A new effort to tackle one of Australia’s most problematic waste streams has taken a major step forward, with a pilot in the heart of the nation’s wine country testing whether millions of vineyard posts can be recovered and reused at scale — saving growers millions of dollars in disposal costs.
It comes as the Sunshine Coast–based National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life, which is working with Wine Australia, Forest and Wood Products Australia and the Australian Forest Products Association, has begun field trials on a mobile processing unit in McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide. The unit strips fasteners, including clips, staples, and nails, and guillotines end-of-life posts to size, preparing them for reuse without generating hazardous sawdust.
“Together with partners in both the forestry and viticulture sectors, we are developing practical pathways for the reuse of treated posts and other end‑of‑life timber products, demonstrating what collaboration across sectors, in research, industry and government can achieve,” Professor Tripti Singh, Director of the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life, said.
“There will not be one single recovery solution for posts. A diverse range of options from small mobile solutions to large‑scale technologies will be required to ensure a shift towards a net positive future.”
Wood Central understands the pilot forms a key part of the Australian Timber Circularity Project, which has already mapped more than 27 million CCA‑treated posts stockpiled across the country.
As it stands, Australia’s vineyards rely on more than 80 million timber posts — most treated with CCA — with at least one million or more posts breaking every year. However, Wine Australia warns the real figure may exceed 3.3 million, with the vast majority stockpiled on farms or sent to landfill due to limited disposal pathways. While licensed landfills remain the only legal end‑of‑life option, high costs and logistical constraints often leave growers with no practical alternative.
Delivered by the FABAL Group with support from the South Australian Government, the pilot aims to convert that waste into usable agricultural fencing and landscape timber. By processing posts on‑site and avoiding sawdust, the system could help growers avoid disposal costs of up to $3000 per hectare.
For Ashley Keegan, FABAL Group’s CEO, the objective is to turn a costly liability into products that can be used and reused by regional communities: “Our goal is to convert a problematic vineyard waste stream into a product that others are willing to confidently use,” Keegan said.
Last year, Wood Central reported that more than 78% of timber posts installed on vineyards across the country are treated with CCA (Copper chrome arsenate) – with the bulk of the remaining posts treated with cersole, resulting in between 12,000 and 30,000 tonnes of waste wood entering landfill every year.
However, that could change with Wine Australia revealing that the new project could create alternative, low-emissions uses for end-of-life posts: “Our goal is to develop viable opportunities to divert CCA timber from landfill and create new, valuable products within regional communities,” they said, adding that data, regulatory barriers, reuse and recycling technologies and stewardship are amongst the most significant challenges.
- To learn more about the Australian Timber Circularity Project, including the role of CCA-treated timber in the circular economy, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
