Yes. You can still buy Jarrah flooring in Western Australia, and we still make it in two widths. But there is less of it, it costs more than it used to, and you should expect to wait.
On 1 January 2024 this state stopped commercial native forest logging. Jarrah and karri could no longer be harvested commercially from public forest. The Forestry Minister said at the time that he could not guarantee there would be "jarrah floorboards for everyone across the state."
Two and a half years on, most of what gets said about that in Perth showrooms is wrong in one direction or the other. Here is what actually changed.
The Forest Management Plan 2024–2033 governs about 2.5 million hectares in the south-west. State forest, timber reserves, national parks, conservation parks, nature reserves. The government committed to keeping at least 400,000 hectares of karri, jarrah and wandoo out of commercial harvesting altogether.
Three kinds of removal still happen on that land. Ecological thinning in younger regrowth jarrah and karri to improve forest health, proposed at up to 8,000 hectares a year. Clearing for approved mining. And forest health work.
So public-land Jarrah didn't go to zero. It went from an industry to a by-product.
The Forest Management Plan applies to public land. Private land is not included.
That sentence is the one almost everybody misses, and it is the reason Jarrah flooring still exists as a product rather than a memory. Jarrah grows on freehold farmland across the south-west, and taking it there is lawful, ongoing and regulated under an entirely separate system.
It is not a loophole and it is not an exemption. The ban never applied to that land in the first place.
Two instruments, and both have to be satisfied.
The first is the Environmental Protection Act 1986. In this state, felling a native tree is legally clearing — the Act defines it as killing, removing, severing or ringbarking native vegetation. There is no exemption for commercial timber on private land. The exemptions that do exist cover firewood and farm materials, cap the whole property at one hectare a year, and require that the vegetation isn't killed. That is not a log supply. A commercial harvest needs a clearing permit from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.
The second is the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. A landowner can cut timber on their own property for their own use. To sell native timber — and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions says this includes timber and firewood explicitly — they need a private land supplier's licence, granted only where the taking was lawful.
The two are linked deliberately, which is why one question does most of the work when you are buying Jarrah in Perth. Ask your supplier about the permits behind their logs. In our case the farmer holds them, a contractor cannot ship without them, and every consignment is inspected by a government official in Perth before it leaves. The penalties for felling a single tree without a permit are large enough that nobody in this state is willing to risk it.
Four sources, and they are not equivalent.
Here is the part I would rather tell you now than after you have paid a deposit.
We can only buy Jarrah logs once or twice a year. Marri we can source more regularly. Jarrah comes up when a farmer clears a fence line or a paddock, or when a mining operation opens ground, and those opportunities are rare. When they come, we buy. Between them, we wait, and so does everybody else.
So if Jarrah is what you want, ask early. Come and see it, get on the list, and give us the lead time. A supplier telling you they have unlimited Jarrah available immediately is telling you something worth checking.
Our price guide has current Jarrah pricing and what a Perth job costs end to end. Boards only, GST included — the timber delivered, not installed. It says so on the page, because a surprising number of people assume otherwise.
Depends what you are choosing it for.
If you have an existing Jarrah floor to match or extend, nothing else will do it. The colour and grain are specific to the species, and the answer is Jarrah or a compromise you will notice every day.
If you want a deep red floor and Jarrah is one of several options, know what you are trading. Jarrah is 8.5 kN on the Janka scale — softer than Blackbutt at 9.1 and well under Spotted Gum at 11, both of which we can get far more easily. Marri, the other Western Australian species, is 7.1 kN. Jarrah is a much more regal red feel. Marri is a much more rustic, country feel. They give a different emotion, and which one strikes a chord is personal.
And if you simply want a floor that lasts and looks like it belongs in a Perth home, there are species we can lay next month rather than next year. I would rather say that than take your deposit and manage your expectations later.
If you are weighing Jarrah for a Perth home, come and stand on it. Our Osborne Park showroom has it down beside every other species we sell, which is the only honest way to judge the colour. Or start with the price guide.
Yes, but not in unlimited quantities and not immediately. Commercial native forest logging on public land stopped on 1 January 2024. Private land was never covered by that ban, and Jarrah salvaged from farm and mining clearing on private land is still lawfully harvested and sold. We can buy Jarrah logs once or twice a year, so expect a lead time and ask early.
Because Western Australia stopped commercially harvesting it on public land in 2024, and because it only grows here. What reaches the market now comes from private-land clearing, mining clearing, recycled stock and timber milled before the ban. Blackbutt and Spotted Gum come from the eastern states, where supply is far more regular.
Not if you know where it came from. The Jarrah we buy is salvaged from trees being cleared anyway — farm fence lines made safe against fire, paddocks opened for grazing or dams, trees blown over in storms. Historically most of those logs were burnt or chipped. In this state no native tree can be legally felled or sold without a clearing permit and a supplier's licence, and black cockatoo habitat is independently assessed before a permit is granted.