Japanese students tour south coast
From the Summer 2006 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Being both a forester and a fluent speaker of Japanese came in handy for harvesting forester, Kate Hoorweg, in mid 2006.
Kate, along with other Forests NSW staff from Batemans Bay, hosted eleven students from the prestigious Gifu Academy of Forest Science and Culture for a two day forestry tour in July before joining the students back in Japan.
The Japanese wooden architectural students were accompanied by 20 students from the University of NSW, undertaking a joint project to design a boat repair facility on Ulladulla Harbour, including a wharf, workshop, visitors centre and caretakers residence.
“The harbour project aimed to use timber sourced from the local area,” Kate said.
“So we took the group to look at South Brooman State Forest to gain an understanding of local tree species and also management of NSW State forests.”
“Romney Park sawmill and joinery were also on the tour, giving a demonstration of processing and kiln-drying.”
“We then looked at a home that has been renovated using an extensive range of local timbers, which really impressed the group.”
The Gifu students stayed in Sydney for two weeks working on designs, with the University of NSW students completing plans over the next few months.
In late September, the Australian contingent travelled to Japan to present the designs.
“I was fortunate to go to the academy, set in beautiful mountains in Gifu, central Japan,” Kate said.
“The campus was amazing, with architectural students’ projects constructed on site, including bike shelters and a traditional Japanese tea house.”
“There are also large tracts of Japanese cedar and cypress forests on campus, managed for multiple use including timber production, livestock fodder, recreation and to grow extremely expensive matsutake mushrooms.”
Kate said the local community was very involved in forest management, including having a festival each year as the first tree was felled.
“They have no problems attracting students to study at Gifu Academy, where there are five main areas of study – forestry and forest products; Satoyama woodland management; community development and environmental education; wooden architecture; and craft and furniture making,” Kate said.
Kate was thrilled to be in attendance when the students presented their designs for the Ulladulla Harbour project.
“The designs were really impressive, primarily being wooden structures using timber from the NSW south coast forests,” she said.
“I then followed up with a talk about forest management in NSW, with all of the Gifu lecturers attending and wanting to learn more about our management techniques, legislative controls, area and volume harvested, and our commercial timber species.”
“Our management is vastly different to forestry in Japan, where the majority of forests are in private hands,” Kate said.
Kate said she was really hoping to see the students’ designs being utilised back at Ulladulla.
“One of the goals of the Gifu Academy is to develop innovative and sustainable ways for communities to use wood resources. To see one of the wharf designs come to fruition for the Ulladulla community would be just fantastic.”
Communications, Maitland
