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Australian Forestry Equipment
2026 EditionIndependent · not a dealer

Industrial forestry machinery in Australia

A commercial buyer’s reference for harvesters, forwarders, feller bunchers, mulchers, shears, stump systems and chippers — built around one question that specification sheets never answer.

Not “what is the best forestry machine?” but:

What combination of carrier, attachment, production system and support network produces the lowest commercially sustainable cost per cubic metre, tonne, hectare or stump?

Read the buying guideBrowse 17 machine classesRun the cost calculator →

Australia at a glance — 2024-25

22.9million m³
Logs harvested, 2024-25

Total Australian log harvest across plantation and native forest sources, with a gross value of approximately $2.24 billion.

1.710million ha
Commercial plantation estate

1.016 million hectares of softwood and 671,000 hectares of hardwood plantation, concentrated in six states.

11hubs
Regional Forestry Hubs

Government-designated concentrations of resource, processing and transport infrastructure that shape equipment demand.

~23million m³
Projected softwood availability by 2050-54

ABARES projects softwood plantation log availability to rise from around 15 million m³ per year in 2025-29.

Start here

Three principles that decide whether a forestry machine makes money

Almost every expensive mistake in this market violates one of them.

01

A system produces only what its slowest stage allows

A feller buncher rated at 100 t/h behind a truck fleet that moves 55 t/h delivers 55 t/h. Buying more felling capacity changes nothing except the depreciation.

The bottleneck principle →
02

Maximum capacity is not production capacity

A head rated to 810 mm may have a stated highest-productivity range of 160-510 mm. Optimum, recommended maximum and absolute maximum are three different numbers.

Heads and diameter →
03

Utilisation governs cost, not purchase price

A $800,000 machine depreciating $100,000 a year costs $40/hour at 2,500 productive hours — and $80/hour at 1,250. Same machine, same price, double the cost.

Cost of ownership →

Machine reference

Every major machine and attachment class

Each entry covers what the machine does, who profitably buys it, the KPIs it should be judged on, published Australian benchmark specifications, and the specification traps that cost buyers money.

Harvesting systems2 classes

Feller bunchers

Highest-throughput felling in the full-tree system — cut, accumulate, bunch, repeat.

1 benchmark machine · 4 buying traps

Harvesters

The cut-to-length machine — fell, delimb, measure, buck and sort in one cycle.

3 benchmark machines · 4 buying traps

Extraction2 classes

Forwarders

Carries cut-to-length logs completely off the ground — payload × trips per hour is the whole economic model.

4 benchmark machines · 3 buying traps

Skidders

Drags stems to the landing — the workhorse of full-tree and tree-length systems.

1 benchmark machine · 2 buying traps

Attachments5 classes

Harvester heads

A machine in its own right — and the single most important specification decision in CTL.

5 benchmark machines · 4 buying traps

Tree shears

Turns an ordinary excavator into a controlled tree-cutting machine — the fastest-growing attachment category.

2 benchmark machines · 3 buying traps

Grapple saws

Grips before it cuts, and keeps control of the severed section — the attachment for working near assets.

4 benchmark machines · 3 buying traps

Forestry grapples

Geometry beats size — the grapple should be selected according to material flow.

3 benchmark machines · 2 buying traps

Mechanical pruners

Turns an existing excavator into a dedicated pruning platform — no second carrier required.

1 benchmark machine · 2 buying traps

Vegetation & site preparation4 classes

Forestry mulchers

The strongest crossover market in Australian forestry — plantations, councils, utilities, mining, solar and fire.

3 benchmark machines · 4 buying traps

Stump grinders

A specialised removal business, not conventional logging — and never quote it by visible diameter.

5 benchmark machines · 3 buying traps

Stump shears

Does not grind the stump — it penetrates, splits, loosens, extracts and handles it.

2 benchmark machines · 2 buying traps

Forestry tillers

Works below the soil surface — and should not be confused with an agricultural rotary hoe.

2 benchmark machines · 2 buying traps

Processing & biomass2 classes

Whole-tree chippers

Sits between harvesting and biomass markets — and starves without a properly engineered feed system.

2 benchmark machines · 3 buying traps

Horizontal grinders

The tolerant machine — for material that is dirty, mixed, contaminated, irregular or stump-heavy.

1 benchmark machine · 2 buying traps

Carriers & systems2 classes

Winch-assist systems

Mechanises terrain that previously required manual falling — but the whole system must be engineered.

2 benchmark machines · 2 buying traps

Forestry carriers

Excavator or purpose-built machine — the biggest single commercial buying decision.

1 benchmark machine · 3 buying traps

By application

Fleet packages

Proven machine combinations for eight Australian applications — each with its system, its priorities, the KPI it lives or dies by, and the mistake that most often destroys its margin.

A

High-production pine clearfell

Feller buncher + 2 × skidders + Processor + Loader

KPI: $/m³ roadside

B

Pine thinning

Medium wheeled harvester + 10-15 tonne forwarder

KPI: $/m³ with residual stand damage below the contract threshold

C

Eucalyptus plantation

Heavy harvester + Eucalyptus-configured head + Forwarder

KPI: $/m³ with debarking to the mill specification

D

Commercial land clearing

25 t excavator + Tree shear + Forestry grapple + Mulcher + Stump shear

KPI: Hectares per day, and mobilisation cost per job

E

Utility vegetation management

8-15 t excavator + Grapple saw + Pruning head + Mulcher + Chipper

KPI: Kilometres of corridor per day at the specified clearance

F

Bushfire fuel reduction

Tracked mulcher

KPI: $/hectare at the specified fuel-treatment standard

G

Plantation re-establishment

Stump treatment (shear, grinder or tiller) + Slash treatment (mulcher) + Tillage / scarification / mounding + Mechanised or manual planting

KPI: $/hectare completed to the establishment specification

H

Biomass and wood-waste contractor

Feller buncher + Skidder + Loader + Whole-tree chipper

KPI: $/tonne delivered to the offtake point

19 chapters

The commercial buying guide

From market structure through to the final decision framework — written for the person signing the order, not the person writing the brochure.

  1. 01The Australian Industrial Forestry Machinery MarketWhy forestry machinery is not a single equipment category, what Australia actually harvests, and how the resource base shapes where equipment demand sits.8 min
  2. 02Who Actually Buys Industrial Forestry MachinesSix fundamentally different buyer groups, each with a different fleet philosophy, different commercial measures and a different definition of the right machine.9 min
  3. 03The Main Commercial Production SystemsCut-to-length versus full-tree, what each system does to your risk profile, and the bottleneck principle that governs every harvesting fleet.9 min
  4. 04Harvesting Machines and HeadsFeller bunchers, harvesters and the harvesting head — including the single most common and most expensive specification error in Australian forestry.9 min
  5. 05Extraction — Forwarders and SkiddersPayload times trips per hour is the whole forwarder model. Skidders trade soil disturbance for speed. Neither should be sized in isolation from the landing.9 min
  6. 06Attachments — Shears, Grapple Saws and GrapplesThe attachment market that turns ordinary excavators into forestry machines — and the two rules that govern it: production diameter beats maximum diameter, and cutting capacity is not lifting capacity.9 min
  7. 07Stump SystemsGrinders, planers, shears and tillers produce genuinely different site outcomes. Choosing between them is a question about the required result, not about machine size.9 min
  8. 08Mulching, Tilling and Mechanical PruningThe strongest crossover market in Australian forestry — and the one where quoting from satellite imagery destroys the most margin.9 min
  9. 09Hydraulics and Carrier MatchingWhy "my excavator has 300 L/min" is not enough information, and the nine numbers a buyer actually needs before matching an attachment to a carrier.9 min
  10. 10Chippers, Grinders and Biomass ProcessingChipper or grinder is a feedstock decision, not a productivity comparison — and the offtake agreement must come before the fleet.9 min
  11. 11Carriers, Steep Slopes and TerrainExcavator or purpose-built carrier is the biggest single commercial buying decision in forestry — and it resolves to one number.9 min
  12. 12Buying New Versus UsedHours alone are not enough. What the Australian used market actually looks like, and how to inspect a machine that can hide a great deal of wear.8 min
  13. 13Total Cost of OwnershipPurchase price is only the first line. Worked models for cost per hour, per cubic metre and per hectare — and why utilisation is the variable that governs all of them.9 min
  14. 14Dealer Support and the Australian Supplier EcosystemFor commercial forestry, the dealer should be considered part of the equipment. Who supplies what in Australia, and the questions that reveal whether support is real.9 min
  15. 15Procurement — Buy, Hire, Tender and QuoteHow to structure the buy-versus-hire decision, what a tender specification should actually say, and how to make two quotations genuinely comparable.9 min
  16. 16Tracks, Fire Suppression and Operator ProtectionThe specifications that do not increase production but protect the asset, the operator and the contract.8 min
  17. 17Red FlagsThe claims that should trigger a follow-up question, whether the machine is new or used — and the twenty questions to ask any used-machine seller.9 min
  18. 18Data, Telematics and MeasurementWhat a professional contractor should record, what to calculate from it, and why the commercial value of telematics is not the dashboard.9 min
  19. 19The Decision FrameworkThe scorecard, the hierarchy, the machine-type matrix and the single principle that every specification should eventually connect back to.9 min
Open the full guide

Resource base

What Australia harvests

Where Australia's 22.9 million m³ came from in 2024-25

Machinery demand follows this split: roughly nine-tenths of the national harvest is plantation wood.

  • Softwood plantation logs — 14.4 million m³
  • Hardwood plantation logs — 6.0 million m³
  • Native forest production — 2.4 million m³
63%26%

Long-term outlook

Where the resource is heading

Projected Australian plantation log availability

ABARES projections. Softwood availability rises on increasing sawlog volume; hardwood pulpwood availability declines.

  • Softwood plantation logs
  • Hardwood plantation logs
2025-292050-541523Softwood129Hardwoodmillion m³ per year

Softwood plantation logs

Rising

~15 million m³/yr (2025-29) → ~23 million m³/yr (2050-54)

A long-term case for high-production softwood harvesting, forwarding, processing and haulage capacity.

Hardwood plantation logs

Declining

~12 million m³/yr (2025-29) → ~9 million m³/yr (2040-44)

Declining pulpwood volume, although hardwood sawlog availability may grow over the longer term.

Calculators and checklists

Work the numbers before the conversation

Four calculators built from the cost models in the guide, plus nine printable checklists for tendering, quoting and inspecting.

Calculator

Machine cost calculator

Depreciation per productive hour, total hourly cost, and cost per m³, tonne, hectare or stump — with the utilisation sensitivity that governs all of them.

Calculator

Production bottleneck analyser

Enter the hourly capacity of each stage in your chain and see the real system capacity, the constraint, and how much capital is running unused.

Calculator

Hydraulic power calculator

Theoretical hydraulic power from flow and pressure, plus the nine specifications a buyer needs before matching an attachment to a carrier.

Calculator

Buy versus hire comparison

Annual cost of ownership against hire rates at your utilisation, and the break-even hours where owning starts to win.

Reference

Printable checklists

Procurement, tender specification, dealer quote line items, used machine, harvester, head and mulcher inspection, and twenty questions for any seller.

Reference

Regional buying guide

What each Australian forestry region demands of a fleet — terrain, resource, support network and the specification consequences.