the Bombala region and over 112,000 hectares of land suitable for new plantation development. The region currently produces in excess of 200,000m3 of sawlog per annum and recently developed export markets that will see around 180,000 tonnes of pulpwood/sawlog exported out of Eden each year. Willmott Forests is a major processor in Bombala, processing around 90,000m3 per annum of salvage sawlog and preservation timbers. All these markets complement each other to maximise the range of timber products produced from plantation harvesting operations. Willmott Forests Limited recently has executed a 20 year wood supply agreement with the NSW government for the long term supply of plantation-grown softwood sawlogs from the Monaro region's timber resources managed by Forests NSW.
The wood supply agreement provides the resource security to enable the construction of a large-scale, fully integrated softwood timber processing facility at the Sandy Lane site in Bombala. Willmott Forests aims to develop this project in conjunction with Dongwha Australia Holdings Pty Ltd by forming a joint venture through a 50:50 ownership of Willmott Timbers Pty Ltd. Dongwha Holdings is a global manufacturer of wood materials with timber processing and marketing operations in Korea, New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, Japan and the United States.
Central Tablelands - New South Wales
The Central Tableland is located to the west of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales and comprises of approximately 80,000 hectares of softwood plantation resource. The plantations stretch from Orange to Burraga and include elevated holdings near Bathurst and Oberon. The rainfall is uniformly distributed across the seasons, with average rainfall ranging up to 900mm per annum. The resource, which is predominantly owned and managed by Forests NSW, is serviced by a well established road and rail network, with secondary roads providing access to Oberon where the main processing facilities are located. Local sawmilling facilities include large automated mills that process up to 750,000 tonnes of sawlog per annum with 600,000 tonnes of pulpwood processed locally via particle board and medium density fibreboard plants. Further markets for pulpwood will be developed with the completion of the second stage of Visy's Kraft mill plant in Tumut. A number of smaller mills use lower grade logs to produce case and garden grade saw products. Export opportunities are also available at Port Kembla.
The Victorian regions
Willmott Forests entered into a commercial arrangement with Hancock Victorian Plantations Pty Limited (HVP) on 22 March 2006 where HVP will make available a minimum of 13,000 hectares of harvested plantation lands to be replanted for new Woodlot sales over a four year period. This arrangement will position Willmott Forests to be one of the principal future softwood suppliers in south eastern Australia. The arrangement provides Growers with market access to over twelve major sawmills, five pulpwood processing plants and two export pulpwood and sawlog operations. This improved market access and harvesting economies of scale increases the potential for Growers to receive higher end-market product prices. The HVP arrangement will involve Willmott Forests establishing plantations on known high quality plantation land in all of Victoria's major plantation growing regions including the following:
South West Victoria (part of the Green Triangle region)
The Green Triangle region of south west Victoria and south east South Australia includes the major sawlog and pulpwood processing plants near Mount Gambier and the export facilities at Portland. There is in excess of 161,000 hectares of softwood plantations in the region which is renowned for its high-productivity and low-cost operations. Second only to the Murray Valley region in terms of size, Green Triangle softwood plantations annually produce 2,100,000 tonnes of sawlog, 130,000 tonnes of preservation and 2,400,000 tonnes of pulpwood of which 50% is exported.
Central Gippsland region
The Central Gippsland region is centred around Australia's largest pulpmill in Morwell with access to both domestic and export sawlog and pulpwood markets. With over 60,000 hectares of softwood plantations, the region produces approximately 515,000 tonnes of sawlog, 51,000 tonnes of preservation, 523,000 tonnes of pulpwood, and approximately 120,000 tonnes of sawlog and pulpwood exported out of Geelong. Plantation productivity varies from the 16m3/ha/year in Gippsland Valley through to 30m3/ha/year within the Strezlecki Ranges where the deep loam soils and high rainfall provide optimum growth conditions.
Ballarat-Otways region
The Ballarat-Otways region has in excess of 30,000 hectares of softwood plantations and includes some of the most productive plantation areas within the state. With both domestic and export markets (Geelong) the region produces approximately 360,000 tonnes of sawlog, 77,000 tonnes of preservation and more than 200,000 tonnes of softwood export woodchips per annum.
North East Victoria (part of the Murray Valley region)
HVP's north east Victorian plantation comprises part of the greater Murray Valley region. Refer to the Summary of the Murray Valley region in section 4.2 on page 16 in the 2009 PDS.
She-oak and Silky Oak plantation regions
Northern Rivers region - New South Wales
This region extends along the New South Wales north coast from the southern Queensland border to south of Woy Woy and inland to the Great Dividing Range. The average annual rainfall ranges between 900mm to 1,800mm per annum. The plantations on the north coast has reached approximately 67,000 hectares with hardwood plantations accounting for 75% of this resource. The region is well serviced by roads with the Pacific Highway passing through most of the centres where timber processing facilities are located. The North Coast NSW hardwood sawlog industry currently processes in excess of 400,000 tonnes per annum. Together with a maturing hardwood plantation resource, the Silky Oak plantations to be established as part of this Project, will provide an ongoing sustainable supply of sawlogs well into the foreseeable future. Similarly the She-oak biomass will complement existing sawmill residues that are currently being used for pellet production, chip export and the production of energy through co-generation power plants.
Please click here to view a higher quality map of our regions.
Regional Development Plan
Recent studies conducted by the Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS) into the Socio-economic Impact of Plantation Forestry found that for every $1 million spent by the plantation sector more than 17 jobs are created and this investment assists in supporting fragile regional economies and arrests population decline.
Willmott Forests' activities have underpinned many regional economies providing an increase in direct employment and expenditure through our expanding plantation estate and timber processing operations. Willmott Forests recognises and respects the important role it plays as a landowner, primary producer, timber processor, employer and neighbour providing an ongoing source of social and economic benefits for the community.
Community projects such as Willmott Forests' Good Neighbour Initiative and School Industry Partnership are designed to develop collaborative working relationships with the broader community and reaffirm the Company's commitment to regional Australia. As part of the Good Neighbour Initiative, Willmott Forests actively strives to develop open and effective communication with adjoining landowners to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes from its plantation activities.
In 2005, Willmott Forests established a School Industry Partnership aimed at developing a more direct and integrated approach by the industry to support the educational requirements of local students and thereby enhance not only their educational experience, but to provide a tangible link beyond school into the workforce.
In addition to these programs, Willmott Forests demonstrates its commitment to regional activities through:
- adherence to a strict Code of Forestry Practice;
- policy to utilise and support local businesses and services and employ locally wherever possible;
- Regional Employment Program;
- status as an Industry Fire Brigade in cooperation with the Country Fire Authority (CFA); and
- participation in local Land Care Groups and supporter/sponsor of many various community programs and activities.