page_title: Forests Commission Victoria
section_title: Softwood and hardwood plantations
hierarchical_section_title: Forests Commission Victoria / 1960s - Consolidation / Softwood and hardwood plantations
caption_attribution_description: English: Tree planting Strzelecki Ranges
context_page_description: The Forests Commission Victoria was the main government authority responsible for management and protection of State forests in Victoria, Australia between 1918 and 1983.
  The Commission was responsible for ″forest policy, prevention and suppression of bushfires, issuing leases and licences, planting and thinning of forests, the development of plantations, reforestation, nurseries, forestry education, the development of commercial timber harvesting and marketing of produce, building and maintaining forest roads, provision of recreation facilities, protection of water, soils and wildlife, forest research and making recommendations on the acquisition or alienation of land for forest purposes″.
  The Forests Commission had a long and proud history of innovation and of managing Victoria's State forests but in November 1983 lost its discrete identity when it was merged into the newly formed Victorian Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands along with the Crown Lands and Survey Department, National Park Service, Soil Conservation Authority and Fisheries and Wildlife Service.
context_section_description: Early foresters discovered that the physical properties of native forest hardwoods were unsuitable for some applications and plantation-grown softwoods offered the chance to replace expensive imports of Baltic Pine, Oregon and other timbers with domestic supplies. Several exotic softwood species had been trialled but Pinus radiata had been found that its growth in Victorian conditions was sufficiently promising for commercial planting to begin from 1880.
  Initially, the goals were simply to rehabilitate land cleared during the goldrush, provide timber and avoid cost and unreliability of imported timber, generate revenue and create jobs through local sawmills. Commercial financial returns became a more important objective following increased investment with the plantations expansion program.
  Planting was limited in the early years but accelerated from 1910, but unfortunately, large areas of the early plantings established in coastal areas between 1910 and 1930 failed due to the unsuitability of the sites. Activity picked up once again in the 1930s with unemployment relief schemes during the Great Depression. The war years saw activity again fall away sharply while after the war there was a new focus on developing native forests in eastern Victoria owing to the conclusion of the 1939 fire salvage and to provide timber for post-war housing construction. However, the Strzelecki reforestation program got underway in the 1930s with planting of both softwoods and hardwoods on abandoned farmland.
  In 1949 the Commonwealth Forestry and Timber Bureau proposed a national planting program to make Australia more self-reliant in timber products after the shortages experienced during the war. The threat of introduced sirex woodwasp in the early 1950s and its eventual discovery on the Australian mainland in 1961 brought the softwood plantation program into question. However, quarantine and control measure was put in place.
  Separately in 1952 a private company, Softwood Holdings, began to establish its own plantations in South West Victoria. This was followed shortly after by construction of a new sawmill at Dartmoor in 1954 which drew logs from both government plantations and private sources. Associated Kiln Dryers (AKD) mill at Colac followed in 1954. It was a similar pattern across the border near Mt Gambier in South Australia and the beginning of what became known as the "green triangle".
  But the big step came in 1961, when the Chairman of the Forest Commission, Alf Lawrence attended the World Forestry Conference in São Paulo Brazil and upon his return took a bold decision to commit Victoria to a massive Plantation Expansion (PX) program which initiated nearly four decades of rapid plantation establishment. At that stage, softwoods were still being imported in large quantities and it was also believed that softwoods could not only relieve the pressure on native forests but make Australia self-sufficient in timber resources.
  
  A new Ministerial Australian Forestry Council was formed in 1964 with one of its first decisions being to further raise the national softwood target, with the Commonwealth agreeing to provide loan monies to the States to plant 30,000 hectares of softwoods per year for 35 years.  Victoria took up the challenge by establishing and maintaining its plantations at nearly half the average cost of the other States.
  Planting peaked in 1969 with a record 5,183 ha and by the end of 1982, the Commission had established 87,000 hectares of softwood plantations, a five-fold increase since 1940. Softwood plantation zones were concentrated around Bright and Myrtleford in the Ovens Valley, Portland-Rennick, Latrobe Valley-Strzelecki Ranges, Ballarat-Creswick, Benalla-Mansfield, Upper Murray near Tallangatta-Koetong, the Otways and Central zone near Taggerty.
  The majority of the plantation estate consisted of Pinus radiata, with a smaller area of native hardwoods – mostly Eucalyptus regnans in the Strzelecki Ranges.
  As the plantation base expanded and matured agreements were reached private mills such as Bowater-Scott (now Carter Ho
caption: Seedlings were all hand planted on the steep hillsides of the Strzelecki Ranges by FCV crews and prisoners from Morwell River. The program ran for almost 60 years. Source: FCV annual report - 1974.
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