About Us

The Central West Forestry Hub was created under the Commonwealth Government’s GROWING A BETTER AUSTRALIA, A billion trees for jobs and growth policy. The policy supports the growth of plantation forests through the Hubs, the reduction of barriers to forestry expansion, the improved utilisation of forestry resources and growing the community’s understanding of plantation forestry. Currently, there are eleven forestry Hubs and more information is available on the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website.

The overarching objective of the Hub is to provide information to industry and Government for the purpose of expanding and improving the industry in Central West NSW. The existing plantation estate is approximately 90,000 hectares and since the inception of the Hubs program regional landowners have established an additional 4,000 hectares of greenfield plantation. Across more than 10 employers the industry employs nearly 900 workers in jobs including laborers, data scientists and commercial managers.

The Central West forestry industry is entirely focused on plantation Radiata pine as it has been grown and processed in the region for nearly a century. Oberon is considered to be the main processing Hub as two major processing facilities are located there, and is in close proximity to major plantation forests.

The Hub is run by a committee made up of local industry and community stakeholders. The Current committee is made up of members from: