A short review of cable yarding applications in Australia

Abstract

The current technology in Australia is mainly large swing tower yarder with grapple. These yarders operate under whole tree or cut-to-length methods in steep terrains of Victoria, Tasmania and South-East Queensland. Cable yarding is often applied in clear fell operations in pine or Eucalypt stands in Australia. Felling operations prior to yarding are carried out manually or using tracked feller-bunchers. Typical terrains for applying cable yarding have slope larger than 30°. There is currently a lack of small to medium size cable yarders that can efficiently operates under different circumstances. Medium size capacity yarders would be required to handle a wide range of situations under uphill and downhill extractions while small capacity highly mobile yarders will be needed for clean-up operations.