Forest & Wood Products Australia during a briefing in the Northern Territory.
Board members of Forest & Wood Products Australia along with key members of the FWPA leadership team visited several locations in the Northern Territory, including the Tiwi Islands, to learn from and spend time on the ground with local representatives of the industry. Source: Timberbiz
A key focus was to increase Indigenous engagement, which included an in-depth workshop with Cissy Gore-Birch from Kimberley Cultural Connections on challenges and opportunities for longer term business development, decision-making and the importance of cultural competency for workplaces and the broader industry.
“This visit helped us gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and successes in northern Australian forestry, which will help inform future research opportunities to support both the local and broader industry,” said Andrew Leighton, CEO of FWPA.
The team also had the opportunity to meet with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (DITT) for discussions around past and current forestry initiatives. Key areas covered were developments in biosecurity, insights from the Developing East Arnhem project (DEAL) and further partnerships with other Rural Research and Development Corporations (RDC’s).
An information and experience sharing session was held with NT Ord Valley Forestry Hub, which gave attendees an opportunity to more deeply understand workplans and linkages between the Northern Territory forestry initiatives and FWPA programs of work Australia-wide.
“We were thrilled to showcase the existing estates along with the growing opportunities the forest industry presents,” said Frank Miller, Chair of the NT Ord Valley Forestry Hub and the Forest Industry Association NT (FIANT).
“The industry thanks the FWPA Board for this initiative and looks forward to working closely to add value and realise opportunities for existing plantation estates and traditional owners throughout the NT.”
FWPA would like to especially thank Kim Puruntatameri, Gibson Farmer Illortaminni, Dennis Tipakalippa, Patricia Puruntatameri and Andy Bubb from the Tiwi Plantations Corporation, Muhammed Sohail Mazhar from NT Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Frank Miller and Hanna Lillicrap from the NT Ord Valley Forestry Hub, Troy Sawyer and Ken Robson from Quintis for their support and insights during this valuable visit.
The insights and experiences from this study tour will inform further FWPA research and strategic development needs to support forestry and wood products across Australia.
