[Pil-pc-oceania] (Bio)diesel tree plantings in north Qld

[Deb Guildner]

This has just come in today.
The thing about biodiesel...is that vast tracts of land will now be used to grow plants purely to produce biodiesel.
In this case it is a species from Brazil which obviously will be a lot harder to grow in the south (if it can be grown here at all).

Forestry is an issue which will not be going away.
Monocultures of five million trees is not a very desirable situation.

This is something that we need to be involved in.
As I said yesterday, Australia has no real history of sustainable forestry.

The only good thing about north Qld is that at least it has something vital that we are lacking down here: water.
I will enquire as to what this marvellous species is from Brazil, that has so many great attributes that we could not have used one of our own species instead.

Cheers
Deb
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      Breaking Rural News : AGRIBUSINESS AND GENERAL  

     
     Fill up your machine from a diesel tree 
      By BRAD PFEFFER - Australia
      Tuesday, 11 September 2007 

      Forestry companies have thrown their weight behind North Queensland's latest biofuel concept, diesel trees, and are expected to plant up to 1,000 hectares of saplings this spring.
      These tiny trees will enter the ground later this month, along the coastal strip north of Mackay.

      If all goes to plan, once the trees mature in about 15 years, they will be tapped in much the same way as is a rubber tree, with this oily sap carrying cetane levels powerful enough to fire a diesel engine.

      According to driver of the project and Mackay, Qld, nurseryman, Mike Jubow, private companies are proposing to plant about one million trees a year, for the next four to five years.

      In turn, Mr Jubow will transform his nursery to cope with demand and interest that far exceeded his expectations.

      "My whole nursery will be stripped to the ground and rebuilt," he said. 

      "We'll need a minimum of 5,000 square metres of space to keep up, so will be leasing land from a neighbouring property to make sure I can do it all."

      While the idea of importing the seed from Brazil first began seven years ago, it was only last year that Mr Jubow began propagating and distributing trees to farms across the North.

      Since then, and despite unseasonable frosts damaging some of last year's plantings, Mr Jubow said interest in the exotic plant was still flooding in from across the country.

      "I've had to knock back three times as many people who call because they don't live in the right climate zone.

      "It's sad, because there are so many people who want to get into biofuel, but we can't supply the tree to them if they live somewhere where it will die of the cold weather."

      It has been estimated that a one hectare plantation would produce 10,000 to 12,000 litres per annum once in full production.

      SOURCE: Extract from report in Queensland Country Life, September 13.



           

     

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