Tours
Tropical Forestry development in the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, Kununurra Western Australia.
Western Australia's Northern regions are opening to new plantation industries including Tropical sandalwood (a hemi-parasite) and African mahogany - both high value fast growing tree crops. Other tree crops are also being investigated in the region.
The tour group will meet in Kununurra which is the gate-way to the Ord River Irrigation Scheme on Wednesday 15th April 2009 at the Kununurra Country Club. Thursday and Friday will be spent learning about both of these new plantation industries from their genetics, seedling production, plantation establishment through to harvesting. Friday evening sunset will be observed on the water with refreshment in hand.
The tour group can then choose to:
- fly direct to Perth on Saturday;
- use the extra day to explore the Bungle Bungles and fly to Perth on the Sunday; or
- fly to Broome for Saturday night and connect through to Perth on the Sunday.
Plantation forestry in the south-west of Western Australia
Plantation forestry in Western Australia's South West has been established in a temperate climate with annual rainfalls between 450 mm to over 1000 mm but in the months of November to March evaporation can exceed rainfall. The extreme age of the landscape has meant that the soils are remarkably infertile and frequently laterised.
The South West of Western Australia is regarded as one of the most bio-diverse regions in the world. Clearing of native forest for farming has allowed dry-land salinity to spread through the landscape and as a result a number of plantation projects have been successfully initiated to counter-act this salinity.
To give an overview of plantation forestry development in Western Australia, the tour will leave from Perth on Wednesday afternoon 22nd April 2009 by bus and travel down the Albany highway to Narrogin. The tour group will have a sunset stop to discuss softwood plantations (P.pinaster and P.radiata) before reaching Narrogin. Between Narrogin and Mt Barker, the tour will visit Oil mallee plantations (E.polybractea, E.loxophleba spp lissophloia) and the Integrated wood processing plant, Native sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) plantations and the Sandalwood Factory.
The final day from Mt Barker to Albany will be to observe progress with the Eucalypt saw log (E.saligna, E.cladocalyx, E.maculata) and Blue Gum (E.globulus) plantations.
Members of the tour group can then choose to:
- fly directly back to Perth on the Friday evening;
- return with the tour bus on the Saturday morning; or
- spend additional time in Albany and fly back to Perth when convenient.