DoctorNathan Kotlarewski

Project Total: $665,000; This project aims to support resilience in the Tasmanian hardwood production industry as it transitions to increased reliance on a plantation hardwood supply by developing confidence in future products and viable, ongoing markets. A product development and material characterisation project, it focusses on solid wood products for applications in the building and construction sector. Later projects will progress this objective nationally. The national hardwood production sector is facing unprecedented change with both decline and significant change in the native forest log resource and an increased reliance on the plantation hardwood estate. Solid wood products recovered from this estate are essentially new and unsupported products in the marketplace. Responding to a Tasmanian Forest Products Association (TFPA)-identified priority that industry better understand future products and viable markets from the available resource base, the project focuses on three resources: sawlog-managed and fibre-managed plantation hardwoods, and silvicultural regeneration of native forests. Its activity areas include identifying market opportunities and perceptions for hardwood products; developing new, revised or enhanced products; supporting the products marketplace acceptance, and determining product and material characteristics from the available resources. With the majority of Tasmanias hardwood processing and growing sector involved as active project participants, activities are structured to collaboratively develop an enhanced product suite, increase research capacity available to the sector, ensure industrys applied research needs are addressed, and support confidence in the projects results. In addition to the technical outputs and product prototypes, the project helps establish the profile of a successful, contemporary hardwood processing sector and supports producer and investor confidence by confirming the scale of the available resource and the characteristics and performance of recovered products. It supports public and private forest growers by providing guidance about the log types that processors require and will want to acquire. Funded by: Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) - Grant; Tasmanian Forest Products Association ($49,858); University of Tasmania ($734,540).

Project Total: $925,000; The Australian residential timber construction industry, valued at $2.75 billion annually, requires attention to improve the capacity to build more homes quickly and efficiently. This program responds to a recent roadmap (Hewson, Woodard and Dunn, 2024) developed by the industry to identify crucial RD&E work. The roadmap involved 30 stakeholders across the wood products sector from producers, associations, manufacturers, and university researchers. It was developed over 18 months with extensive consultations. The proposed research program will conduct the first node of the roadmap focused on Productivity, which comprises seven sub-projects. This program brings together a new consortium of university researchers (nine different universities), timber framing consultants, industry stakeholders, and industry-based researchers to conduct this important work on productivity gains in lightweight timber framing (LTF) housing. The program will involve resetting the Deemed-to-Satisfy (DTS) limitations for Australian Standard 1684 Residential Timber-Framed Construction. The program will research how we can more efficiently use timber by examining the need for noggings in stud frames, the design of composite walls/ floors, stud distortion, design related to off-site manufacturing, manufacturing practices, installation practices and safe work practices for timber framing. Most timber framed houses in Australia are designed according to the DTS pathway presented in AS 1684 devised in the mid-1990s. The DTS pathway under the National Construction Code simplifies the design and specification process by removing the need to consult an engineer, however a lot has changed. Peoples changing expectations around space provision means that houses are often bigger, with larger open plan living spaces, two or more storeys, with large areas of glazing. Performance requirements continue to change, as they should, with increasing thermal performance, and requirements for healthy, high-performance housing accessible to all. Furthermore, DTS provisions do not account for the number of engineered wood products in the market. Funded by: Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Grant ($924,762); Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited ($281,520); University of the Sunshine Coast ($13,678); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $195,208; This project is to investigate establishment of viable supply chains for currently underutilised species and resources in target native forest areas, specifically Acacia species grown in southern Tasmania and species recovered from mine site clearing operations across the WA Goldfields region. This research includes development of a market opportunity profile for each species through resource definition, material characterisation, establishing potential producer and user profiles, and marketplace assessment. Funded by: Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited - Grant - Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) ($195,208); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $356,895; A Swinburne led project with UTAS, CSAW, to design and develop multiple architectural product concepts prioritising the use of out-of-grade timber to transform manufacturing capability to growth areas in architecture namely, the fabrication of products, components and subassemblies to meet a minimum energy efficiency rating of 8 stars. Funded by: National Institute of Forest Product Innovation - Grant; Hancock Victorian Plantations Pty Ltd; Swinburne University of Technology; University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $216,500; Pine third logs from clear fell, thinning logs, and the corewood of larger logs comprise mainly juvenile fibre and are therefore not typically processed for structural timber framing products. The limiting factor is often board instability in production and in-service compared with market expectations. However, alternative log and fibre sources become important in a market when availability of traditional sawlogs limits production volumes. Using Western Australian pine product, this scalable project will provide a capture critical performance data as a foundation for further research and development using this alternative fibre supply to meet market demand for timber construction and EWP feedstock. Funded by: Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited - Grower Research Advisory Council ($204,500); Wespine Industries Pty Ltd ($12,000); University of Tasmania ($12,000).

Project Total: $98,280; Porta Mouldings Pty. Ltd. wishes to engage with the University of Tasmanias, Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood to mill, monitor, season and kiln-dry emerging plantation hardwood resources. The project will include unique Porta training for good practice development in production to improve business resilience and ongoing development. Funded by: Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources - Innovation Connections ($49,140); Porta Mouldings Pty Ltd ($49,140); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $336,500; This project will develop a new generation of hardwood appearance products for manufacture in-state using current and new technologies from the available native, reclaimed, and plantation resources. Funded by: FWPA - National Institute for Forest Products Innovation - Grant-Research ($270,000); Tasmanian Timber Promotion Board ($20,000); McKay Investments Pty Ltd ($10,000); Forico Pty Ltd ($10,000); SFM Environmental Solutions Pty Ltd ($10,000); Britton Timbers ($10,000); Ta Ann Tasmania ($6,500); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $330,000; This project focuses on increasing the desirable material characteristics of Tasmanian hardwood species: Tasmanian oak and plantation hardwoods, for use in several product groups: sawn appearance board, cladding, veneer-based products and glue assembled products: glulam and cross laminated timber (CLT). Funded by: FWPA - National Institute for Forest Products Innovation - Grant-Research ($320,000); Neville Smith Forest Products ($5,000); Sustainable Timber Tasmania ($5,000); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $80,000; NSFP has asked the University of Tasmania's Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood to assist with commissioning and optimisation of the predryers and establishing their use in day-to-day production and to assist in preparation and embed of DQA and training in its business. Funded by: Department of Industry, Innovation and Science ($40,000); Neville Smith Forest Products ($40,000); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $35,000; To examine if solid wood products can be successfully processed from earlier age acacia and eucalypt plantations in Vietnam and Indonesia Funded by: CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation ($35,000); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $6,000; Neville-Smith Forest Products (NSFP) have requested a project that aligns their Tasmanian Oak resource with current trending colour palettes for the built environment. The aim of this project is to develop contemporary interior colour themes for NSFP Tasmanian Oak from research evidence based themes. Post project iterations may consider future colour trends. Funded by: Neville Smith Forest Products ($6,000); University of Tasmania.