Australia’s forest industry offers a huge range of career choices from machinery operators to high level managers, foresters and engineers.

As a Technical Forester your duties might include forest regeneration or plantation establishment, carbon accounting, fire suppression, contractor supervision and implementing harvesting and regeneration plans.

As a Harvesting Operator you may work in the forest or plantations operating a range of heavy duty equipment including excavators, bulldozers, forwarders and mechanical processors. You may be required to occasionally hand fall a tree if machinery cannot reach it.

As a sawmiller you turn logs into timber, operating a range of high tech sawing and grading equipment and perhaps operating drying kilns or moulders.

Sawdoctors are specially trained tradespeople that manufacture, sharpen and maintain sawblades, chipper knives and aspects of sawing equipment. They may be based at the sawmill or at a specialised workshop in a central location.

Woodmachinists are tradespeople that use timber moulding equipment to shape timber into required profiles such as flooring, panelling, dowell, etc. There are parts of this trade associated with making cutters and sharpening knives as well as setting up and operating the moulding machinery.

Wood panel products include products like particleboard and plywood, which are manufactured in modern hi technology plants. Job roles might include plant operator, boiler operator and quality control.

Timber Manufactured Products include products like fingerjointed laminated beams, pallets and boxes. Job roles in this sector have a strong focus on production and quality standards.

Timber Truss and Frame have a range of careers available from fabrication of the building components to design of the individual trusses and frames that go into a modern building. Job roles exist from the shop floor to senior management.

In addition to sales skills, timber and wood product sales people require detailed specialist knowledge of timber species and their wood properties to recommend products for the right application. Job roles exist from sales assistant to specialised client managers.

Chart of Occupational Outcomes:

Occupational Outcomes