Households that rely on wood heating in Perth and southern Western Australia have been warned of a looming firewood shortage due to a ban on native timber logging from 2024.
Key points:
- Firewood suppliers warn stocks are low and a ban on native logging in 2024 will further reduce supplies
- WA households burn about 150,000 tonnes of mainly native hardwood firewood each year
- The Forestry Minister says there will be an ongoing supply of firewood despite changes to its sources
ln September last year the WA Government revealed plans to end native forest logging, a controversial decision that was welcomed by conservation groups but sparked outrage in forestry communities.
Most firewood burnt in WA is native hardwood species, sourced from scrap or as a by-product of hardwood timber production.
One of the state’s largest firewood companies, Bunbury Firewood, supplies most of the wood burned in Perth homes but its sales extended into South West and the eastern wheatbelt.
Managing director Jeff Loton said wood supplies were already low.
The company usually sold about 20,000 tonnes of firewood annually, but this year it could only access about 8,000 tonnes.
“We believe we will be empty of firewood by early to mid-June,” he said.
Concerns raised
Mr Loton said he had raised such concerns with the state government and was frustrated by a lack of clarity about the future of his industry.
“I know there’s talk that there’ll be firewood available, but if we’re having trouble supplying wood now, I really have difficulty to see where it’s going to be come 2023 and beyond that point,” he said.
WA Forestry Minister Dave Kelly said there would be an ongoing supply of firewood after the native logging ban commenced.
“There will still be ecological thinning,” he said.
“[But] we do believe there will be sources of firewood going into the future.”
Mr Kelly also pointed to a support package announced last week, which would pay firewood processors $50,000 if they wished to exit the industry after 2024.
Demand and prices rising
Forestry consultant John Clarke said about 150,000 tonnes of predominantly jarrah firewood were burnt each year in Perth and South West households, sourced by people collecting their own wood, or through purchasing bagged or bulk wood from processors and sawmills.
“I’m very worried about where firewood sources will come from in the future,” he said.
“It’s just nonsensical.
“It will take some time for people to realise what [the ramifications] mean, but when they wake up on a cold morning and go down to their local garage or Bunnings or ring up their local firewood supplier, they will say, ‘We’ve run out’.”
‘You’d be very nervous’
Mr Clarke said demand for firewood had increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and was showing no signs of reducing.
He said an additional 150,000 tonnes of low grade jarrah was used annually by a silicon metal manufacturer — an industry that was also faced with supply concerns.
Mr Clarke said continued bauxite mining in jarrah forests would produce some wood, but “nowhere near enough”‘ to supply the market.
Opposition forestry spokesperson Steve Martin said he had been hearing for months that “firewood suppliers won’t have enough logs to get them past the middle of this year”.
“Right across Western Australia that supply of firewood is in grave doubt.”