It’s a first.

A group of 20, including 12 Australian Eucalypt growers and processors, visited Canterbury and Marlborough to look at a range of NZ Dryland Forests Innovation (NZDFI) durable eucalypt seed orchards and trial sites over four days last week.

Australian Eucalypt growers overlook the NZDFI E. globoidea breeding trial located on the Avery Bonavaree property in Grassmere, Saltworks in the background.

You may be forgiven for thinking that providing the Australians with information on Eucalypt research on NZ soil was the same as taking coals to Newcastle. Not so however.

All visitors are involved in establishing durable Eucalypt plantations in Australia. Together, they comprise the Australian Durable Eucalypt Growers Forum. The visitors were hosted by NZDFI’s team of leading durable eucalypt research and development specialists.

“Five years ago, the Australians invited the NZ Specialty Wood Products Research Programme to join them on their turf. Now for the first time the Australians travelled to see some of their species grown in New Zealand,” says Marco Lausberg, Programme Manager of Forest Growers Research Specialty Wood Products Research Partnership (SWP).

NZDFI commenced research into durable Eucalypts 15 years ago in New Zealand. “Tree breeding was the focus of the early part of our programme, the Australians have been interested in how we have targeted and improved certain wood properties,” says Marco. “The Australians have a lot more experience on the operational side of plantations of durable eucalypts, as they have been planting them for a lot longer than in NZ, and understand which species do well where in Australia.”

NZDFI’s extensive regional trials are currently establishing what species grow well in some regions of New Zealand.

The final day of the visit began with a forum at the Marlborough Research Centre (MRC).

Presentations in the Marlborough Research Centre Theatre.

Marco says “the forum was about hearing from the visitors. Setting up processing facilities, dealing with waste as well as harvest options – where smaller machinery was needed than for radiata were on the agenda. You need the right equipment not to damage the remaining crop trees.”

Australian Eucalypt Grower Chris Swadling from New South Wales, owner of Ironwood Australia, supplied the timer for the soffit of the NZ Wine Centre.

Part of the group was Eucalypt Grower Chris Swadling from New South Wales, owner of Ironwood Australia. A leading supplier of reclaimed, recycled and architectural Australian hardwood timbers. Chris admired the stunning soffits (Eucalyptus pilularis) of the New Zealand Wine Centre, clad with the timber cut and supplied by him.

The MRC is a founding partner and long-time supporter of the incredibly successful NZDFI programme. Gerald Hope, MRC’s CE, recognised early on the potential for a durable eucalypt industry in Marlborough to produce naturally durable posts for the vineyard sector, reducing the sector’s dependence on copper-chrome-arsenate (CCA)-treated posts.

Now there are a range of viable emerging uses for eucalypts for local use including construction and furniture and even export to Australian consumers that want these hardwoods and are now in short supply in Australasia.

“Even though New Zealand is well suited to growing durable Eucalypt timber, we haven’t got the scale of planting yet to establish a supply chain to export yet, says Marco. The University of Canterbury has also had a significant role in the seven-year programme that is now coming to an end.

FAQ’s about the NZDFI Eucalypt Programme

NZDFI’s vision is to develop a multi-regional sustainable hardwood industry based on planting 60,000 hectares of durable eucalypt forests in up to 12 wood supply catchments.
Forty-two trial sites established to date from Northland to North Canterbury. These trials range from private farmers to major corporates, forestry companies, and regional authorities.
Trial sites include breeding populations of several eucalypt species enabling top-performing families now being propagated to produce the 1st generation of improved planting material.
The first of these seedlings with the brand name XyloGene, were produced at a state-of-the-art propagation programme at Proseed NZ’s Amberley nursery, were planted October 1st, 2021 in a new trial in Marlborough.
Working with regional partners NZDFI is now quantifying potential markets for products, identifying possible catchments for future processing operations and quantifying the area of land needed to supply such operations.
The NZDFI is based at the Marlborough Research Centre.
A fully-fledged, internationally renowned wood quality research programme at the University of Canterbury’s NZ School of Forestry, is feeding results back into the breeding work. Other research includes site x species work, economics/modelling, and integrated pest and disease management.
Visit the NZDFI website for more information.

For more information please contact

Marco Lausberg, Forest Growers Research Specialty Wood Products Research Partnership (SWP), marco.lausberg@fgr.nz 027 4988 170
Paul Millen, NZ Dryland Forests Innovation, p.millen@xtra.co.nz, 021 662 147