1301.6 - Tasmanian Year Book, 1996  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/09/2002   
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Feature Article - The Cooperative Research Centre for Temperate Hardwood Forestry

The Centre - one of the first of the national series of Cooperative Research Centres or CRCs - was established in 1991 and is based at the Hobart campus of the University of Tasmania.

Its four objectives are:

  • developing improved forest management systems to increase and sustain wood production in hardwood forests in an environmentally sensitive way;
  • improving the quality and the quantity of wood from hardwood forests to ensure its market suitability for efficient value-adding processing by Australian industry;
  • bringing together separate but complementary expertise of the parties of the Cooperative Research Centre to focus their research and development activities in a coordinated fashion; and
  • developing a national centre of excellence for training in temperate hardwood forestry with emphasis on postgraduate research training in tree genetic improvement and resource protection.

In 1993-94, the CRC’s income was approximately $1.7 million. There was also approximately $3.3 million of ‘in-kind’ research assistance from Tasmania’s private forestry companies, Forestry Tasmania, the CSIRO Division of Forestry, and the University of Tasmania. About 40% ($1.3 million) of this $3.3 million was spent on salaries.

The main areas of research in 1993-94 were:
  • analysing the performance of the 450 families of the Tasmanian Blue Gum, Eucalyptus globulus, across a range of sites in Australia;
  • determining seasonal variation in leaf photosynthetic response to temperature and its effect on the prediction of wood yield;
  • determining the usefulness of blanket fertilisation at the time of tree planting; and
  • monitoring the beetle Chrysophtharta bimaculata and other natural predators of various tree species to provide detailed information on insect dynamics, distribution, and oviposition patterns.