Timber tones cut: guitars to fall silent as native forestry ends

Thousands of Australian guitars will no longer be made from Victoria’s native forest timbers, sparking an Otway supplier to start a petition.

The outline of the guitar that will eventually be made from this beautiful piece of native forest blackwood harvested from the Otway Ranges by James Kidman. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

An Otways timber harvester, whose blackwood fiddleback features in many of the guitars played by Paul Kelly, Keith Urban, Diesel and other Australian musicians, has launched a petition calling on the Andrews Government’s to reverse its decision to phase out all native forest logging by 2030.

Otway Tonewoods specialist timber supplier and ecologist James Kidman works with his father Murray to harvest blackwood and other native forest species to supply instrument makers, with a cubic metre of the acacia wood enough to produce the back and sides of about 350 guitars.

But like many Victorian businesses owners using the state’s timbers he feels the Government’s decision to end native forest logging is unjustified and lacks common sense.

Mr Kidman is challenging a raft of what he calls “misconceptions” being pedalled by environment groups, despite declaring he is a strong supporter of most their work, including that of Environment Victoria, Environmental Justice Australia and Greenpeace.

“I do still support them, but they’re raising awareness around things that aren’t the main issue”, he said.

“Over the last 25 years, 98 per cent of the impact to old growth across Victoria has been due to wildfires, with timber harvesting contributing to 1.3 per cent – of which a proportion would be from salvage harvesting post fire.”

In a 61-page document outlining his argument Mr Kidman states conservation areas have grown from 1.6 million ha 26 years ago to 4m hectares today, leading to a 3.7-fold reduction in the area available for timber harvesting.

Of the 1.2m hectares still available he said just 590,000ha could be harvested, with about 3000ha actually cut each year.

James Kidman with his father Murray. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

He also pointed out that timber harvesting does not target old growth forest, focusing primarily on 80-year-old regrowth from the 1939 wildfires.

“Contemporary ecologically sustainable timber harvesting is being blamed for detrimental ecological legacies of wildfire, past land clearing, invasive species and historical harvesting,” he said.

Mr Kidman said Victorians would also lose a fundamental cultural connection with timber harvested from the bush, “a connection as old as humanity.”

Right along the timber supply chain, from the harvest and haulage contractors to the mill owners and furniture makers, the call has gone out to Premier Daniel Andrews to reverse his 2019 decision.

Tony Fallshaw, who is the fifth generation of his family to run what is still Australia’s oldest furniture business, said it wasn’t just about timber it was staff.

“You can’t get any facts on why they‘re (the government) doing it,” Mr Fallshaw said.

“It’s one of the dumbest things ever.”

Most of the Fallshaw’s work is making church pews out of Victorian Mountain Ash, which includes fitting out 165 chapels for the Mormon Church.

He said customers wanted Victorian native timber and would baulk at the idea of using imported wood.

“They say – why then not import the whole product from overseas,” Mr Fallshaw said.

Mr Kidman’s e-petition can be found on theVictorian Parliament’s website.

Originally published as Timber tones cut: guitars to fall silent as native forestry ends