17% of NSW private native forest fit for timber production [AU]Friday 24 Jul 2026
Of the 3.6 million hectares assessed across 11,722 properties, just 0.6 million hectares, or 17 per cent, is both available and commercially suitable. The finding raises the question of leakage as debate continues over the future of the Great Koala National Park in north-east New South Wales. If private native forest cannot deliver at the same scale, where does the timber come from?
The model measured how much of each property could be harvested, how far timber would travel to a mill, how steep and rough the ground is, and the value of the species growing there. Forest that is protected, too rugged to work or too far from a mill was set aside. What remained split heavily to the north. The northern private native forestry region held 0.5 million hectares, equal to 20 per cent of its private forest, while the southern region held 0.1 million hectares, or 9 per cent. “Much of the existing assessed private native forest is not commercially available and suitable,” Cameron said, pointing to small harvestable areas, low-value species, poor site quality and distance from mills. Timber production in the north is more likely to be viable than in the south, with more large properties within reach of more mills. Properties in the south’s lowest suitability class sit an average of 98 kilometres from the nearest mill. Even inside the workable 17 per cent, timber values cluster in the middle, with nearly 62 per cent of properties rated medium and only 0.2 per cent very high. Two or more decades typically pass between light selective harvests, so much of the resource is regrowth not yet ready to cut. The modelling lands as the New South Wales Government makes permanent the closure of 176,000 hectares of state forest in the Great Koala National Park. The reserve ends timber harvesting across its extent. “Not all wood products can be produced by the plantation industry,” the research states, with Australian native timber production down nearly 70 per cent over the past two decades. The authors note that hardwood plantations remain far from a universal substitute for a country that already faces a wood shortage. Blackbutt and spotted gum, valued for their durability and strength, supply the flooring and decking trade and the poles that carry the state’s electricity network. Private native forests were routinely harvested for sawlogs, poles and girders, sleepers and fencing timber, the paper notes. On the other side of the ledger, 83 per cent of the assessed estate, five hectares in every six, is likely to be managed chiefly for environmental and social values rather than timber. Landholders, agencies and processors now have property-scale rankings to guide where limited harvesting effort is best directed. The authors describe that output as the first comparison of ranked results across two discrete forest regions. The study concludes that the private estate cannot meet the expectations placed on it, with just 0.6 million hectares rated commercially workable and much of that still decades from harvest. For more information: Alaibakhsh, M., Cameron, N., Stone, C., & Samuel, J. (2026). Mapping and evaluating the suitability of the private native forest estate in northern and southern NSW, Australia, for commercial timber production. Australian Forestry. Source: Forestry Australia  | ||
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