Facilities and capacity
Forest and wood research is conducted at several government facilities or partner locations across Queensland.
Ecosciences Precinct A multi-agency, collaborative working environment including research and educational laboratories, insect houses, controlled environment rooms, greenhouses, offices and workshops.
Salisbury Research Facility: State of the art facility and equipment for research to improve wood products, processing and protection systems at laboratory to semi-commercial scales.
Gympie: Glasshouses, nursery and propagation facilities are managed for tree improvement research and our extensive, forestry research database is developed from here.
University of the Sunshine Coast (USC): Several researchers share associate positions with the Forest Industries Research Centre (FIRC), contributing to programs in forest genetics and forest health and pest management.
Our capacity
We combine science and technology expertise in:
- Forest genetics and tree improvement
- Modelling forest and carbon growth
- Biometrics, programming and decision support tools
- Forest entomology, pathology and nutrition
- Chemical and forest ecology
- Forest health surveillance and biosecurity
- Engineered wood composites technology
- Wood-based product design
- Kiln drying and sawmilling technology
- Grading timber and testing advanced wood properties
- Wood properties evaluation and NATA accredited mechanical testing
- Wood anatomy and identification
- Timber preservation and performance testing
- Wood extractives analysis
Scientific collections / databases
Wood Reference Collection
The Wood Reference Collection consists of 21 separate collections of wood block samples and a glass slide collection of timber microstructure sections. Together, they provide a comprehensive reference collection for Queensland timbers, some national and international timbers and their anatomical characteristics.
The Wood Reference Collection is the only public collection for the accurate identification of samples of wood.
It is a unique collection of mainly Queensland timbers, assembled by government botanists collecting plant materials since the 1880s.
Access to the collection
If you are a researcher, you can access the collection by prior arrangement—contact the curator by phone.
You can read information about the wood collection, standards for managing it and for improving access on the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Biological Collections portal.