featured image for World first in Warrnambool

World first in Warrnambool

3 December 2024

A world-first engineered wood product made from locally sourced bluegum timber has been developed in Warrnambool, aiming to address Australia’s structural timber shortage. Created through the “Splinters to Structures” project, this GL18 laminated product could reduce reliance on timber imports while supporting local construction needs.

It was developed by WTIBeam and the Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub, with support from Forest and Wood Products Australia. The product’s potential applications in residential and commercial building were discussed by Victorian officials, underscoring its economic and environmental benefits.

“This product has the potential to save thousands of dollars in the construction of a home because you have a smaller beam that can be utilised further because of its strength, reducing the need for other materials,” said WTIBeam owner, Edwina Vulcz.

Source: Warrnambool Weekly
Image credit: Warrnambool Timber Industries

More Posts

Operating at scale: The off-highway advantage

Inside Kaingaroa, the heavy lifting happens off the public highway. A privately managed off-highway road network runs around the clock, moving logs efficiently from harvest sites to processing or rail. “The forest’s scale lets us plan and coordinate properly,” says ...

Milestone for Jubilee Sawmill’s $88m bioenergy project

Construction of OneFortyOne’s $88 million Co-Generation Boiler project facility has reached another significant milestone, with the project’s boiler now in place at the Jubilee Sawmill. With crews on site before sunrise on 16 September, months of planning culminated in the ...

KEITH showcases faster unloading with new RX2 drive

At last month’s Residues2Revenues 2026 conference in Brisbane, material handling specialist KEITH Manufacturing Co. showcased its updated two-cylinder RX2 WALKING FLOOR® drive unit, designed to improve unloading and turnaround times for the wood-products sector. With truck turnaround times directly affecting ...

Lignin resin delivers flame retardancy without formaldehyde

Researchers have developed a bio-based, formaldehyde-free phenolic resin derived from lignin that provides fire protection, strong adhesion, and zero toxic off-gassing for timber products. Published in the journal Green Chemistry, the study details how the new material, dubbed SALG-PR, functions ...

Future-focused learning

In 2026, the WIDE Trust supported four young professionals to attend the WoodTECH 2026 Conference in Rotorua, giving them the opportunity to engage with one of New Zealand’s leading events for wood processing and manufacturing innovation. WoodTECH brings together engineers, ...

Comact launches Comact Cutting Solution

Comact, a global leader in high-performance OEM wood processing technologies, announced this week the launch of Comact Cutting Solutions, bringing together Smith Sawmill Service, Oleson Saw Technology, Checkmate Precision Cutting Tools, and the proprietary BLADE brand under a common organizational ...

Untapped wood from forestry to help fuel NZ industry

The country’s supply of sustainable wood fuel is ramping up with work underway to capture previously unused forestry material and investigate new wood energy manufacturing plants.   “When businesses are looking at energy options, woody biomass could provide an economic alternative ...

Biomass trial produces industrial heat at less than $3/GJ

A biomass trial at JBS Riverina’s Yanco facility in New South Wales has produced thermal energy at a supply cost of less than $3 per gigajoule (GJ), highlighting the potential for biomass to provide a lower-cost alternative to conventional industrial ...

Beyond Woodchips: Australia’s hardwood plantation industry must innovate

For more than three decades, Australia’s hardwood plantation industry has been built on a simple but largely successful business model: growing world-class plantation fibre for export to Asia’s pulp mills. It has underpinned regional economies, attracted significant investment and established ...

UBC-developed ‘wood foam’ enters production

Inside a new facility at Main Street and Terminal Avenue, wood fibre is moving through a production line and emerging, transformed, as a block of lightweight “wood foam.” For Dr. Feng Jiang, who first developed the material in his laboratory ...

Free program to help SMEs advance AI and digital tech ideas in Queensland

The free eight-week online program, delivered by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, helps businesses turn early-stage ideas into actionable R&D plans while building connections with expert facilitators and researchers. Offered through the Queensland Government-funded Regional University Industry Collaboration (RUIC) program, ...

Canada and Australia are asking similar questions – but arriving at different answers

New Canadian research echoes themes explored by Australia’s System 600 while highlighting different approaches to industrialised housing. When Perkins&Will recently released its research into a modular mass timber housing system for Canada, the immediate takeaway was straightforward: another country is ...

Enforcement data reveals where forestry needs to lift its game

Strengthening organisational capability, planning, supervision and risk management remains one of the forestry sector’s biggest challenges, according to new enforcement data released by WorkSafe New Zealand. During the 2025/26 business year, WorkSafe conducted 526 assessments across the forestry industry. One ...

Testing New Zealand’s first heavy electric loader

A Volvo L120 Electric wheel loader is helping PermaPine test what sustainable equipment can really deliver in one of New Zealand’s most demanding timber processing environments. Set on a 100-acre site outside Taupō, PermaPine is New Zealand’s largest manufacturer of ...

Turning forestry waste into Australian-made jet fuel

The federal government has announced a $32 million investment to help support a plan to convert forestry waste into Australian-made jet fuel. The funding, made through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), will be provided to Melbourne based company HAMR ...

Project update: Connecting forests, mills and buildings

ARC Advance Timber Hub Project “An Open-Data Framework for Forest-to-Building Value Chain Mapping” is addressing a major challenge for Australia’s forest and wood products sector: how to better understand, visualise and coordinate data across the entire value chain – from forest resource ...

Red Stag’s first-of-a-kind CLT modular production line

The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, opened the Southern Hemisphere’s first off-site production line to use Cross Laminated Timber, CLT, as the structure. The initiative is a collaboration between local industry leader Red Stag, German architecture firm NKBAK and Austria constructor ...

Engineered wood products & the future skills needed

ForestWorks to Investigate Skills Need in the Manufacturing of Engineered Wood Products. Australia’s forestry and timber sector has always evolved in response to changing markets, technologies and community needs. Today, engineered wood products (EWPs) are emerging as an increasingly important part ...

Video: Jubilee Sawmill’s co-generation boiler project

OneFortyOne has released a new video providing an overview of the Jubilee Co-Generation Boiler Project, one of the most significant investments in the future of the Jubilee Sawmill and the company’s sustainability journey. The video explains how the project will ...

Comact acquires Checkmate Precision Cutting Tools

Comact announced last week that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Checkmate Precision Cutting Tools, a manufacturer and service provider of bandsaws, circular saws, industrial knives, and complete saw shop solutions with operations across New Zealand and Australia. ...

A novel wood bark-based packaging coating material

In the COCOBIN project, coordinated by the University of Oulu, coating materials are being developed from suberin, a natural compound found for example in birch bark. In plants, suberin acts as a protective layer and prevents the loss of water. Up ...