Category: 30th Anniversary Landmark Edition

Here’s your opportunity to join us and be part of timber history.

This year we got back to doing what we do best – profiling people on our front covers. After a period of time of having advertising on our covers, including the first six months of this year, I made a decision to go back to the roots of our magazine. The catalyst for this was our triple century issue in June. I believe we’re better attuned when we concentrate on the people who make TimberTrader News – our readers.

This was only five years ago and yet so much has changed in the industry. At this time TimberTrader News was well settled in its offering. We cover the manufacturing, marketing and merchandising (my 3Ms) of timber to readers in building materials centres; timber and hardware merchants; the fabrication sector; joiners, flooring retailers and reputable floor layers and sanders; furniture manufacturers and specifiers who love to design utilising the world’s most beautiful building material. This is anyone who considers themselves part of the timber industry.

The year 2008 was pretty tough on a personal front as my wife Paula was in the final stages of bowel cancer (diagnosed in 2002). She went into palliative care just before Christmas and died at 6.55am on Thursday, January 22.

When you’re in an industry for a long period of time, you cannot avoid the inevitability of the passing of life.

The final piece in the TimberTrader News jigsaw fell into place with the introduction of a January edition. We were now a fully fledged monthly publication.

Forty years to the day after Norm and Judy Tilling formed their original business partnership, a fire swept through the Tilling Timber head offices at Kilsyth (Vic).” This was the first paragraph of a story appearing in the January edition of TimberTrader News. The multi-million dollar blaze (December 30, 2003) could have been a lot worse if the wind hadn’t shifted a few hours in.

The year dawned with reports on the soaring price of steel and, as a result, nailplates were to rise by as much as 20 per cent. However, as steel represents under 10 per cent of the cost of a prefabricated house, the effects would be more pronounced on the steel framing industry.

We started this year with a fascinating double interview by our editor, Helen Hatty. Trevor Smith, national secretary of the CFMEU (Forests Division) and Richard Brooks, executive director of the TMA opened up to us about their working relationship. It was a behind-the-scenes look at co-operation and harmony between two organisations with more in common than in conflict.

We were off to a relatively slow start this year as all indications were the industry was very soft and the housing market was less than active. These were still the days when a lot of companies closed down for the full four weeks over the Christmas period. I’d suggest this might have been one of the last times this happened as in the years to come there was a rapid contraction as to the holiday close-down period.

The February edition launched the year of 1986, and we opened with a photo on our front cover featuring Bill Fahey constructing a stand at the TMA’s revamped Blackburn Timber Centre, expanding from 21 to 40 stands in March.

This was about the time I really started to notice the slow-down in industry events and functions. Hoo-Hoo has gone off the boil nationally with a few clubs closing and big VIP nights a thing of the past. Suppliers and wholesalers had also reduced the number of launches and even milestone celebrations became low key or non-existent.