Our Story

lignuum loves trees.

We are a vertical tree business. Our work runs from seed collection and propagation, through ecologically driven silvicultural services, to milling and timber production. We focus on underappreciated endemic Australian species. The products we make from this timber are a joy to use and a pleasure to behold.

Each sale helps us grow more and plant more, restoring ecosystems on currently weed-riddled pockets of farmland on the South Coast of NSW.

Our little nursery was set up so we could plant species that were hard to source elsewhere, or only available with non-local provenance. We're interested in growing big trees, including big specimens of species that might typically be smaller statured or slower growing. So our seed collection targets the best genetics we can find locally: large trees with strong vigour and good form, not just the scraggly specimens at the edge of a paddock that are easiest to reach.

As well as underplanting into privet and lantana control areas, we're establishing wide-spaced cabinet timber plantations on our traditional grazing paddocks. The low-density spacing lets pasture keep growing. It provides shade and shelter for livestock, grass species, wildlife and even weary farmers. Our cabinet timber species are mostly local to the area and are rarely planted at any scale or with timber production in mind. Look out for boards of White Beech, Red Ash, E. kirtonii, Scrub Beefwood and Toona ciliata in a few decades.

How we look after our forests

Grow the habitat

We practice private native forestry with a ecological focus. The regrowth forests we actively manage are on the path to recovery following clearing for dairy farming and high intensity timber harvests under previous owners. Our silvicultural treatments work with nature and accelerate the transition to a state of greater climate resilience and higher ecological function.

Grow bigger, better trees

Thinning concentrates growth on the best stems, so over time we harvest fewer, larger, higher-value logs. The same principles applied in the past with a pure focus on production outcomes also work to produce large, fire-resilient habitat trees teeming with hollows on an accelerated timeframe.

Waste? Nothing to waste!

We place deep value in the material embodied in any tree we work with. From sawlog to firewood from the prime cuts to brush structures for enhanced water infiltration along contours or cross drainage lines. Leafy tops used for nutrient cycling through enhanced soil contact or chipped and fed onto young plantings.