Half a century of Pinus radiata tree improvement in New South Wales

The Forests NSW P. radiata estate New South Wales has the largest softwood plantation estate in Australia and currently supplies around 23% of Australia’s total softwood log output (National Forest Inventory, 2007; Forests NSW internal report, 2007). The current radiata pine estate in NSW of 207,972ha (Forests NSW internal report, 2007) is centred on, or around, the Great Dividing Range, the main north-south mountain range in Australia. The estate comprises several disjunct forest areas (northern, central west, southern inland and south east - see Figure 1) which are spread over approximately 900 kilometres and cover most of the latitudinal range of the state (29 - 37oS). Within this range both climate and soil types vary (Turner et al., 2001). Average rainfall across the P. radiata plantation estate is generally in the 700 to 1200 mm with only relatively small areas receiving over 1300 mm per annum. Seasonality of the rainfall also differs with the northern end of the range being in a sub-tropical climate and the southern end in a Mediterranean climate.