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Tasmanian Blackwood Growers

Links

The following are some of my favourite blackwood and forestry related links:

Papers from my research

These are papers published as a result of my PhD research into blackwood genetics, growth, stem form and wood properties completed in 2010 at the University of Tasmania. If you would like copies of any of these papers just contact me.

Blackwood

AMIGO

The blackwood grower interest group within the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association (NZFFA).

And the great video produced by AMIGO on growing commercial blackwood in plantations:

Blackwood – A Handbook for Growers and Users. Ian Nicholas and Ian Brown

The New Zealand farmers blackwood bible. This is the original edition. Click the above link and then scroll down to find the pdf link. It is a 15.2MB pdf file.
There was an online updated version which now appears to have disappeared.

New Zealand Blackwood

A selection of articles from the New Zealand Tree Grower magazine about blackwood in NZ. Well worth reading.

Hydrowood

Private company selling special timbers including Tasmanian blackwood salvaged from Hydro lakes on Tasmania’s west coast. Sales include public log tenders and sawn timber. Well worth a visit!

Read my blogs on the issues around salvaged timber:

https://blackwoodgrowers.com.au/?s=hydrowood

Island Specialty Timbers

The only public source of blackwood sawlog prices anywhere. Look under Tender Prices. These prices reflect results for the handful of blackwood logs that IST put up for tender every year.

Britton Timbers

The largest blackwood sawmiller in Australia, sourced from public State forest.

Tasmanian Tonewoods

Tasmanian Tonewoods sending blackwood tonewood around the world.

A small selection of Australian and international blackwood industry links:

Lifestyle Furniture

The Furniture Works

Turners Blackwood Furniture

Toledo Furniture

Tall Timbers Furniture

Tasmanian Fine Furniture

Davis Furniture

Astra Furniture

Maton Guitars

The Melbourne-based guitar manufacturer that pioneered the use of Australian timbers in guitars including blackwood.

Cole Clark

The other Australian commercial guitar manufacturer, also based in Melbourne, and also building great guitars using Tasmanian blackwood.

Otway Tonewoods

Murray Kidman, long-time blackwood collector for Maton Guitars, now has his own website. Lots of beautiful blackwood pictures and information. Well worth a visit.

Fechters

A South African furniture manufacturer and sawmiller utilising a range of timbers including locally grown blackwood.

Kings Fourth Generation Woodworking

New Zealand cabinet makers and joiners using a range of local native, plantation-grown and imported timbers including plantation grown blackwood.

Taylor Guitars

Major US acoustic guitar manufacturer who uses Tasmanian blackwood in their instruments.

Forestry

Forest Practices Authority

The Forest Practices Authority (FPA) is an independent statutory body responsible for administering the Tasmanian forest practices system. The system regulates the management of forest and threatened non-forest vegetation on both public and private land.

Private Forests Tasmania

Tasmanian Government agency responsible for promoting farm forestry in Tasmania.

Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association

Association that represents the farming community in Tasmania, and the only organisation that currently represents existing and potential blackwood growers.

I’m still waiting on any expression of interest or support from the TFGA.

Australian Forest Growers

The association representing private forest growers in Australia at the National level. Very supportive of the cooperative proposal.

National Principles Related to Wood Production in Plantations

Statement of national principles to be applied in the management of commercial plantations.

A Federal Government initiative to streamline the regulation of wood production from plantations across the country. A great idea! And the Tasmanian Forest Practices Code met the Federal guidelines. Both the Principles and the State reports are worth reading.

New Zealand Farm Forestry Association

Agroforestry.net.au & Australian Master Tree Growers

Agroforestry site run by Rowan Reid. Includes newsletter and information on Australian Master Tree Grower’s courses to help improve tree growing skills in the farming community.

Forest Stewardship Council (Australia)

AgForests

AgForests Queensland is a unique partnership bringing together Queensland’s broadacre agricultural producers – AgForce Queensland and the timber industry – Timber Queensland, promoting the sustainable commercial management of Queenslands private native forests. A fantastic initiative which should be copied around Australia.

African Mahogany Australia

The only major company I know of in Australia growing high value timber in plantations, in this case African Mahogany (Khaya senegalensis ).  Unlike blackwood, African Mahogany is a broad-acre species suitable for large-scale corporate investment and development. Still in the development stage but looking good so far. Nothing on their web site about their business model so I don’t know where they get their income from.

Forest Legality Alliance

The Alliance is a joint effort of the World Resources Institute and the Environmental Investigation Agency, supported by the United States Agency for International Development and companies in the forest sector. Our goal is to reduce illegal logging through supporting the supply of legal forest products. Lots of interesting stories and information about the international trade in timber. Well worth a visit.

National Woodland Owners Association

The American private woodland owners association. Check out the log prices under the Resources menu, which provides regular market updates on current log prices for a wide range of species across the USA. If only we had something similar here in Australia…..

Musicwood

A Greenpeace initiative to promote the use of sustainable timber resources in the manufacture of guitars and other music instruments.

http://musicwoodthefilm.com/

Musicwood the documentary film. The guitar industry giants combine to help save the Sitka spruce forest. Hope this comes to Australia sometime soon.

Friday Offcuts

Weekly news bulletin for the New Zealand and Australian forest industries, based in NZ. A great way to help understand the incredible differences between the forest industries in these two countries.

Laurie Forestry Ltd

Great New Zealand forestry consulting company with a very strong commercial focus. The thing I like most about Laurie Forestry is their regular market reports and price reporting. They understand the importance of keeping the market informed from a growers perspective. Absolutely nothing like this in Australia yet. Well worth a visit.

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