Fuel prices threatening Australian hardwood supplyFriday 20 Mar 2026
Forest and Wood Communities Australia is warning that soaring regional fuel prices are threatening the hardwood supply chain that feeds building sites, mine shafts, vineyards, Australia’s first green steel facility and makes the pallets to move the food and fibre from the farms to the cities, and that without urgent relief, the families who run it cannot keep absorbing the cost. With 90% of our population living on just 0.25% of Australia’s land mass, regional communities are feeling the impact of surging fuel prices more acutely than their city cousins. The cost of fuel is up to a dollar higher in regional communities and they can’t just walk to the shops or catch a train,” said Steve Dobbyns BSc (Forestry), Chairman, Forest & Wood Communities Australia. The alarm is coming from Bulahdelah, 235 kilometres north of Sydney, where Anthony Dorney and his brothers operate two hardwood sawmills, SA Relf and Newells Creek, as the fifth generation of a family that has been cutting timber in north-east New South Wales for over a century. Last week, Anthony pulled up to the bowser and paid $2.90 a litre. “It’s obscene,” he said. The numbers behind those words are hard to argue with. In a single week, daily fuel costs across the two operations have climbed by more than $7,800. Every tonne of Tallowwood, Ironbark and Blackbutt that leaves Bulahdelah does so on the back of a fuel-powered truck. The two mills employ more than 10% of the local town’s population and supply a large share of north-east NSW’s hardwood, running supply chains south to Sydney and the Central Coast, west to Canberra, and north to Brisbane. “It’s not a case of panic buying,” Mr Dorney said. “It’s all due to a critical shortage at the bowser and growing rationing between customers.” More >> Source: Forest & Wood Communities Australia Image credit: Newell's Creek --(2022)2.jpg) | ||
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