Ourimbah State Forest is a regrowth forest that has been harvested to produce renewable timber products and regrown many times. It has one of the oldest histories of routine timber harvesting in Australia - the forest has been harvested sustainably and regrown for over 150 years and the trees we see today are regrowth forest. The first Australian Forestry School was located nearby in part Strickland State Forest in the early 1900s.

Ourimbah State Forest is part of the two million hectare forest estate that Forestry Corporation has been appointed to manage for multiple values, including environmental conservation, tourism and renewable timber production. Forestry Corporation works to balance these multiple objectives, in line with Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management principles. See the video below for more details about sustainable forest management.

History

Harvesting of the district commenced in the 1820s with the cutting of red cedar in the fertile river valleys. From this time, the cutting of hardwoods progressed steadily into valley and foothill forests of the coastal areas including Strickland and Ourimbah State Forests and the Watagan Forests.

With the onset of the gold rushes in the 1850s, timber getting, boat building and agriculture flourished. Hardwood timber was used for shoring and mining props. By 1870 the majority of the readily available timber in the coastal areas had been harvested. Strickland State Forest was reported as being heavily logged prior to 1875 and Wyong and Ourimbah State Forests had been heavily cut over before 1916.

The depression of the 1930s reduced harvesting activity markedly, however the war years between 1940 to 1945 reversed this trend. The demand for products such as rifle butts and the proximity of the area to Sydney saw heavy exploration of the resource. Extensive operations for mining timber also occurred during these years. These days operations are more minimal and there is now a balance of national park for conservation and forests for multiple uses including timber and tourism.

Recent operations

In NSW, the majority of public forests are set aside for conservation and about one per cent of the State forest estate harvested for timber and regrown each year, which is around 0.1 per cent of the broader forested landscape. Overall, around 50 per cent of State forests are never harvested, with around 99 per cent of State forests not harvested in any given year. In the areas where harvesting occurs, an average of 40 per cent of each harvest area is left untouched to maintain habitat throughout harvested areas, and all areas are completely regrown after harvesting to provide ongoing habitat and timber for the future.

Forestry Corporation has recently completed an operation to selectively harvest timber from compartments OUR008 and OUR009 of Ourimbah State Forest. This area has previously been harvested a number of times, the most recent operation being in the 1990s. At that time, trees were retained and grown on specifically for the purpose of long-term timber production.

These operations were carefully planned in line with the detailed regulations in place for native forestry operations in NSW. In a selective harvesting operation, a proportion of the trees is selected and harvested for timber and large areas are set aside for a range of values. See the video below to find out more about the process of planning a native forest operation and visit our Plan Portal to see the detailed plans for this operation.

Fire

Forestry Corporation is a fire fighting authority and manages both fire hazard reduction and primary response to fires in the region’s State forests in collaboration with the NSW Rural Fire Service. All fire fighting authorities work collaboratively to assess and address bush fire risk across the landscape through Bush Fire Management Committees, of which Forestry Corporation is a member. In the Hunter and Central Coast region, Forestry Corporation’s workforce includes 31 trained and skilled fire fighters who manage fire mitigation and response across the region, supported by a fleet of specialist fire fighting equipment including 19 light fire fighting units, two tankers and a range of heavy machinery and equipment.

Community members contacted Forestry Corporation with concerns about fire hazards in a recently harvested part of Ourimbah State Forest, and both Forestry Corporation and the NSW Rural Fire Services investigated the potential fire hazard and confirmed the land does not present a significant bush fire threat at this point in time. We take our fire management obligations seriously and will continue working throughout the summer to rapidly detect and respond to fires in the region.

Protecting wildlife

In the areas where timber harvesting takes place, operations are selective. Surveys and broad area habitat searches are carried out prior to every forestry operation to identify records and ensure suitable habitat is set aside within each harvest area. In each compartment there are large areas that are set aside for wildlife habitat and to protect other forest features. Rainforest, old growth forests, wetlands and riparian zones, threatened ecological communities, ridge and headwater habitat and rocky outcrops are permanently protected and never harvested. Feed and habitat trees are also identified and protected and trees are retained for seeds to encourage harvested areas to regenerate, providing long-term wildlife habitat and timber resources for the future.

Koalas

Protection of koalas and their habitat is a core priority and specific searches are carried out prior to and throughout harvest operations. There are also clear regulations that require feed trees and habitat to be identified and protected throughout the harvest area where koalas are present in a compartment. These measures were developed on the basis of ongoing research, which continues to show that koalas occupy forests where timber harvesting takes place at the same rate as unharvested forests. Read about the Department of Primary Industries' ongoing koala research and read the Natural Resources Commission's research report on koala response to harvesting in north coast State forests.

Forestry Corporation has been informed by the community about a koala sighting near the compartments where operations are planned and has incorporated this information into its planning by ensuring staff are aware of the potential sighting and maintain vigilance during their comprehensive searches and throughout operations.

Eastern Horseshoe Bats

In 1996, Forestry Corporation's ecologists discovered a previously unmapped cave in a remote area of Ourimbah State Forest during field surveys. In this cave was Australia's largest known roost of Eastern Horseshoe Bats. Forestry Corporation has been monitoring and protecting this colony for more than 20 years. The habitat is mapped and has been protected throughout previous harvest operations and will again be protected through upcoming operations in this forest. Read more about our ongoing management of this bat colony.

Riparian protection

Protecting the health of waterways and riparian zones is also a priority and there are a number of environmental protections in place to ensure this is properly managed in all forestry operations. The measures put in place to protect waterways were developed by expert scientific panels following extensive research. Research published by the University of New England has demonstrated that the best practice measures used by Forestry Corporation to protect water quality during our operations are effective. This reinforces more than four decades of monitoring data that has consistently demonstrated the water from State forests is among the best in the landscape.

Responding to the 2019-20 wildfires

The recovery and health of forests and wildlife following the 2019-20 fires is paramount, which is why renewable timber production is so carefully managed, particularly in the post-fire landscape. During the 18 months following the fires, a large proportion of operations on the north coast have moved to timber plantations to reduce operations in native forests.

While the 2019-20 fires impacted large areas, the severity of impact was not uniform across the landscape. Fire severity is important to consider, as areas affected by low severity fire are expected to have less impact and quicker recovery than areas burnt at high severity. Forestry Corporation completed an environmental assessment that takes into account mapped fire severity across the landscape and identified additional environmental safeguards to augment the CIFOA. The CIFOA is also underpinned by monitoring and adaptive management approach, and to this end a detailed long-term monitoring program is currently being developed by the Natural Resources Commission that specifically monitors post-fire recovery. In line with adaptive management principles, data from these monitoring programs will be used to continually assess the effectiveness of conditions and inform future management.

Cultural heritage

Identification and protection of Aboriginal sites and places is done in consultation with local communities in line with Forestry Corporation’s Cultural Heritage Guidelines. Forestry Corporation employs a dedicated team of Aboriginal Partnerships Liaisons who work closely with local communities to carry out cultural heritage surveys and ensure cultural heritage is protected in all operations.

Information about cultural sites belongs to Aboriginal communities and is kept confidential, so while details are included in the operational plans and maps that are provided to staff and contractors working in the forest to ensure the cultural heritage protections are correctly applied, cultural heritage information is never included in public versions of harvest plans.

Forestry Corporation has also been working closely with the Darkingjung Local Aboriginal Land Council, NSW Police, the Environment Protection Authority and local councils to address damage by vandals and significant illegal dumping in the vicinity of cultural heritage sites within Ourimbah State Forest. Forestry Corporation has removed substantial volumes of illegally dumped rubbish, installed protective gates to minimise further damage and restricted public access to walking only in this area.

You can find out more about our partnerships in the video below.

Products

Timber is an important renewable product that is in demand by our community and has a lower carbon footprint than other alternatives.Our operations are tightly regulated and provide truly renewable products certified to the Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management. Find out more about certification.

The products harvested from State forests are put to a range of end uses and are a valued product across many industries including as power poles, structural timbers, flooring, decking, bridge timbers and in wharf construction. However, each tree and each operation can produce a range of different products and in every operation we aim to ensure each part of the tree is used for its highest value purpose.

In general, we aim to use as much of the tree as possible. For example, if we take the trunk of a tree as the strong sawlog we cut off the crown and branches and those can also be used for low grade products such as firewood. Recently harvested forests are also made available to the community for firewood collection under our permit system after harvesting is complete and the area is made safe. Product yields provided in harvesting plans are an estimate only and are primarily used internally to forecast products and likely harvesting timeframes. Timber harvested from north coast State forests is processed in NSW, by local businesses. NSW has the highest number of hardwood sawmills in Australia.

Sustainably harvested timber is the ultimate renewable resource Forestry Corporation manages State forests to continually supply timber into the future. Find out more.

Native forestry in NSW

Read more about native forestry.