From Plantations to Prefabrication: Global Experts to Headline The Precinct Investor Symposium
The future of Australia’s housing will rely on advanced manufacturing, driving prefabrication solutions, anchored in timber-based building systems, especially engineered wood products produced from the nation’s plantation resources.
That future will be the centrepiece of The Precinct Investor Symposium in Melbourne on 14 October 2026, where three internationally recognised leaders in plantation market analysis, engineered wood manufacturing and architectural design will outline how Australia can build a domestic value chain linking plantations, products and prefabrication.
IndustryEdge Managing Director Tim Woods, Raute engineered wood products specialist Roumiana Vassileva, and Melbourne School of Design Director Professor Dan Hill will deliver a keynote program examining the changing face of Australia’s plantation industry and the opportunity to connect this established resource with the way homes will be designed and built in the future.
Tim Woods is one of Australia’s leading strategists in the fibre value-chain. For more than half a decade his focus has been on transforming the plantation fibre supply chain in the Green Triangle to produce high‑value engineered wood products. This work already includes the development of bluegum glulam (GLT) and the rapidly developing opportunity to manufacture Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL).
Heading an industry collaboration, Woods now leads The Precinct development, which will manufacture LVL, GLT, a range of other timber-based building products and prefabricated building components, at world scale in Portland, in south‑west Victoria. He will outline The Precinct concept, manufacturing platforms and opportunities.
“Australia imports enormous amounts of engineered wood products and other building materials. We have to turn that around, reduce our wood fibre exports and rapidly increase our sovereign manufacturing to increase national resilience in housing,” Mr Woods said.
“This transformation is urgent, to support Australia’s evolving transition towards more industrialised and prefabricated solutions that can increase housing supply and quality.”
Roumiana Vassileva is a global market intelligence executive with 25+ years of experience in engineered wood products, spanning production, operations, sales and marketing. For 15 years, she has led market intelligence and business development at Raute, a global technology leader in peeling-based technology solutions. Her perspective connects LVL’s material efficiency, advanced technology and market evolution with automation, prefabrication and modular construction—revealing the strategic leap from producing engineered wood to building scalable, globally competitive construction systems. She brings a global lens to the opportunities, challenges and competitive dynamics shaping Australia’s engineered wood future.
Professor Dan Hill brings an international perspective on design, cities, technology and the built environment. His keynote will explore how prefabrication, new materials and industrialised construction could help Australia rethink not only how homes are built, but how we design the places in which people live.
Alongside other expert speakers and panelists, Woods, Vassileva and Hill will draw the connections from plantation fibre resources, to world-scale advanced manufacturing of engineered wood products, to the prefabricated transformation of Australia’s dwellings and built environment.
“The opportunity is much bigger than forestry or manufacturing in isolation,” Mr Woods said.
“Australia has the ingredients it requires to increase sovereign housing supply capability. The Precinct is about bringing those pieces together and creating a new and more resilient domestic value chain from plantations to products to prefabrication.”
The Precinct Investor Symposium will be held in Melbourne on Wednesday, 14 October 2026. To learn more visit www.theprecinctportland.com.au
Tim Woods
Tim Woods is Managing Director of IndustryEdge and one of Australia’s leading analysts of the forest and wood products sector. With extensive experience across timber markets, manufacturing, trade and investment, Tim brings a deep understanding of the forces shaping Australian industry. Tim is leading the team focussed on delivery of the technical, industrial and investment case for the integrated advanced manufacturing hub.
Roumiana Vassileva
Roumiana Vassileva is an international expert in engineered wood products, with more than 25 years’ experience across the global LVL industry. As Business Development Director – EWP at Raute, she has worked closely with leading engineered wood manufacturers and has driven market development for LVL, I-beams and mass timber. Roumiana brings deep expertise in LVL technology, manufacturing, markets and the opportunities for engineered timber to reshape modern construction and unlock new pathways for growth.
Professor Dan Hill
Professor Dan Hill is Director of the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne and AFWI (Australian Forest Wood Innovations) Centre for Climate-Smart Forestry Built Environment Theme Lead. He is a designer, urbanist and educator working at the intersection of design, technology and cities. His international career spans architecture, urban development, government and innovation, including senior roles with the Swedish Government’s Vinnova, Arup and the UK’s Future Cities Catapult. Dan brings a strong focus on how design, materials, technology and new approaches to construction can help shape more sustainable, adaptable and affordable places and homes.
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
