When Local Timber is Beautiful, Affordable AND Sustainable

Imagine decorating your house with furniture grown and harvested from a farm down the road and crafted by a local woodmaker.

It’s not just a dream; local farmers are providing native timber such as Quandong, Silky Oak and Queensland Maple for local wood makers to put their creative skills to the test and enter the Sustainable Native Timber Showcase and Design Competition.

For that reason the focus for the Sustainable Native Timber Showcase and Design Competition is ‘best use of sustainable farm grown native timbers’. The competition is now open to woodmakers, architects, designers and builders in the Northern Rivers and South East Queensland.

By entering the Design Competition you go into the draw to win a share in cash and prizes. The two categories for design are:

Product Design - best use of Quandong, Silky Oak and/or Queensland Maple in a made product
Concept Design – best use of Quandong, Silky Oak and/or Queensland Maple in a drawing or plan

You can let your creative streak run wild with designs from doors to furniture, panels to interior decoration.

“We are looking for local wood makers who appreciate the quality of fine sub-tropical timber and the multiples environmental and social benefits of growing and harvesting locally. Add simple design criteria with creative and talented local designers and we should have a fantastic array of designs to choose from” said Tony Kenway, Design Competition Judge and renowned local fine furniture maker.

The Design Competition will culminate in a Showcase Event at Federal Hall on Sunday 15 April. Residents will be able to view the entries, meet the designers and learn more about sustainable native timbers.

Quality Timber Traders Project Manager and local farmer Joe Harvey-Jones looks forward to the competition generating new connections between growers and wood makers. “It will stimulate ideas and demonstrate new ways in which we can sustain the loop of seed to tree to product. For wood makers it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with exquisite free local timber to craft something beautiful and unique,” he said.

Sustainable Native Timber Showcase is presented by Quality Timber Traders who are a cooperative of farmers from Northern NSW and SE Queensland with support from the Farming Together Project and Southern Cross University.