We would like to share some of our knowledge around sustainable fuel sources for home heating, and controlling the nuisance smoke from fires.

First up lets deal with the issue of fossil fuel. Firewood is NOT fossil fuel, nor does it share any characteristics with fossil fuels, other than perhaps you burn it. Fossil fuels are by definition fuels derived from plants that lived in prehistoric times, that geological forces have buried and compressed forming gas, oil and coal. The environmental issue with using fossil fuels is that you are releasing carbon back into the atmosphere that has been trapped and removed from the environment for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. This affects the balance of CO2 in the atmosphere badly.

Firewood does not do this, particularly if it is farmed wood or if it is harvested from native forests in a sustainable way. There IS a carbon cycle when using firewood but its not long term and it is closed loop. The carbon you release by using our firewood today has been captured from the atmosphere in the last 20 years and will be recaptured as replacement trees are planted over the same kind of period.

From an ecological point of view farmed firewood and all similar wood products have ecological credentials right up there with wind and solar power.

As for the issue of nuisance smoke – burning firewood can and should be clean and efficient, modern fireplaces have clever designs with multi stage combustion and high efficiency ratings. So what causes smoking ? –

1) The number one cause of smoking is poor feed stock. Most of our customers are very aware about buying green wood – unseasoned wood burns slowly at low temperatures and generates a lot of smoke and tars. There’s another factor here thats often overlooked and has much the same result – damp wood – stored in the rain or on damp ground even seasoned firewood burns very poorly. Store your wood out of the weather AND ask your supplier if they can deliver DRY, seasoned wood if you intend to use it within a few weeks of delivery. Rain soaked deliveries are a problem.

2) Oversized fireplaces. Lots of customers we visit have very large fireplaces. The issue with this is if you run your fire for long periods you eventually have to damp it right down by suppressing the incoming air so it does not overheat your house. This has much the same effect as green wood – a fire left with little airflow for long periods ends up burning at low temperatures and producing a lot of poorly combusted by products.

If you feel the cold and want to run your fire for long periods, consider a smaller fire, you can run it at levels closer to its rated output, in its efficient zone of operation achieving smoke free combustion. The only disadvantage is it might take a few hours to initially heat the house, the big advantage is better efficiency means more heat for less wood AND very little smoke.

3) Poor maintenance – modern wood fires rely on complex air paths to heat the incoming air and subject the outbound air to a high temperature second combustion in a chamber above the fire. Its really important for their efficiency to make sure the chimney is clean AND that all the steel plates and ceramic or fibre cement bricks are in good condition. Over time the steel absorbs a lot of carbon from the combustion and becomes brittle and cracks allowing the air flow to take shortcuts and incomplete combustion results.

1 – Competitive Pricing – You can choose delivery or economy pick up options. Nobody is more competitive on price. Our pricing is transparent with per cubic meter comparisons in our online shop.

2 – Choose a size that suits. Most firewood processors offer wood with a lot of large chunks in the load, leaving you to further split the wood before you can use it. Our double split product takes the work out of it, we split the large chunks again, meaning for most purposes the whole load can be used without further processing.

3 – Fixed price delivery. We deliver anywhere in the Margaret River, Busselton and Dunsborough area and surrounds. Nobody delivers for less, starting at $20

4 – Delivery is clean and convenient. Generally we deliver in bulka bags, and we leave the bags with you – no mess on your driveway. The bags help keep the firewood clean and dry, Return the bags on your next delivery

5 – Quick online ordering. Whilst we are happy to take orders over the phone, you can select your product, quantity and preferred delivery time online. We accept credit cards, EFTPOS and even old fashioned cash either at checkout or on delivery.

6 – Great firewood. Our hardwoods selected for their suitability for firewood and grown in plantations. This years wood was cut and split in Jan-Mar 2023, its dry and ready to go. Our wood is stored undercover before delivery so its not had weeks of rain soaking before you get it.

Even better than all of that you are doing the environment a favour by leaving native hardwoods in the forest. Our firewoods have a short carbon cycle – they have been grown in the last 20 years and the plantations are replanted, its a sustainable commercial activity. WA commercial logging stopped on 1 Jan 2024, domestic firewood collection is one of the few activities left.

And if all of thats not enough we are nice people to deal with too!

Its true Jarrah makes great firewood, its dense, largely sap free, generally it splits readily with just an axe. Jarrah burns well, produces a good heat and does not leave a lot of creosote in the chimney or ash in the fireplace. But its going – so whats next?

The rest of Australia and indeed the rest of the world has managed to use firewood for heating and cooking and has NEVER used Jarrah, so there are plenty of high quality alternatives. South West Plantation Firewood principally use Rose Gum (Eucalyptus Grandis), Spotted Gum (Corymbia Maculata) and Swamp Mahogany (Eucalyptus Robusta). These species are all indigenous to Eastern Australia and planted in Western Australia as a commercial crop. As a renewable crop they are a real improvement over logging native forests from a conservation and sustainability point of view.

So WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? If you switch whats the deal living with firewood other than Jarrah? We have been using the timber that we sell in our own home and our short term stay cottages for nearly 20 years, so we have some experience to fall back on. Like Jarrah these firewoods all

Burn well and produce a good warmth – like Jarrah they are dense woods and have a high energy value. They burn much better if they have low moisture content – proper seasoning and storage ensures this.

Have low sap levels and produce little creosote – they wont block up your chimney

Produce only small quantities of ash – reducing how often you need to clean out your fireplace.

THE BIG DIFFERENCE is that they generally are more effort to split. Unlike the furniture grade Jarrah most of us have been burning, with its dead straight grain that cleaves apart when you drop an axe on it, the Eastern States species require you to use a block splitter. Think of curly grained jarrah with the grain all interlocked and you have your average bit of Rose Gum.

This is not the end of the world. Tool up and the job is easy. To help our customers we will be adding a couple of products this year –

First we have firewood splitting blocks – big stable chunks of tree 500 – 700 in diameter and 800 high a nice solid tall chopping block makes splitting easy. Team that up with a 2.5 – 2.5kg block splitter and a difficult job becomes easy.

Second for those of you who feel that playing lumberjack is not your thing we have introduced “stove sized” firewood in bulka bags. These bags are packed with wood that has been sent through the splitter a second time. We aim for a maximum size of 100mm square – so no need to split any further. These bags are a few dollars more than the standard bag with some large pieces.

As its now our second year of operation we are in the happy position of being able to offer firewood that has been cut for more than 12 months. This means its crispy dry and burns really well without any need for us to use accelerated drying techniques.

In Western Australia the harvesting of WA native species for any purpose is regulated by the Biodiversity Conservation Act of 2016 and the Biodiversity Conservation Regulations of 2018 managed by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.  Native WA species, such as Jarrah, Karri and Marri,  must be harvested under permit and a separate permit is required for sale of wood products derived from these species.

South West Plantation Firewood uses Australian Hardwood species such as Rose Gum (Eucalyptus Grandis), Spotted Gum (Corymbia Maculata) and Swamp Mahogany (Eucalyptus Robusta).  These species are all indigenous to Eastern Australia and plantes in Western Australia as a commercial crop.  A lot of the wood we cut is plantation thinnings, were the number of trees in a plantation is reduced at around 10 – 15 years to allow those remaining to grow larger and be useful for high value purposes like fine timber.

Firewood Machine with log deck

Using these trees for firewood saves them being wasted, and is an environmentally friendly source of heat. Rather than extracting carbon that has long been buried in the earth, you are releasing carbon captured in recent decades and that with replanting and growth in the plantations will be recaptured in a similar timeframe.

Not only can you enjoy the unmatched cosy warmth of a wood fire you can feel good that you are helping the environment.

SWPF does not enter native forests, nor receive any material from them.  Our timber is a grown on as a sustainable and renewable crop.  If you are purchasing native species of firewood be sure to do so from a reputable organisation with the appropriate permit.

Storing your seasoned firewood correctly guarantees that you will have good quality wood to burn all season long. Wood should be placed on a hard surface (concrete or similar) a rack, or even a sheet of corrugated iron that keeps it off the soil to prevent ground water from rotting the bottom layer; this also helps to keep insects, rodents, and other vermin out of the wood pile. While the top of your wood pile should be covered to prevent rain making it damp, the sides should be left open to help continue the seasoning process and evaporate any moisture that gets into the stack.

Green (unseasoned) or damp (wet from rain) wood doesn’t burn very well. Most of the time, it won’t burn at all, but if it does, it will make too much smoke and possibly even release combustion byproducts that can be damaging to your chimney.  This happens because at best it burns slowly and at a low temperature.  At South West Plantation Firewood we will deliver you seasoned wood, and if your store it properly it will provide excellent heat.