Plantations - The Otways will always have a timber industry!

Otway Plantations

When the State government ends all native forest logging on public land in the Otways by 2008 or sooner, there will still be extensive softwood and hardwood plantations that will continue to provide employment for people who want to stay in the regional timber industry.

In the Otways there is 5,715 ha of leased public land in softwood plantations and about another (15,000 - 20,000 ha) of freehold land currently planted out to softwood or hardwood plantations. (Note: info on the exact area of private land plantations is difficult to obtain.)

In fact for years the plantation softwood industry has been erroding native forest markets for sawn timber. See more on the threats to the Native Forest Sawn-timber Industry from Softwood

Western Victoria Plantations

There are huge plantation resources within Central Victoria and the Green triangle that can meet all the community's wood needs. As of September 2000 there is about 85,000 ha of hardwood plantations (mainly blue gum) and 187,000 ha of softwood plantations (mainly radiata pine) in Green Triangle and Central Victoria areas.

The current area directly available for integrated native forest logging for both woodchip and sawlog in the West RFA is about 83,000 ha. This is comparable to all the total area under hardwood plantations of about 85,000 ha in the Central Victoria and Green Triangle regions.

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