Murray Region Forestry Hub

The Murray Region Forestry Hub was originally formed as the South West Slopes Forest Industry Hub as part of the Australian government’s National Forest Industries Plan to identify the constraints limiting forestry and timber industry growth. After consultation with our members, the South West Slopes Forestry Hub was relaunched as the Murray Region Forestry Hub (MRFH) to better reflect the extended geographical boundaries of the Hub region to include North East Victoria. The Murray Region Forestry Hub takes in about 3.5million hectares in the area east of the Hume Freeway, west of the Great Dividing Range, south of Gundagai, and taking in the plantations of NE Victoria down to Lake Eildon. Key forestry towns in the NSW part of the Hub are Tumut, Batlow, Tumbarumba, Gundagai and Adelong. In the Victorian Hub area, the main centres for the industry are Corryong, Tallangatta, Myrtleford and Wangaratta. This area contains around 170,000 ha of softwood plantations (both public and private). The Murray Region is home to one of the largest softwood-plantation forestry industries in Australia. Softwood is the wood from a pine tree, as distinct from hardwood that comes from gum trees or eucalypts (as found in native forests).