28 April 2008
Conrad Lembke, OAM, revered timber journalist and friend and mentor to hundreds of people in the industry, has died in Sydney, aged 78.
Lembke was many things to industry – machinery expo entrepreneur, trade mission leader, board director, and member of a score of associations and committees. But first and foremost he was a journalist, and an extremely talented one.
The Australian Forest Industries Journal (AFIJ) was the industry ‘bible’ for more than half a century and Con Lembke took over as editor and publisher in 1953 on the death of his father Conrad Otto Teodore, the magazine’s founder.
His work on AFIJ and the close relationships it developed with machinery advertisers and industry leaders saw him branch out in new directions – as convener of the ground-breaking Forest Industries Machinery Exhibition (FIME) and leader of overseas trade missions to USA, Canada, Europe and the LIGNA Hanover Fair in Germany.
FIME was an institution that began in 1970 at Oberon, near Bathurst, NSW. Held every five years, the exhibition was staged first at Oberon and subsequently at Myrtleford, Vic, until 1992 when Con left the industry, closed his magazine and with his wife Dawn began an odyssey that took them all over the world.
Con Lembke was one of the founding fathers – along with men such as Thorry Gunnersen and Dennis Cullity – of the Joseph William Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund, established in 1971 as a national education trust for the benefit of Australia's forest products industries and a tribute to an outstanding CSIRO forest research scientist.
Of Swedish heritage, Lembke was a larger-than-life character who truly loved life. He was a scratch golfer – he played at least two times a week – an A grade tennis player (he was a life member of the North Shore Gentlemen’s Tennis Club), an expert fisherman and an unrelenting traveller. He played his last bravely-fought match with life on April 22. He is survived by his wife Dawn, daughter Suellen and her husband Roger, son Steven and his wife Deb, and five grandchildren – three boys and two girls.
Illegitimate Use of JAS-ANZ Symbol on Imported Plywood
SAMPLES of imported formwork plywood, falsely labelled with the JAS-ANZ accreditation symbol, have failed tests for bonding quality, reliability and safety by the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia (EWPAA).
Technical data provided with the plywood, sourced from Shanghai by Jinshan International Australia, claims the F17 and F14 product has been “qualified by an Australian authority and “has an Australian certification number”.
JAS-ANZ director of technical services Steve Keeling has confirmed the misuse of the JAS-ANZ symbol. He said the manufacturer was not listed on the JAS-ANZ register.
The EWPAA tested 10 sheets of the material purchased from the Brisbane market and also noted each sheet was labelled with a certification number C07/43/22 based on a report from a non-accredited laboratory.
EWPAA general manager Simon Dorries said the testing laboratory was not a JAS-ANZ accredited certification body licensed to issue the JAS-ANZ accreditation symbol and its laboratory was not NATA accredited for the range of tests allegedly performed on the product.
“However, of major concern is that the report provided with the plywood is titled ‘structural bracing ply’ and not the formwork plywood product which bears the report number and accreditation symbol,” Dorries said.
“It would appear to be a very real possibility that this product may have been supplied to the market without any compliance assessment whatsoever. This is a very serious concern.”
He said deaths had been attributed to the failure of fraudulently-labelled imported formwork plywood in Australia. The JAS-ANZ accreditation symbol was used by the formwork industry to identify safe and reliable certified products.
Dorries recommended any current or future illegitimate or fraudulent use of accreditation symbols be reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for a mandatory regulated product safety recall.
Grant Scheme for More Small Forests in NZ
More forestry planting is the aim of a new scheme launched by New Zealand’s Forestry Minister Jim Anderton last week.
The Afforestation Grant Scheme is designed to encourage more planting of trees in small forests and on farms. Increasing the area of new forest that complies with Kyoto protocol rules will lead to more climate changing greenhouse gases being absorbed.
The government flagged the scheme last year in a package of initiatives to reduce the impact of climate change. It offers an alternative to the proposed New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme.
“The first round of public tenders is now open,” Anderton said. “I hope farmers and small forest owners will be attracted by the low compliance costs of the scheme.”
Foresters can receive a government grant for planting new forests on land that was unforested at 31 December 1989.
Those who receive grants under the scheme will own the new forests and earn income from the timber when harvested. The government will retain the Kyoto Protocol carbon sink credits and take responsibility for meeting harvesting and deforestation liabilities.
Half the funding in the Afforestation Grant Scheme will be available to regional councils to help meet their sustainable land management objectives; the other half will be available directly to the general public through a public tender pool.
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