Bambra Agroforestry Farm

03/09/2026

Thinning works

I spend a lot of time studying how competition between eucalypts in plantations and native forest suppresses diameter growth. If the basal area* of the forest in m2/ha is greater than the diameter of the trees in cm then diameter growth is dramatically reduced. During the early years you can maintain diameter increments of more than 2cm/yr on your best trees by maintaining a basal area around them of less than half their diameter.

For example, if the trees are 20cm in diameter thin to a basal area of less than 10m2/ha. When they reach 30cm, thin to less than 15m2.

It is okay to cut them down and let them rot on the ground - feeding biodiversity. Maybe you can use some for poles or firewood yourself but farm-grown, small diameter eucalypt trees usually have a lot of non-durable sapwood, low density juvenile wood and high amounts of tension wood. If you do sell them be sure the buyers know this!

This will allow you to get the trees up to sawlog size (60cm) quickly and you can then start harvesting valuable logs.

Delaying thinning, thinking you might be able to find a commercial market for small eucalypt logs, has discouraged many farmers from thinning early enough. The result is that most plantations are overstocked.

Worldwide there is a glut of small logs: they are expensive to harvest and transport so you usually need large scale clearfells to make it viable (such as seen in pulpwood plantations).

Thinning early also reduces your pruning costs: less trees to prune. Of course, if you are not pruning then you probably wont be producing quality sawlogs anyway.

Come along to this farm walk to learn more.

I provide links to my writings on thinning in the comments

* The Basal Area of a plantation is the cross-sectional area (2-dimensions) of the forests at 1.3m above the ground. We will explain how to measure it at the farm walk.

Come along to our Spring Farm Walk on 3 October at Clearwood Farm, Pennyroyal. This is an opportunity to get together with other members and share knowledge. We will focus on thinning techniques and look at how to thin more mature plantations like those you will see on the property. Afternoon tea provided. RSVP by 21 September.

02/09/2026

The Otway Agroforestry Network in Victoria was established as a Landcare group in 1993. It is now amongst the largest grower-led group of it's kind.

As tree growers, we believe we have found a way of inspiring farmers to not only plant trees, but also manage them for multiple values, including timber.

No tree planting grants. No 'best-bet' species or management options.

Instead we invest in people–providing mentoring, education, research and networking support–with the aim of building a culture of multipurpose tree growing within our community that supports farmland, farming families and an emerging farm-wood industry that includes builders, furniture makers, craftsmen and luthiers.

What landholders choose to do doesn’t always look like a conventional conservation planting or a commercial plantation but, as we have seen in our region, when many landholders plant many trees and shrubs for many reasons the landscape scale impacts can be significant.

The key to reducing soil erosion, improving the quality of the water running off farmland, rejuvenating remnant forests, locking up carbon, enhancing biodiversity and ensuring a sustainable supply of high-quality timber and other tree products is to help farmers achieve their own goals and ensure they and their children believe they will retain the property rights to harvest their trees, even if they have no immediate intention of doing so.

If you live, farm, work or love trees in the Otways please join us. Memberships: www.oan.org.au

25/08/2026

I do love a Master TreeGrower course graduation day. Thanks to the Otway Agroforestry Network and Southern Otway Landcare Network for running this one on behalf of the Australian Agroforestry Foundation. Rowan

25/08/2026

I do enjoy a Master TreeGrower Program graduation day. Thanks to the Otway Agroforestry Network and Southern Otway Landcare Network on behalf of the Australian Agroforestry Foundation

That was the 134rd Master TreeGrower course in Australia

18/08/2026

Heartwood and Sapwood in our farm-grown Australian Blackwood. Research suggests darker colour is a sign of a healthy tree growing on high quality soils without too much competition from eucalypts. Fast growth doesn't mean lighter Heartwood colour.

Sapwood and Heartwood have the same cell structure, the colour comes from the chemicals deposited in the cells when the white sapwood is retired from its role as the waterpipe running water up to the canopy and as a storeroom for excess starch that can be converted to sugars as required.

The width of the sapwood band reflects the size and water requirements of the canopy.

Australian Blackwood, Acacia melanoxylon
Native to all Eastern States including Tasmania and South Australia, and a w**d in Western Australia. Planted (and w**dy) in many countries including South Africa, California and parts of South America.

Highly valued for musical instruments and furniture.

Photo of our farm-grown Blackwood guitar.

17/08/2026

Oh dear, that shirt is a bit tight. It must have shrunk!

Thanks to our local bookshops for supporting the new edition of Heartwood. My aim has always been to make the growing and harvesting of trees for timber attractive to a wider audience, particularly farmers.

To achieve this, I argue that we need to change forestry itself so it reflects the needs and aspirations of farmers and the communities in which they live. That could mean different species, different products and different ways of growing trees.

Wood is essentially just a fibre, just like wool. Farmers can produce wood alongside other farm products, and in ways that support their current enterprises whilst restoring the land and providing habitat for biodiversity.

We grow about 70 different tree species for timber on our Otway farm and have sold wood for everything from firewood to guitars, and everything in between. We also built our house from trees we planted for conservation, biodiversity and beautification.

If you have a view about forestry in Australia, grow trees or use wood then you should read this book. If your views differ from mine, I'd love to hear them (make a comment).

Rowan Reid
Forest Scientist and TreeGrower
Lecturer in Agroforestry at the University of Melbourne
Originator of the Australian Master TreeGrower program
Founding member of the Otway Agroforestry Network (one of the largest Landcare groups in Australia)

Some of the species we grow on our own Bambra Agroforestry Farm

Hickory Wattle Acacia falciformis
Blackwood Acacia melanoxylon
Australian Kauri Agathis robusta
Drooping Sheoak Allocasuarina verticillata
Bunya Pine Araucaria bidwillii
Hoop Pine Araucaria cunninghamii
Coast Banksia Banksia integrifolia
Silver Banksia Banksia marginata
River Banksia Banksia seminuda
Pecan Carya illinoinensis
Chestnut Castanea sativa
River Sheoak Casuarina cunninghamiana
Spotted Gum Corymbia maculata
Mexican Cypress Cupressus lusitanica
Cut-tail, Brown Barrel Eucalyptus fastigata
Southern Blue Gum Eucalyptus globulus
Yellow Stringybark Eucalyptus muellerana
Shining Gum Eucalyptus nitens
Messmate Stringybark Eucalyptus obliqua
Otway Messmate Eucalyptus obliqua x regnans
Mountain Ash Eucalyptus regnans
Sydney Blue Gum Eucalyptus saligna
Red Ironbark Eucalyptus sideroxylon
Red Ironbark Eucalyptus tricarpa
Ash Fraxinus
Silky Oak Grevillea robusta
Walnut Juglans regia
Black Walnut Julgans nigra
Southern Beech Nothofagus cunninghamii
Satinwood Nematolepis squamea
Radiata Pine Pinus radiata
London Plane Platanus x acerifolia
Hybrid Poplar Populus x euramericana
Swamp White Oak Quercus bicolour
Pin Oak Quercus palustris
Sessile Oak Quercus petraea
English Oak Quercus robur
Red Oak Quercus rubra
Aust. Sandalwood Santalum spicatum
Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens
Red Cedar Toona ciliata
Wollemi Pine Wollemia nobilis

Rowan Reid, the author of "Heartwood" just dropped in and signed a few copies.
If you are interested in the art of science of growing trees for conservation and profit and working with wood, this is a book worth reading.
Hopefully, we'll be able to organise an event with Rowan in the future.

10/08/2026

Congratulations to the successive owners (and Bob Hingston) for creating this "parkland" near Margaret River in WA that we visited during our Lower Blackwood Valley tree workshops last week.

This big tree had a diameter of over 60cm and a surrounding basal Area of about 20m2/ha. Nice ratio (3:1) for maintaining diameter increments of more than 2cm/yr on well-pruned eucalypt trees.

If you maintain a ratio of 3:1 in the early stages then let it grow out to 2:1 when the logs are over 60cm then the result will be a stocking of about 100 trees per hectare. I like that spacing as it will mean even growth rings, low tension in the logs, and a high recovery of quartersawn clearwood.

High stocking rates mean higher pruning costs and small diameter logs which yield a high proportion of knotty, juvenile wood.

Same tree, very different product. It's about the management.

This is Eucalyptus viminalis (Manna Gum) which grows naturally on our farm in Victoria.

08/08/2026

Had a great trip to Margaret River to present two days of workshops for farmers. Supported by Lower Blackwood Landcare. Whilst in town I dropped into the Margaret River Bookshop to sign copies of the new edition of Heartwood and chat with Phoebe from the Radio Margaret River who interviewed me for her show last week.

If you are in the Margaret River Region please support your local Margaret River Bookshop - independent bookshops are so important in our farming communities.

For others you can ask your local shop to order copies (they'll know how to contact our distributor) or buy a signed copy from us at: www.agroforestry.net.au

Rowan

Most of our local bookshops also stock Heartwood including:

Great Escape Books in Aireys Inlet
Lorne Bookshop
Torquay Books
HeadandTales Bookshop Barwon Heads

04/08/2026

While we're doing big trees: this one is even bigger:

One of our 39-yr-old high pruned Coast Redwood

Grown on heavy dispersible clay soils to control tunnel erosion and landslips.
Average rainfall

03/08/2026

This is one of our high pruned eucalypts: 39-yrs-old
Grown in a mixed species, riparian planting for both conservation and profit. Average rainfall