Bairnsdale Forests & Wood Products

Gippsland Private Forestry is a not-for-profit organisation that has been operating since 1996.  Our objective is to encourage the contribution of private forestry to sustainable economic development and positive natural resource management outcomes.

Private forestry means commercial tree growing and utilisation on private land, and includes plantations, farm forestry and private native forest management.

With a staff of 4 based at Bairnsdale and Traralgon, Gippsland Private Forestry undertakes a range of strategic industry development activities that aim to attract additional investment to the private forestry resource sector in Gippsland and the processing industries that draw upon this resource. Gippsland Private Forestry provides free technical advice to existing and prospective commercial tree growers in the region.

As the Regional Private Forestry Development Committee for Gippsland, Gippsland Private Forestry receives funding from the Australian and Victorian Governments, and in return assists in the implementation of national and state private forestry policy.

The Gippsland Regional Farm Forestry and Plantations Strategy, produced by GPF in 2000, provides a Gippsland focus for progressing the economic, social and environmental benefits that can be achieved through investment in private forestry. Building on the region’s existing strengths, the Strategy identifies a number of private forestry opportunities for Gippsland, with the objective of achieving an increased resource base of sufficient scale to support expanded and new processing markets.

The Gippsland region is well placed to capitalise on the private forestry opportunities expressed in this Strategy. Plantations and forests are already a significant land use in Gippsland, and the region has a large area of potentially available land that has suitable rainfall and soils for commercial tree growing. In addition, Gippsland has well-developed infrastructure, an experienced forest industry workforce, and a diverse existing forest products industry.