Author: Chloe Downey

The ARC Advance Timber Hub convened its Annual Strategic Planning Day on 15 December 2025 in Brisbane City, bringing together Hub stakeholders, researchers and selected industry representatives to reflect on progress, align priorities and shape the year ahead.

Held in a hybrid format at The University of Queensland’s Brisbane City campus, the event attracted 42 participants in person and 30 online. Proceedings opened with a welcome from Hub Director Professor Keith Crews, followed by a Hub update outlining key achievements from 2025, including the successful delivery of the World Conference on Timber Engineering 2025 (WCTE 2025).

The achievements also featured a presentation by Associate Professor Kim Baber, who shared the exemplar success story of the Australian Timber Fire Station and the recent accolade of being named one of six winning projects of the Built by Nature Prize 2025. This project is also featured in the  film Our Future by Open Planet Studios.

Node Leaders provided project updates and shared success stories, including the recruitment of PhD candidates and project staff. Several PhD candidates also delivered three-minute presentations, offering an introduction to the Hub’s newest researchers and showcasing the breadth of emerging research.

The day was further strengthened by industry association updates from FWPA/WoodSolutions, EWPAA, Timber Queensland and Responsible Wood.  These presentations provided valuable sector-wide insights and context to inform ongoing research and engagement activities.

Our final presentation of the day was from Dr Patrick Mitchell, Deputy Director of the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) whose presentation gave attendees an understanding of AFWI’s governance structure, strategic plan and research roadmap. We look forward to building stronger research linkages in the future with AFWI.

A key component of the event was a facilitated strategic discussion, led by Associate Professor Joe Gattas. Informed by pre-event survey responses from our stakeholders, the discussion confirmed strong alignment between industry needs and the Hub’s research program. Participants reflected on achievements to date, identified emerging challenges for the timber sector, and explored opportunities to strengthen communication, accelerate industry-relevant outputs, advance standards and support modern methods of construction.

Insights from the day will directly inform the Hub’s strategic priorities and engagement actions for 2026 and beyond, ensuring research outcomes remain relevant, timely and impactful for Australia’s evolving built environment.

The ARC Advance Timber Hub thanks our stakeholders for their active participation and continued commitment to advancing timber innovation across Australia.

The ARC Advance Timber Hub, together with The University of Queensland School of Civil Engineering, demonstrated a strong presence at Queensland Parliament House on Tuesday 9 December 2025, engaging directly with key government stakeholders to highlight The University of Queensland’s (UQ) Productivity in Practice Solutions Showcase.

ARC Advance Timber Hub representatives who attended the event included Associate Professor Joe Gattas (Theme Leader- Innovative Solutions and Node Leader Manufacturing Innovation & Value-Chain Innovation) and Kelly Rischmiller (Research Hub Manager).

The night involved meeting with Queensland Government Ministers, Shadow Ministers and Members of Parliament to showcase driving productivity, which is key to Queensland’s future, key to improving our way of life and key to lifting our standards of living.

As the ARC Advance Timber Hub is administered by UQ, it was proudly included in this showcase, which included:

• deep policy expertise to shape productivity enhancing reforms,
• research to create new technologies and innovation solutions,
• teaching and learning options that give people the skills they need to be productive in the workplace.

For a summary of UQ’s productivity capabilities, and case study examples of the projects helping to drive productivity on the ground across Queensland, please see, ‘Productivity for Queensland’s Future‘.

Reflecting on the importance of the event, Associate Professor Joe Gattas said, “Engaging directly with ministers and Members of Parliament is critical to ensuring the value of timber and timber research is well understood. Events like this allow us to clearly demonstrate how our research is supporting industry innovation and helping to position timber as a key material in Australia’s sustainable construction future.”

Featured photo – UQ School of Civil Engineering and ARC Advance Timber Hub stand (from left): UQ School of Civil Engineering PhD Candidates (Diluni Gardiya Manawaduge & Anastasia Jesica) with Professor Rebecca Gravina, alongside Associate Professor Joe Gattas and Kelly Rischmiller.

The ARC Advance Timber Hub is pleased to share the positive acknowledgement of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) in the Bunnings Community & Sustainability Report 2025, which reinforces the growing national commitment to responsible timber sourcing and sustainable forest management.

In the report, Bunnings outlines its commitment to ensuring all timber from natural forests is sourced responsibly and certified through trusted, independent third-party schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) and PEFC. These certification systems play a vital role in strengthening sustainability standards and ensuring the traceability of timber supply chains across Australia.

While ARC Advance Timber Hub’s partner, Responsible Wood, is not mentioned directly in the report, it is important to acknowledge that Responsible Wood is the national governing body for PEFC in Australia. Through this role, Responsible Wood provides oversight, promotes sustainable forest management standards, and works closely with industry stakeholders to support national and international certification requirements

As highlighted in the report, responsible sourcing is not only a corporate priority but is also increasingly valued by the wider community. Bunnings continues to work closely with suppliers to improve sourcing practices and uses tools such as comprehensive timber surveys to ensure full transparency around the origin of timber and fibre used in their products.

To read the Bunnings Community and Sustainability Report 2025, click here.

Significant progress has been made on an ARC Advance Timber Hub Project which is establishing viable product and market solutions for hardwood plantation,  led by Dr Chandan Kumar from the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI), as the research team continues advancing work on developing viable product and market pathways for hardwood plantation thinnings and small-diameter logs.

In recent weeks, the project team received a truckload of logs supplied by Wide Bay Water (WBW) for use in two of the ARC Advance Timber Hub’s Value-Chain Innovation Projects – Establishing Viable Product and Market Solutions for Hardwood Plantation Thinnings and Small Diameter Logs and Adaptive Building Forms for Inventory-Constrained Utilisation of Low Value Fibre. This delivery marks an important milestone and has enabled a concentrated period of hands-on assessment and early-stage processing.

Over the past fortnight, researchers have undertaken an extensive program of work, including log merchandising, cutting sample discs, capturing non-destructive measurements, and conducting the peeling study. These activities are essential for understanding log characteristics, evaluating processing performance, and building a data foundation that will inform future product development opportunities.

WBW staff visited the research facilities this week to observe the peeling operation and gain insight into the assessment and testing underway. Their visit highlights the strong collaboration at the core of this project.

With the logs now on-site, the team has progressed to the next phase of evaluation, including sample preparation for mechanical testing, heartwood–sapwood assessment, and durability analysis. These results will help determine the most promising processing pathways and potential product streams for plantation-grown hardwoods that have historically lacked clear commercial utilisation options.

The Value-Chain Innovation projects continues to build momentum, strengthening industry–research connections and generating valuable data to support the development of future markets for this important resource.

 

 

The ARC Advance Timber Hub is pleased to acknowledge the outstanding achievement of Mahdi Mazhari, a PhD candidate in Structural Engineering at Griffith University, who’s PhD is part of ARC Advance Timber Hub Research Node: Performance of Building Components, Project 1.1: Innovative Long-Span Timber and Wood-Based Hybrid Floors for Vibration Performance and Acoustic Compliance.

Mahdi has been awarded a Mitacs Globalink Research Award (GRA), enabling him to undertake a three-month research internship at the University of Victoria (UVic), Canada. This prestigious award supports high-calibre international research collaborations and will further strengthen the partnership between Griffith University and UVic within Hub Project 1.1.

Mahdi’s PhD research is led and principally supervised by A/Prof Hassan Karampour and Prof Hong Guan (Griffith University), with A/Prof Sardar Malek (University of Victoria) serving as his host supervisor during the internship.

The Mitacs GRA will enable deeper collaboration on the vibration performance of long-span timber and hybrid floor systems, shared experimental testing, advanced numerical modelling, and joint research outcomes across both institutions. The collaboration contributes to developing improved design guidance for next-generation sustainable timber and hybrid structures, supporting the ARC Advance Timber Hub’s mission to deliver high-performance, low-carbon building solutions.

The ARC Advance Timber Hub congratulates Mahdi on this accomplishment and looks forward to the valuable contributions that will emerge from this international research partnership.

The ARC Advance Timber Hub is excited to share a recent Wood Central article highlighting the work of ARC Advance Timber Hub partner, Loggo.

The article “This Low Cost Building System Could Use Far Less Wood than CLT” explores Loggo’s  approach to developing efficient, low-cost timber building systems that optimise resource use and reduce material waste.

This work aligns with ARC Advance Timber Hub Project “Establishing Viable Product and Market Solutions for Hardwood Plantation Thinnings and Small Logs”.

The article also references the World Conference on Timber Engineering 2025 (WCTE 2025), which was hosted by the ARC Advance Timber Hub in June this year.

We encourage you to read the full article on Wood Central to learn more about Loggo’s exciting work.

The ARC Advance Timber Hub is pleased to share an article published by Build Australia highlighting our partner Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) and its WoodSolutions initiative.

The feature, “WoodSolutions and Timber Insight advance sustainability,” explores how WoodSolutions is supporting innovation and knowledge sharing across the timber industry to drive more sustainable construction outcomes in Western Australia.

Image courtesy of Build Australia

The ARC Advance Timber Hub is sharing a recent article published by Timberbiz which highlights IndustryEdge’s new R&D funding for a major precinct project. This initiative aims to strengthen Australia’s timber industry through advanced data, research, and innovation — themes that strongly align with the Hub’s focus on sustainable design, advanced manufacturing, and collaboration across industry and academia.

 

The ARC Advance Timber Hub would like to acknowledge an insightful article published by Wood Central, titled “We’re Not Sweden — Australia Must Do Prefab Housing Its Own Way.” as it aligns with our research under the Hub.

The article features commentary from Building 4.0 CRC CEO, Professor Mathew Aitchison, who highlights the opportunities and challenges facing Australia as it seeks to scale modular and prefabricated housing solutions. Professor Aitchison emphasises the importance of developing construction systems tailored to Australia’s unique environment, manufacturing capacity, and housing needs — rather than simply replicating international models.