Addressing key drivers through the Queensland Future Timber Plan

Meeting current and future demand for building and other purposes will require clear direction on:

• where and how forestry can occur
• how we can create certainty around where that demand will come from
• how to appropriately balance supply from native and plantation forestry
• how to innovate across the supply chain to deliver the timber products needed by local communities and consumers.

Housing demand

To build 1 million homes by2044, Queensland will need to significantly increase its timber production and construction sector productivity to provide raw materials at an affordable price. An increase in new housing construction, including detached and multi-unit housing, from the current 35,970 per year to approximately 52,630 per year will be needed to meet our ambitious housing target.

Exact volumes and the type of timber required will depend on:

• the type of housing that is built
• the proportion of high-rise apartments and one-to-two storey detached houses built
• how much steel framing is used within construction going forward.

These figures do not account for timber used for other purposes, including renovations and infrastructure required to deliver the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Essential infrastructure demand

Queensland's population will grow to between 6.4 million and 8.3 million by 2046.

The critical infrastructure needed will require more timber such as:

• hardwood timber poles
• railway sleepers
• timber supports for mining
• wharf and jetty construction.

For energy infrastructure alone, Queensland is expected to need around 25,000–30,000 hardwood timber poles each year.

Interchangeability of different timber types

Softwoods and hardwoods have unique characteristics. Supply must be sourced from both resources to meet existing and future demand.

Plantation supply

Based on trees currently in the ground, Queensland will need a significant increase in plantation timber to provide structural components to meet our housing targets. It will take at least another 25 years before new and expanded plantations can be harvested.

Since 2017, plantation timber supplies have remained static nationally despite the increasing demand, and the commercial plantation estate across Australia has reduced significantly.

Security of supply

Timber supply requires a long-term planning approach. To supply enough timber to 2050, existing forests including plantations, must be protected from competing land use, biosecurity risks and bush fires, as much as possible while securing viable new land for plantation expansion.

Greater productivity from supply now

We must transform how timber is grown, processed into end products and used now to extract greater usable resource from our existing timber supply to improve the productivity of the forestry and timber industry supply chain.

Having regard for timber imports

We will need to continue to source timber from local and overseas sources to meet expected demand. While Queensland produces and exports sawnwood, timber products and fibre, we are currently a net importer of timber products.

Across Australia, customers are increasingly demanding timber sourced from certified sustainable forests, but some countries have much lower sustainability and ecological certification standards than Queensland.

Coexistence

Prime forestry land, including 2.9 million hectares of state forests, must coexist with demands for land for more housing, energy, infrastructure, critical minerals and conservation.

State forests will continue to cater for a broad range of activities, including native timber harvesting and plantations, beekeeping, tourism and recreation, and grazing, but when and where these occur, and how additional risks like fire, pests and diseases are managed will need to balance competing and conflicting interests.

Regulatory settings and investment barriers

With Queensland facing a housing crisis, now more than ever, there is a need for sensible, predictable and stable regulations that are science based to attract investment into Queensland's forestry and timber industry.

The industry operates in a complex regulatory environment, governed by different acts administered by different departments, with different objectives and which, at times, create competing interests. Uncertainty of access to timber resources into the future and certainty of rights to harvest, market volatility and logistics, and transport and energy costs all create barriers to investment.

Climate risks

Impacts from increasingly frequent natural disasters and extreme weather events, especially fire, can take many years to overcome. Queensland has seen multiple disaster events in recent years, adversely impacting on the availability of locally grown timber.

Workforce pressures

Across primary industries sectors, employers face the challenge of attracting and retaining a stable and appropriately-trained labour base, particularly in rural and remote Queensland. We also need a focus on the future skills and roles that will be needed.