Plantations essential for QLD housing & future timber plan

The peak state body for the Queensland forest and timber industry has highlighted the significant role plantations play in supporting housing and construction activity while at the same time supporting local jobs, regional economies and carbon capture and removal.

Timber Queensland CEO Mick Stephens said “Queensland has a well-established plantation base with over 190,000 hectares of high-quality softwood resources for timber manufacturing feeding directly into housing construction. The plantation resource supporting Queensland homes today is the result of investment decisions made decades ago using commercially suitable softwood species.”

“As Queensland’s population grows, maintaining a strong pipeline of timber supply will require the same long-term commitment. If we want the same outcome for future Queenslanders, we need to continue investing in plantation expansion today,” Mr Stephens said.

“Queensland’s plantations support timber production jobs, ancillary businesses and local communities across the state, including in such regional areas as Moreton Bay, Caboolture, Beerburrum, Maryborough, Gympie, Hervey Bay and Mareeba.”

Plantations also deliver significant carbon benefits. In 2024-25, around 80 per cent of Queensland’s new detached houses used renewable softwood framing, removing almost 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, equivalent to over 2.3 million one-way flights from Brisbane to Sydney.

Continuing to use timber to build our homes in place of more emissions‑intensive materials like concrete and steel can reduce building emissions by up to 30 to 40 per cent, making it one of the most practical ways to decarbonise new housing.

“Queensland has set an ambitious target of building one million new homes by 2044. Meeting that challenge will require long-term planning not only for housing, but also for the resources need to build those homes. Plantation expansion will play a pivotal role in the new timber plan announced by the Crisafulli Government in November 2025, with the softwood sector already making a significant contribution to the state’s nearly $4 billion timber industry which supports over 23,000 jobs,” Mr Stephens said.

“Providing the right incentives and removing barriers to investment will help achieve the goal of an additional 25,000 hectares of new plantation by 2050. The new timber plan presents an opportunity to align future housing demand with future timber supply. Timber Queensland looks forward to working with the Government on co-designing plantation growth and timber manufacturing initiatives under the plan.”

Key measures being advocated to lift softwood supply include:

• continuation of the Australian Governments’ Support Plantation Establishment Program (SPEP), which provides upfront support for new plantations;
• improvements to carbon methods including addressing anomalies in plantation wood product accounting and generation of ACCUs in the FullCam model, particularly for North Queensland;
• identifying public and private land available and suitable for plantation development;
• prioritising plantations as a preferred land use activity in the Land Restoration Fund, given their significant carbon benefits and broader economic, environmental and social co-benefits;
• facilitating sustainable investment models for landholders and investors that reduces risk and provides for public and private partnerships and other collective funding vehicles;
• support for greater resource recovery in downstream processing and innovation in timber building design solutions;
• genetic improvements and applied plantation management to lift productivity; and
• a world class private forestry extension program that can provide information and expertise for landowners to capture the benefits of plantations and related agroforestry activities.

Source: Timber Queensland