The first State to designate an official with full-time responsibility for forests was NSW, when in 1881 the poet Henry Kendall was appointed Inspector of State Forests. Other States started to establish similar positions but South Australia, the least well-endowed with forests, decided to create a new department for the purpose, a practice eventually followed by all.

In their early years the forest services were concerned mainly with regulating the use of the forests for timber production and grazing, with forest inventories and with the reservation of forest lands to meet future needs. Some softwood plantation programs were started to supplement the native hardwood resource and then, slowly at first, the task of rehabilitating the heavily exploited and deteriorating native forests began to be tackled. Most forest services set up their own sawmills but with the exception of South Australia these are now disbanded. Later some also became involved in the development of improved technology for the conversion and use of forest products.

The national importance of forestry and forest products technology was first recognized in a tangible way in 1919, when the Commonwealth Government founded the Institute for Science and Industry and included in its activities forest products research initiated in Western Australia during the First World War by its Conservator of Forests, C. E. Lane Poole. This later became the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) which in turn was replaced in 1949 by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). The CSIR Division of Forest Products was established in Melbourne in 1928 but following a re-organization in 1971 its functions were distributed between the CSIRO Divisions of Building Research and Chemical Technology (now Chemical and Wood Technology). In 1927 the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau was established with responsibilities which included experimental studies in silviculture, forest management and protection. In 1946 it became known as the Forestry and Timber Bureau and in 1963 its silvicultural research and forest resources divisions were re-grouped as the Forest Research Institute which in 1975, merged with the harvesting and mensuration activities of the Bureau to become the CSIRO Division of Forest Research. Since 1964 co-ordination of State and Commonwealth forestry matters has been the responsibility of the Australian Forestry Council which is advised by a committee structure covering both forestry and forest products. In 1974 the Council sponsored the FORWOOD Conference at which all aspects of Australian forestry and the forest products industry were reviewed and an indicative plan prepared for development to the end of the century.

This account of the early exploitation of our native forests and the organizational response by governments to public concern for these national resources provides important background to the historical development of forestry and forest products technology which will now be outlined.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering