I n c o r p o r a t i n g A U S T R A L A S I A N F O R E S T L O G G E R & S AW M I L L E R FEBRUARY 2016 • P: (03) 9888 4834 • www.timberbiz.com.au
Special Feature - Forest Corporation NSW centenary
Exhibitors committed to premier industry event AUSTimber is an industry event that has been running in Australia in one form or another since the 1970s. AUSTimber2016 will be staged in Gippsland for the first time and without equivocation the In-forest demonstration site provided by sponsor HVP is world class in its layout. The point of difference for the event is the concentration on, where possible, the demonstration of advanced machinery rather than its simple exhibition. Show. Not just Tell! It has also had a strong focus on forestry production with excellent support from the major international harvesting equipment brands, plus excellent support from suppliers to the industry as exhibitors with more support coming on board every day. See our AUSTimber2016 lead-up feature in this edition starting on page 16.
Training hub offers more than future work security E
STA BL I SH M E N T OF the Arbre Forest Industries Promotion and Training Hub at Invermay (Tasmania) is seen as more than just a new approach to ensuring qualified workers for the future ... it’s a huge attitudinal change from industry and its participants! The hub aim is to upskill forestry workers, in conjunction with our relevant RTO,s, to meet changing expectations of expertise in all facets of the work AND it’s about changing community attitudes towards that work. Hub Project Manager Col McCulloch, a longtime forestry contractor who knows the industry exceptionally well, says the industry wants to do a better job of “showing who we are, what we are, how we do it; being proactive and re-directing the conversation around forestry and its importance within the Primary Industries nationally”, and this ties in with the skill set change. Col said Tasmania’s wood and forestry industry had changed and now needed more people equipped with the right
skills and attitudes than had been required in the past. “The ownership of the forests is completely different to what it was five or 10 years ago. We’re very much owned by investment-based companies, most of those being international. Expectations around safety and training are a lot higher, as they should be, and of course industry has got to perform to standards set by certification programs,” Col said. Col said the hub would cater to former and existing forestry workers as well as new entrants and he was hopeful that up 50 candidates would benefit from the centre in its first year.. The hub is working with existing training providers and careers advisors, to join the aspirations of employees to the jobs and career pathways that would emerge as the industry recovered and started to expand. “We do need people who understand what mapping is, forest value recovery and understand computer values now more so than ever. If we can sell that message into our communities, into our
¢ J odi Batchelor, working on her Skidder as she graduates through the hub’s Timber Skills Learning Environment Program.
schools, into our education system that if you are a good person we will find you a job, then that’s half the battle,” said Col. Sam Hall, from a well-known north-east Tasmania logging family, has just joined the hub as Coordinator and he, too, is looking forward to the centre playing a crucial
role in providing wellskilled future employees for the industry. “The wheels are in motion to have things fully operational by the start of the education year,” said Col. In the meantime, special simulators have been installed at the Invermay
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