Australian plantation area and log availability — National plantation inventory regions and Regional forestry hubs

Australian plantation statistics and log availability 2021

The Australian plantation statistics and log availability report series supports strategic forest industry planning and decision-making by presenting information on total plantation area, new planting and ownership along with forecasts of future softwood and hardwood sawlog and pulplog availability.

In this 2021 report, plantation areas and forecast log availability are presented nationally and by National Plantation Inventory (NPI) regions for softwood and hardwood plantation types. This is based on data collected from private growers and grower representatives and public state and territory agencies. This data is published every 5 years and supports strategic forest industry planning and decision–making.

This report presents 2019‒20 plantation area data and is compared with data from the 1999‒00, 2004‒05, 2009–10 and 2014–15. ABARES also forecasts hardwood and softwood plantation log availability at the national and NPI region level to 2064.

Key findings

• Australia’s commercial plantation area in 2019-20 was 1,774,660 hectares. This area is 198,700 hectares (10%) less than the area recorded in 2014-15. The total softwood plantation was relatively stable, declining by only 7 300 hectares (0.7%). The total hardwood plantation area decreased by 204 900 hectares (22%) because of low commerciality plantations not being replanted after harvest and some lease agreements with landholders not being renewed.
• A total of 9,700 hectares were established between 2014-15 and 2019-20, comprising 7,800 hectares of softwood plantations and 2,000 hectares of hardwood plantations.
• Total annual log availability from Australia’s commercial plantation estate is forecast to decline from an annual average of 27.7 million cubic meters in the 2015–2019 period to approximately 24.9 million cubic meters a year in the 2020–2024 period, including a decrease in both hardwood and softwood availability. Hardwood availability is expected to increase in the 2025-2029 period remaining stable until 2064, while total annual softwood availability is forecast to not reach 2015-2019 levels until 2035.
• Annual average total plantation log availability between 2020 and 2059 is expected to remain stable compared with ABARES’ 2015 forecasts. Hardwood sawlogs is the only log type which has a significant proportional change in log availability over the period (15% increase), although this is a relatively small amount of Australia’s total annual harvest volume (less than 1%).
• The 2019-20 summer bushfires heavily impacted the NPI regions of Murray Valley, East Gippsland-Bombala, Mount Lofty and Kangaroo Island and the North Coast, which account for 24% of Australia’s softwood sawlog production. ABARES 2020 plantation data shows that 85,000 hectares were burnt, however further analysis is required to determine how much log availability is impacted since there are multiple factors that can affect changes in log availability forecasts.

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Key issues from the Australian plantation statistics 2020 update

Published: 23 June 2020

• Australia’s total commercial plantation area in 2018–19 was 1,933,400 hectares. This area is 9,300 hectares (0.5%) less than the area recorded in 2017‒18, and 86,800 hectares (4.3%) less than the area recorded in 2008–09.
• ABARES estimates that a total area of 130,200 hectares (6.7%) of Australia’s commercial plantations was in the fire extent of the 2019–20 bushfires in southern and eastern Australia. Most of the plantation area in the fire extent was in New South Wales (71%) and South Australia (13%). The effects of the bushfires on Australia’s commercial plantation estate are not reflected in the 2018–19 data in this report but will be accounted for in the 2019–20 comprehensive spatial stocktake report.
• A total of 2,800 hectares of new plantations were established in 2018–19, comprising 2,750 hectares of softwood plantations and 50 hectares of hardwood plantations. Around 92% of new plantations established in 2018–19 were publicly owned and 8% were privately owned.
• A total of 12,100 hectares of Australia’s plantation estate was converted to another land use in 2018–19, comprising 12,000 hectares of hardwood plantations (99%) and 100 hectares of softwood plantations (1%). Most converted plantations were in South Australia (52%), followed by Western Australia (29%) and Victoria (19%).

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