From Seed to STRUCTAply
Following the journey of plantation pine from seed to Australian-made plywood
Long before STRUCTAply reaches a building site, its story begins with a seed.
HVP Plantations manages one of Australia’s largest private timber plantation estates, including significant plantations across north-east Victoria. Each year, the company supplies more than three million tonnes of fibre to Australian manufacturing industries.
For STRUCTAply, the journey begins even further south, at HVP’s Gelliondale nursery in South Gippsland.
Pinecones are collected from the orchard and their seeds extracted, beginning a growing cycle that will span decades. The seeds are raised into seedlings over six to twelve months, first in the nursery glasshouse and then in outdoor growing areas before being dispatched to HVP plantations.
As Mick Evans, GM Northern Region at HVP Plantations, explains, the scale of this first stage is significant:
“We have the capacity to produce at Gelliondale about 12 to 14 million seedlings per year.”
From Seedling to Plantation
Preparing the next generation of plantation pine involves planning well beyond the nursery.
Controlled pollination helps HVP develop characteristics for future crops and match seedlings to different growing areas. Once ready to leave the nursery, planting remains a hands-on process, with each seedling planted by people in the field.
From there, HVP manages the trees throughout their growing cycle until they reach maturity and are ready for harvest.
At harvest, trees are felled and delimbed before being cut into logs for different customers and end uses. The logs are stacked roadside and transported to processing facilities, including selected logs destined for Porta’s Myrtleford facility in north-east Victoria.
From Plantation to Plywood
The arrival of the logs at Myrtleford marks the next stage in the journey. Here, selected plantation pine logs are transformed into Australian made STRUCTAply structural plywood.
The process connects two businesses at different stages of the timber supply chain, making the relationship between grower and manufacturer an important one.
As Mick explains:
“It’s very important that both HVP and Porta understand each other’s business and what those business needs are.”
The STRUCTAply range provides Australian-made structural plywood for many applications including flooring, bracing and roofing.
Continuing the Cycle
The renewable plantation cycle is an important part of the STRUCTAply story. For HVP, harvested areas are replanted to begin the next generation of plantation pine, continuing the cycle of planting, growing and harvesting.
As Mick puts it:
“We plant trees, we nurture and grow trees, we harvest trees, and then we do all of that again.”
From a seed at Gelliondale to plantation forests, harvesting and finally structural plywood manufactured at Myrtleford, STRUCTAply has a story that can be traced back to where its timber began.