Plantation Management
Transport
Freight is a key cost and profit driver of the forest and forest products industry, particularly as forest products are usually grown and processed in rural and regional areas of Australia.
The forest industry, including the plantation sector, is highly dependent on road freight and, thus, road condition and transport regulations. About 86.6 % of domestic freight for the forest and forest products industry is hauled by road, 12.0 % by rail and 1.4 % by coastal shipping. The wood haulage task will increase in various regions as the processing and consumption of hardwood plantations increases as they reach maturity. (Cameron 2005)
Equally, maintenance of local road networks for the benefit of all users is of high importance to local governments as they receive comparatively smaller proportion of the total available road funding 'bucket'.
There is an excellent on-going opportunity for the forest products industry to collaborate with local governemnt to achieve more strategic allocation of avialable road funding. This is already being achieved with comprehensive integrated transport infrastructure planning processes being conducted in some regions.
This section provides a general overview of transport funding opportunities at National and State level and details the way tranpsort infrastructure planning is being conducted in some regions.
