About 1700 hectares of land in Corangamite Shire has been purchased for use as hardwood plantations.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Midway - which has been planting and managing plantations in the Otway region and Green Triangle near Portland for more than 40 years - is managing a $200 million land acquisition program on behalf of MEAG, a subsidiary of the German-based fund manager Munich Re.
Fourteen properties have been acquired across the shire since the project started in October 2022. The average size of each property is 122 hectares and the previous land use has been predominantly beef, cattle, and sheep.
There is one previous dairy farm and one dairy pasture.
Midway itself is part of Western Victoria's new plantation hardwood strategic alliance, GT Hardwood. The collective - which also includes Australian Bluegum Plantations and New Forests - exports more than three million tonnes of plantation hardwood chip annually from the ports of Portland and Geelong.
GT Hardwood external affairs manager Liz McKinnon said Midway's investment was supporting the federal government's National Forest Industries Plan which had earmarked the planting of one billion plantation trees nationally by 2030, as well as the national ambition towards net zero.
She said Midway was working with local farmers to facilitate forestry based carbon projects on their land which produce carbon credits that can be sold to large emitters, diversifying on farm income.
Midway leaders recently discussed with Corangamite Shire Council how hardwood plantations complemented existing agriculture investments, stating that their management activities relied heavily on local employment.
"We need our sustainable hardwood plantation sector to continue to grow to support the creation of new local jobs, support investment in new domestic manufacturing, meet growing market demands, and utilise trees in the fight against climate change," Ms McKinnon said.
"New plantation hardwood trees mean more carbon capture, locked away in these new earmarked locally produced timber products".
Ms McKinnon said that was important as the plantation estate was declining nationally at a time when demand for fibre was increasing.
"Australia's plantation estate is in decline, losing a further 28,000 hectares in recent years, equating to a 250,000 decline over the past decade," she said.
"This includes a 10 per cent contraction in the nation's blue gum estate over the past decade, with significant parcels of blue gum land lost across the Green Triangle.
"This loss, largely due to conversion back to agricultural use, comes at a time when global demand for fibre continues to soar, with estimates the global market will quadruple by 2050.
"Planting more trees to store carbon is a key lever to meet the international focus on de-carbonisation. Our locally grown sustainable plantation hardwood chip also plays a valuable role producing recyclable paper and packaging to replace plastic products as well as replacing coal for energy generation.
"New trees will also play an instrumental role in reaching Net Zero Emission Targets for the agricultural sector.
"Our trees, which are often planted as woodlots and shelter belts, are a reliable tool in capturing and storing carbon whilst supporting farmers to diversify their farm income by earning carbon credits through the government backed Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme."
