INDUSTRY LEADERS JOIN INVESTOR SYMPOSIUM
Leading forestry, manufacturing and construction experts will converge in Melbourne next week for The Precinct Investor Symposium, exploring opportunities to transform the Green Triangle’s plantation timber resource into high-value manufactured products and prefabricated housing solutions
University of Melbourne silviculture and ecology specialist Professor Patrick Baker, Timberlink Australia & New Zealand CEO Paul O’Keefe, Master Builders Victoria Chief of Public Affairs Dr Corrie Williams and timber construction specialist Professor Karl-Heinz Weiss are the latest industry leaders confirmed for the 14 October 2026 event.
They join an international line-up including New Forests founder Dr David Brand, global wood-processing technology leader Roumiana Vassileva of Raute, and Melbourne School of Design Director Professor Dan Hill in a five-hour program connecting forestry, advanced manufacturing, and pre-fabricated construction.
The Precinct Chair Russ Hughes said the symposium would bring together expertise from across the timber and construction value chain to explore the commercial opportunities for the next generation of advanced manufacturing in Australia.
“Australia has the plantation resource, the technical expertise and an urgent need for more efficient housing delivery. The opportunity now is to bring those strengths together at sufficient scale to establish a globally competitive advanced manufacturing industry via The Precinct development,” Mr Hughes said.
“The Green Triangle is exceptionally well positioned to lead that transformation, with an established plantation resource, manufacturing capability and the potential to develop new, higher-value products for the Australian construction market.
“We have deliberately brought together leaders who understand every stage of that opportunity, from the science of our plantation resource and the commercial realities of timber manufacturing, through to the challenges facing Australia’s building sector.
“Connecting these perspectives with investors, industry, technology providers, researchers and government is critical to building the partnerships and investment confidence needed to advance The Precinct.”
Professor Baker, Director of the Centre for Climate Smart Forestry at Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI), is leading The Precinct’s resource characterisation study, investigating the fibre properties of the region’s plantation timber and its suitability for higher-value engineered wood products.
Mr O’Keefe will share Timberlink’s experience in investing in Australian timber manufacturing, including the development of Australia’s first combined Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and Glue Laminated Timber (GLT) manufacturing facility at Tarpeena, South Australia.
Dr Williams will provide a construction industry perspective on Australia’s housing, productivity and workforce challenges, and the potential for prefabrication and industrialised construction to improve housing delivery.
Professor Weiss, Professor of Practice in Architecture at Monash University and Director of Weiss Insights, who is leading The Precinct’s assembly research, will draw on his extensive experience in modern methods of construction.
The Precinct Investor Symposium will be held in Melbourne on Wednesday, 14 October 2026.
Recent News
August 21, 2026
Forestry Investment Leader David Brand to Headline The Precinct Investor Symposium
Influential forestry investment leader Dr David Brand will headline an Investor Symposium hosted by The Precinct in Melbourne this October as investors explore an initial $200 million-plus opportunity to establish large-scale engineered wood product manufacturing in Victoria’s Green Triangle. Dr Brand, founder of global forestry investment manager New Forests, will deliver a keynote address on 14 October 2026, drawing on more than four decades of experience across forestry investment, forest management and natural capital. Russ Hughes, chair of The Precinct and former CEO of Australian Bluegum Plantations, will host the invite-only event as investors assess the commercial pathway, market opportunity and investment case for the world scale Precinct development, proposed for Portland in south-west Victoria. The event marks a return to the investment origins of Dr Brand’s work in Australia. He founded New Forests in 2005 with a single forestry asset in the Green Triangle with the goal of bringing institutional capital into the plantation sector. The business has since grown into a global operation with $10.6 billion in assets under management with a portfolio covering plantations, timber processing, agriculture, conservation, carbon and natural capital. From the outset, Dr Brand recognised that the value of a forest extended well beyond the sale of wood fibre. His work helped advance a more sophisticated view of forestry as an asset class, capable of delivering additional value through carbon, biodiversity, conservation and broader landscape outcomes. Just as carbon created a new way to value plantations, Dr Brand will explore the next evolution of the sector, transforming established plantation resources, traditionally exported as raw fibre, to be the feedstock for higher-value, domestically produced engineered wood products and prefabricated construction systems - markets experiencing strong domestic demand and constrained supply. The symposium follows the completion of the Hardwood Timber Manufacturing Hub feasibility study, which confirmed the technical and commercial pathway for the initial stage of The Precinct development. The proposed initial stage, earmarked close to port and transport infrastructure, represents more than $200 million in investment and would establish a large-scale Glue-Laminated Timber (GLT) manufacturing facility, supported by a state-of-the-art sawmill and major log merchandising facility. It will use locally grown plantation hardwood, creating an estimated 74 permanent jobs and anchoring future stages of engineered wood product manufacturing, including Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) and prefabricated building component manufacturing. The market opportunity is significant, with Australia importing close to $1 billion of engineered wood products and wood panels each year, including significant volumes of LVL, GLT and plywood used extensively in housing construction. The Precinct Chair Russ Hughes said the symposium came at pivotal moment for investors and the region’s forestry sector. “Victoria has an established plantation resource, but too much of its potential value leaves the region before it is converted into higher-value products,” Mr Hughes said. “The opportunity is to connect the resource we already grow with engineered wood manufacturing and prefabrication capability, so more of the economic value, skilled employment and industrial capability is retained in Australia, helping to meet our growing housing needs. “Dr Brand has been at the forefront of forestry investment for decades. His experience, including the early New Forests investment in the Green Triangle, gives him a particularly relevant perspective on the opportunity now emerging for this globally recognised region.” Under the theme “From Plantation to Product to Prefabrication”, the invitation-only symposium will bring together institutional investors, industry leaders, government representatives and project partners to consider the investment case, market opportunity and pathway to delivery. The Precinct is supported by major industry contributions and the Commonwealth Government’s Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) and the Victorian State Government. To learn more about the development visit www.theprecinctportland.com.au
