About Australasian Timber

Australasian Timber

Overview

Australasian Timber — formally Australasian Timber Magazine — is an Australian trade magazine covering timber manufacturing, processing technology, design, construction and products. It is published by Ryan Media Pty Ltd (a division of the Provincial Press Group) through its Timberbiz platform, alongside the sister newspaper-style title Australian Forests & Timber News and the Daily Timber News email service. Where its sister title follows the industry from planting and growing through to the green mill, Australasian Timber takes over from the green mill into construction and manufacturing, with a special emphasis on treatments and engineered wood products. After close to five decades in print, the magazine transitioned to a fully digital format in December 2024; editions are now published free to subscribers as digital issues in two-month cycles, with a May/June 2026 edition current at the time of writing. The Timberbiz site sometimes shortens the masthead to "Australian Timber" in its menus and newsletters, but the magazine's own name is Australasian Timber. It is unrelated to Timber Trader News, a separate merchant-focused magazine from publisher Timber Media Australasia, which is profiled separately in this directory.

History

The magazine's lineage runs back to 1977. Wood Central's author biography for veteran timber journalist Jim Bowden records that he founded Australian Timberman in 1977, and Ryan Media itself, announcing the digital transition in December 2024, stated that Australasian Timber Magazine — "formerly Timberman" — was making the change "after 47 years", a span consistent with a 1977 start. Under its Timberman and later Australasian Timber names, the magazine served the processing and manufacturing side of the industry as a print title for decades; production records from the late 2010s show it appearing eight times a year alongside Australian Forests & Timber News, with issues documented through to December 2023, and in its print era digital editions were also uploaded to the Issuu platform. In December 2024 the publisher announced the move from print to a fully digital magazine format, citing reader and advertiser demand, changing media consumption and the analytics and linking advantages of digital platforms. The first fully digital edition led with the 2024 Timber Design Awards, whose overall prize went to Bates Smart's Embassy of Australia in Washington DC, and featured the award-winning Phillip Island cultural centre at Cowes and a world-first engineered wood product made from locally grown bluegum manufactured at Warrnambool.

Programming and Content

Australasian Timber's coverage centres on what happens to timber after it leaves the forest: sawmilling and processing operations, mill technology and equipment, drying and treatment, engineered wood products such as glulam and LVL, timber design and construction, and the products and companies of the manufacturing sector. Company and project profiles are a staple — the first fully digital edition profiled Neville Smith Forest Products, a Tasmanian forestry business with a heritage of more than a century, and the May/June 2026 edition profiled 5North, a new Adelaide company building ultra-low-carbon prefabricated homes with a robotic panel production line, and previewed WoodTECH 2026, the wood processing technology event series in Rotorua and Brisbane, which the magazine reported had more than 40 international technology exhibitors confirmed. Consistent with its "Australasian" name, the magazine's coverage extends to New Zealand, where the Rotorua leg of WoodTECH is held and whose forest industry the Timberbiz platform reports on daily. The magazine reports industry policy where it affects manufacturers, including the Australian Forest Products Association's campaign for stronger sanctions against Russian timber entering Australia via third countries, and compliance issues around imported products and illegal logging. Design excellence is a recurring theme through its coverage of the Timber Design Awards, and sustainability — timber's carbon-storage advantages in construction — runs through its features on engineered products and prefabrication. Regular equipment coverage spans harvesting-to-mill machinery, with feature topics rotated across issues in the publisher's media planning, including fellers bunchers, forwarders, grinders, skidders, shredders, mulchers, chippers, haulage and mill technology.

Audience and Reach

The magazine is aimed at the processing and manufacturing side of the forest and timber industry: sawmillers, timber processors, engineered wood producers, treatment plants, designers, builders and the equipment and service suppliers who sell to them. A production portfolio from the magazine's print era put the estimated readership of each of the publisher's two magazines at around 12,000 people per issue when both were appearing eight times a year; that figure dates from the late 2010s and is not a current audited number. Since the move to digital, the magazine is distributed free by email subscription, which the publisher presents as widening access for readers and advertisers. Its publisher's Timberbiz website describes itself in the group's 2022 media kit as the home of the group's trade publications and the timber industry's leading site, with the kit reporting around 9,900 users and 13,800 sessions a month at that time — again, publisher-reported figures from 2022 rather than current audited data.

Digital Presence

Australasian Timber is now an exclusively digital magazine. Current and back issues are hosted on the Timberbiz website (timberbiz.com.au/atm), where readers can open the latest edition — the May/June 2026 issue at the time of writing — and browse an archive of earlier issues; the site's publications pages display the May/June 2026 covers of both Australasian Timber and its sister magazine. Subscription is free via the Timberbiz site, with subscription enquiries also taken by email and phone. The magazine sits within a wider digital operation: Timberbiz publishes daily forest and timber news on its website (items were dated through October 2026, including the Forestry Now 2026 special feature), sends the Daily Timber News email three times a week, and runs a trade and services directory, jobs board and events calendar. Its sister magazine Australian Forests & Timber News continues in print and digital editions — a May/June 2026 cover was displayed on the site — giving the publisher a combined print and digital offer across the supply chain.

Ownership and Organisation

The magazine is published by Ryan Media Pty Ltd, identified in the Timberbiz site footer as a division of the Provincial Press Group. Ryan Media's timber titles — Australian Forests & Timber News, Australasian Timber and Daily Timber News — are produced by the Timberbiz editorial team; long-standing Timberbiz journalist Bruce Mitchell writes the site's Friday Analysis commentary, and the group's 2022 media kit listed Gavin De Almeida as its advertising contact. The inventory for this directory lists the title under Adelaide, South Australia, consistent with the publisher's published contact points: subscriptions for the group are handled on +61 8 8369 9500 — an Adelaide telephone number — with advertising contactable on +61 8 8369 9517. No individually named editor for Australasian Timber is published on the Timberbiz site; the magazine is produced under the Timberbiz masthead team rather than under a separately credited editor.

Contact and Availability

Australasian Timber is available free to industry subscribers in digital form. Readers can subscribe through the Timberbiz website (www.timberbiz.com.au), read the current issue online at timberbiz.com.au/atm/current, and browse back issues from the same section of the site. Subscription enquiries can also be made by email to subs@forestsandtimber.com.au or by calling +61 8 8369 9500, the publisher's published subscription line for both Australasian Timber and Australian Forests & Timber News. Advertising enquiries for the Timberbiz publications have been listed to Gavin De Almeida at g.dealmeida@ryanmediapl.com.au, +61 8 8369 9517 (per the publisher's 2022 media kit).