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Aurecon has committed $200,000 in funding and in-kind support as a Principal Partner of the $16.5 million ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub to Advance Timber for Australia’s Future Built Environment, administered by the University of Queensland. Source: Timberbiz The aim of the hub is to develop the resources, enablers, and drivers to advance timber, as a natural resource, to be the material of choice, leading towards a net zero future for Australia’s built environment. Aurecon is involved in various nodes including Performance of Building Components, Manufacturing Innovation, Towards a Low Carbon and Circular Economy and Building Performance for Occupants. Aurecon’s Major Project Director, Ralph Belperio, who is on the Hub’s Executive Board and Hub Partner Investigator, said that Aurecon has identified that timber has a key role to play in decreasing both embodied and operational carbon as we move towards a net-zero future. “Several of the research nodes that the Hub is tackling are directly relevant to the decarbonisation pursuits of many of our key clients,” Mr Belperio said. “We have assembled a team of our most eminent practitioners to focus on each of the relevant nodes that can help guide the research strategies to ensure that the outcomes remain industry focussed and meet the needs of the broader construction community. “Our significant investment is key to our desire to remain at the forefront of innovation, both in the efficient and effective use of timber in our efforts to decarbonise the built environment, and in our broader drive for more sustainable outcomes”. Aurecon has an enviable track record of designing and delivering mass engineered timber structures, including Murdoch University’s Boola Katitjin, which won the 2023 Engineers Australia Project of the Year; 25 King St, which is Australia’s tallest mass-engineered timber commercial building; and Gaia, one of the largest mass-engineered timber buildings in Asia. Aurecon also contributes to mass-engineered timber advocacy as a partner of the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership Coalition on Greening Construction with Sustainable Wood and the Materials Embodied Carbon Leaders’ Alliance. The research support for the ARC Advance Timber Hub is just one of a number of research and development commitments that Aurecon is currently undertaking, including the development of sustainable alternatives for sand in shotcrete, improving design through AI-assisted stakeholder engagements, and reducing wastage through a circular economy approach to building retrofits.

  Effective collaboration across the timber industry and learning the lessons from past fire salvage efforts have been highlighted as key factors underpinning the success of the record salvage program in the Tumut and Tumbarumba regions following the Black Summer fires in a report commissioned by Forestry Corporation of NSW. Source: Timberbiz Forestry Corporation’s Sales and Procurement Manager Peter Stiles said the report summarised the challenges, successes and lessons from the timber salvage program and was being shared with the industry to inform future fire recovery. “The Black Summer fires were devastating for the local community and the region’s softwood timber industry was severely impacted, with about 50 per cent of the pine plantations in the south west slopes burnt,” Mr Stiles said. “Unlike many native species, pine trees die when they are burnt, but the industry was able to mobilise quickly and in numbers against the backdrop of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic to salvage a remarkable 2.7 million tonnes of timber in the two years following the fire. “This was the biggest ever salvage effort in this country’s history and there is a lot to be proud of in what the industry achieved. The salvage program kept the lights on for our local processors immediately following the fires and created a boom in harvest and haulage work across the region, but importantly, it also maintained a quality supply of essential structural lumber and packaging products to the broader industry at a time of high demand. “The lessons from past fires underpinned the success of this salvage program, so while we hope fires like this will never be experienced again, it is important for us to share the lessons from the Black Summer salvage with the industry for the future.” Report author Damien O’Reilly from Mayday Hill Consulting said the review made it clear that collaboration across the timber supply chain was a key to the salvage program’s success. “Forestry Corporation of NSW is a plantation manager that engages contractors to harvest timber and supply it to third party processors and close collaboration across the supply chain and with local and interstate forest growers was an essential ingredient in the salvage program’s success,” Mr O’Reilly said. “The timber industry as a whole shares the objective of maintaining a sustainable supply of timber not just for today but also for the future, so the industry worked to balance immediate and long-term timber needs in the decisions that were made following the fires. “The salvage program benefited from experiences in assessing damage and managing the processing of burnt timber that were learnt following past fires in NSW such as the Billo Road fire in 2006 and Jananee fire in 2014, as well as invaluable advice and support from the industry across Victoria and South Australia, and through Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA). “This salvage program demonstrated the effectiveness of remote sensing technology and estate modelling in prioritising salvage operations, and informing processors, contractors and the community about the medium and long-term impacts on the resource.” There was also significant investigation into log storage options under water or sprinklers, including a trial that provided useful lessons should long-term storage of burnt timber be required following fires in future. Overwhelmingly, the report found collaboration with customers and contractors was a fundamental reason underpinning the success of the program. Flexibility from customers, coordination of contractor capacity and engaging with other growers enabled the industry to both maximise the salvage of burnt timber and minimise the harvesting of unburnt timber to allow it to grow on to deliver timber in future years. The report is specifically focused on the salvage of softwood timber from the Tumut and Tumbarumba regions and has been published on the Forestry Corporation website to assist the timber industry. Several inquiries and inquests have looked into the 2019-20 fires and Forestry Corporation continues to work with the NSW Rural Fire Service and other government agencies to implement improvements recommended by those inquiries.