The first turf has been officially turned at Timberlink’s NeXTimber manufacturing plant in Tarpeena South Australia, to mark the start of the $63 million construction project. When completed, the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will occupy 15,000 square meters.

The launch of the project follows a decision by the South Australian government to award Timberlink a $2 million grant for the project to build the world’s first combined cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber manufacturing plant. (GLT) in Australia, as part of the 2020 Strategic Business Round of the Government of South Australia’s Regional Growth Fund.

NeXTimber CLT & GLT products are intended to replace imports and drive faster adoption of carbon positive, renewable mass timber construction, replacing steel and concrete in mid-rise and high-rise construction. The launch of the project is remarkable, just days after the Australian government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation announced $300 million in funding to encourage greater use of cross-laminated timber to make wood products from low carbon engineering. The building material of choice for reducing embodied carbon in construction projects such as office and apartment towers.

The underground public works have been completed by GT Bobcats over the past 10 weeks and soon Timberlink will start piling the building at the end of the year.

Timberlink CEO Ian Tyson said: “Timberlink recently made a significant multi-faceted investment at the Tarpeena plant which has largely completed the modernization of our timber manufacturing, creating a class leading timber manufacturing facility. world. The co-location of a CLT & GLT factory on the same site makes this facility unique in Australia. Wood is the ultimate renewable energy and NeXTimber products provide carbon negative solid wood solutions for building components, which enable embodied carbon reduction in a range of building types. However, you are using NeXTimber, you will not just construct a building. You will create a better future”.

Production of the NeXTimber range is expected to begin in 2023 and the local technical support team is now ready to help customers plan the use of NeXTimber products for future projects. A total of 27 full-time permanent jobs will be created when the facility opens, increasing to 50 at full capacity. A significant number of additional jobs are also created during the construction phase.

Timberlink is one of Australasia’s leading timber products manufacturing companies. The company has two sawmills in Bell Bay (Tasmania) and Tarpeena (South Australia) that manufacture plantation structural pine products.