Heyfield’s Australian Sustainable Hardwoods is set to become the first company in Australia to manufacture engineered plantation floorboards. The mill and three other businesses across Gippsland will share in more than $2.3 million in grants through the State Government’s Timber Innovation Fund. Source: Timberbiz
ASH has received $1.6 million to install a new manufacturing line to produce engineered flooring made from plantation shining gum and radiata pine plywood and to expand both its online and retail outlet.
This will make ASH the only company in the country to manufacture this kind of high-value plantation product.
A new retail outlet will sell the floorboards as well as some of their existing products, such as staircase and furniture components. It will also create a market and secure the supply chain for ASH’s expanded line of plantation-based products into the future.
This will help to open new markets as ASH prepares to transition from native timber joinery to products manufactured from plantation timber.
Australian Sustainable Hardwoods Managing Director Vince Hurley said the grant from the Victorian Timber Innovation Fund had enabled ASH to commence construction of the new engineered flooring line which is a first for Australia resulting in more jobs in regional Victoria.
In addition to ASH, three other grant recipients across Gippsland are diversifying their businesses by experimenting with new products using different timber sources:
- $397,000 for Radial Timber in Yarram to introduce a small log line and experiment with processing plantation timber
- $246,000 for Longwarry Sawmill in Longwarry to use recycled and reclaimed timber to make new timber products
- $40,000 for Brunt’s Harvesting in Orbost to undertake a feasibility study for transition to plantation harvesting.
The State Government is working to transition the native forest industry to a range of new opportunities by 2030 through the Victorian Forestry Plan, setting up a strong plantation-based sector.
“The Victorian Timber Innovation Fund is supporting businesses to develop new ways of working with new sources of supply, and retaining local jobs while doing so,” Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said.
