This article was written by FTMA CEO, Kersten Gentle
On Tuesday 27 June, FTMA Australia hosted our first Western Australian State Seminar in Perth which was a resounding success with a new sense of collaboration amongst fabricators.
In WA offsite prefab and lightweight timber framing only makes up about 15% of the market share and our sector is still competing against the traditional double brick. The event was organised to bring the industry together so we can work collaboratively to lift our market share and explore innovative ways in which we can truly make a difference.
The seminar was opened by the WA Housing Minister, The Hon. John Carey MLA, who stated that “(our sector) plays a critical role in housing, and don’t I know it”.
Minister Carey said they needed as much housing as they could get and given offsite prefabrication resulted in fasting building times, our sector could help generate more social houses quicker.
The Minister’s department has programs such as the Timber Home Program and Prefab Panelised Program which aim to increase social housing whilst creating greener homes for the future, homes which will store carbon for life.
FTMA thanks the Minister for opening our seminar and taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to fabricators. In my opinion, the Minister was a breath of fresh air who had full support for our sector increasing our market share and helping to build more timber homes in WA and we look forward to working more closely with Minister Carey and his department in the future.
It may surprise many on the East Coast but WA has continued to defer their new Fall from Heights legislation which will not come in to effect until March 2025. To explain what this decision means to the construction sector, we were joined by Tony Poulton, Construction team Manager of the WorkSafe Division of Department of Mines, Industry Regulation & Safety.
Tony explained how the new WHS Falls Regulations would work, including the transitional period for high-risk construction work and the importance of understanding the Codes of Practices (Managing the Risks of Falls & Falls in Housing Construction).
Falls from heights is an area where we can truly gain traction with the builders, and Clinton Wells and the team at Worldwide Truss & Frame presented on their new Trafficable Ceiling Battens, which is an innovative, and engineered tested solution to help with the fall from heights.
Initially when Clint informed FTMA of the new Trafficable Ceiling Battens, he wasn’t keen on sharing with the industry, but after talking with FTMA, he recognised that to lift the market share in WA, everyone needed to work collaboratively.
Clint, not only sat down with Nick Steens of Independent Timber Supplies but also allowed Kenny McGonnell of Pinelock Systems in Albany to trial the product and the three of them sat on a panel to discuss ways in which the Trafficable Ceiling Battens could help the sector address the new fall from heights.
It wouldn’t be an FTMA event without talking about ways in which members could find their Carbon Warrior voice, as we went through the amazing resources created by WoodSolutions The Ultimate Renewable and the Timber Framing Collectives resources which members could use for free at renewabletimberframing.com.au website. These resources have been created for fabricators to use and, if you haven’t already done so, we encourage you to sign up now.
Kay Gerard presenting on training needs
FTMA’s Kersten Gentle with WA Housing Minister
Jon Shanks explaining the impact of new NCC changes
We were joined by the impressive Jon Shanks, Director of TimberED Services and WoodSolutions WA Technical Representative who presented on the impact of the new NCC Changes. I have to say for an engineer, Jon was very entertaining and had everyone’s full attention as he whipped through his 41 slides!
Even though we were preaching to the converted we went through the benefits of prefabrication of stick built such as:
- Resource wise – prefab uses up to 25% less timber than stick built.
- Reduces waste.
- Superior quality control.
- Faster construction time.
- Improved scheduling.
- Improved jobsite safety.
- Cost savings.
- Durability ensuring the final products meets all the relevant standards.
We all know the benefits, but over west we truly need to generate more marketing around the benefits of prefab over traditional stick-built framing. Everyone agreed that we need a brochure outlining these benefits which they can all use as marketing, which FTMA will generate for members.
The final session was a facilitated discussion by Kay Gerard, CEO of the Food, Fibre & Timber Industry Training Council, who reports directly to the Minister on industry skill development needs.
Unfortunately for our sector, we do not have a recognised RTO who can offer subsidised training and Kay will work with a sub-committee to further outline our training needs and generate a report for the Minister in the hope of getting some traction with training in WA,
Following the seminar, we enjoyed some great networking over drinks and canapes before finishing the day with our networking dinner.
This was the first time in well over a decade that fabricators came together to focus on their industry and everyone left with new energy and were excited to begin working collaboratively across the sector in the hope of growing our market share.
Big River Group’s Francis Cox (Regional Manager), Alex King (Operation Manager – Midland Branch) and Jatin Bathani (Prefab Manager – Midland Branch)
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