Hop to It
Boral Timber pitches in for a new wildlife hospital on KI. After bushfires destroyed a third of Kangaroo Island over summer, help was urgently needed to get many businesses and organisations up and running again. For the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, that came in the...
Good Returns
Recycled timbers are showing their worth – environmentally and economically – in the supply chain, both as high-quality designer timbers and as quality wood fibre. Durability is a key selling point for all of us in the timber industry: our product lasts. And yet at a...
Fully Loaded
While loaded chips or burgers can be great, overloaded joists are anything but. It’s one of those words that has come back into vogue. ‘Fully’ was used by hotels and restaurants when they were fully booked, but then the hip crowd starting using it for being very cool...
Fuel Reduction Training
TABMA Training’s training partnership with HQPlantations will make a difference to upcoming fire seasons. Given the unprecedented bushfire crisis that most of Australia went through at the start of this year, the importance of protecting our softwood and hardwood...
The Kindest Cuts
These top manufacturers offer tips to help you narrow down what to look for when buying a new saw and which type will work best for you. For businesses with money in the bank and/or tax liabilities they’d like to minimise, this is the best time in years to be buying...
Parting Ways
What needs to be considered if redundancies are on the cards… By Emma Watt. Sometimes an employer needs to change the size of their workforce by making some employees redundant. This is a process that requires some attention to detail if it is to be done properly, in...
Great Ideas
If you have an idea to improve sustainability in construction, the 2020 COINS Grand Challenge wants to hear it. Construction software specialists COINS are serious about giving back to the industry behind their success. The 2020 COINS Grand Challenge calls for ideas...
Covid-19 Resources
Whether you’re sailing through steadily or about to bite the next person who says “we’re all in this together”, there are multiple resources ready to help you get through 2020’s many changes. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld’s famous saying, we’ve got an unknown number...
Support During Covid-19
A super fund perspective on the Federal Government’s financial support package for individuals. Super funds are playing their part in the country’s economic response to the COVID-19 crisis. “As the impact of COVID-19 has affected businesses across the economy, a...
Government Stimulus FAQ
Fred Tortora from corporate law and accounting firm Surry Partners, explains the benefits available to businesses and individuals under the government’s most recent measures to support people and the economy Here is a summary of the government’s latest stimulus...
Concrete Shoes
Turns out, slabs are a bigger factor than you might think when it comes to bracing. I set out writing this article with the intention of providing you with a universal design for the attachment of bracing walls to slabs so that you could provide this to builders on...
Business as Usual-ish
We talked with three business owners about what’s changed and what hasn’t since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic – and what the future might hold. Hand sanitiser was one of the first things to go at Swadlings Timber & Hardware. “We ran out of dust masks and...
Making it Last
Use of engineered timbers externally comes with durability considerations. By Craig Kay, national product engineer, Tilling Acknowledged as the oldest wooden building in the world, the Horyuji Temple in Japan was constructed around 700CE. In North America, covered...
On Trial
We investigate some of the most common questions regarding probationary employees. By Emma Watt Does being on probation make a difference to an employee’s access to unfair dismissal claims? The answer to this common question is that agreement between the employer and...
Clever Car Parks
EnviroPark takes advantage of the strength and prefabrication ease of engineered timber and combines it with solar panels for innovative, eco-friendly car shelters and multi-storey parks. Many readers will already know Dr David Bylund from his work with Wesbeam’s Tall...
WELL Built
The awards are still coming now that Brisbane’s 25 King has moved from construction into its working life. Not satisfied with taking the gong for Australia’s tallest engineered timber office building, 25 King is also Queensland’s first building with WELL Core and...
Parquetry Perfection
New large-format parquetry blocks deliver a great modern look and make laying faster. Boral Timber’s focus on flooring has long delivered a range of great products with an enviable mix of visual appeal, reliability and attractive price points. The new Grande Block...
Surviving Fire
Masslam product has performed well in rigorous tests. Concerns about fire are eminently understandable in the Australian context and one of the selling points of mass timber has long been that standard products have rated well in fire tests over 60 and 90 minutes....
Excellence Rewarded
IHG’s Awards of Excellence recognise the hardworking families and teams whose innovation and commitment are at the forefront of timber and hardware retail in Australia. Singer Anthony Callea opened his set at the start of the Independent Hardware Group’s 2019 Awards...
Reaching the Heights
A Tasmanian PhD student’s arborist drone has won him a 2020 Science and Innovation Award for Young People. Mechanical engineer and University of Tasmania PhD student Sean Krisanski has been announced as one of the winners of the 2020 Science and Innovation Awards for...
Prints Not-so Charming
A look at biometric attendance records – are they lawful? And what are the concerns employers should consider before introducing them? By Emma Watt A 2019 decision of a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission found that an employer’s direction to an employee to consent...
Put a Coat On
Customers may not always know exactly what colour they want, but when it comes to consistency and environmental concerns, they have some very clear views. There’s a surprising amount of crossover between interiors trends celebrating the natural qualities of timber and...
Let’s Get Connected
Physical links are essential to structures, and good engineering makes all the difference. By Afzal Laphir, Principal Engineer, Meyer Timber What does it mean to be connected? A street survey would invariably be full of associations to Linkedin, Facebook, WhatsApp or...
Covid-19 in Brief
You don’t need 96 rolls of loo paper, but you do need to stay abreast of the facts regarding the Covid-19 outbreak. By the time you read this, things will probably have changed again in Australia’s rapidly evolving response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Already the text...
