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Australian Forestry Equipment

Machine reference

Machine and attachment classes

17 classes covering commercial forestry, land clearing, vegetation management, site preparation and biomass. Each entry sets out what the machine does, who profitably buys it, the KPIs it should be judged on, published Australian benchmark specifications and the specification traps that cost buyers money.

Harvesting systems

2 classes

Feller bunchers

Highest-throughput felling in the full-tree system — cut, accumulate, bunch, repeat.

1 benchmarks·10 buying criteria·4 traps

Harvesters

The cut-to-length machine — fell, delimb, measure, buck and sort in one cycle.

3 benchmarks·9 buying criteria·4 traps

Extraction

2 classes

Forwarders

Carries cut-to-length logs completely off the ground — payload × trips per hour is the whole economic model.

4 benchmarks·8 buying criteria·3 traps

Skidders

Drags stems to the landing — the workhorse of full-tree and tree-length systems.

1 benchmarks·7 buying criteria·2 traps

Attachments

5 classes

Harvester heads

A machine in its own right — and the single most important specification decision in CTL.

5 benchmarks·9 buying criteria·4 traps

Tree shears

Turns an ordinary excavator into a controlled tree-cutting machine — the fastest-growing attachment category.

2 benchmarks·8 buying criteria·3 traps

Grapple saws

Grips before it cuts, and keeps control of the severed section — the attachment for working near assets.

4 benchmarks·7 buying criteria·3 traps

Forestry grapples

Geometry beats size — the grapple should be selected according to material flow.

3 benchmarks·7 buying criteria·2 traps

Mechanical pruners

Turns an existing excavator into a dedicated pruning platform — no second carrier required.

1 benchmarks·6 buying criteria·2 traps

Vegetation & site preparation

4 classes

Forestry mulchers

The strongest crossover market in Australian forestry — plantations, councils, utilities, mining, solar and fire.

3 benchmarks·8 buying criteria·4 traps

Stump grinders

A specialised removal business, not conventional logging — and never quote it by visible diameter.

5 benchmarks·7 buying criteria·3 traps

Stump shears

Does not grind the stump — it penetrates, splits, loosens, extracts and handles it.

2 benchmarks·6 buying criteria·2 traps

Forestry tillers

Works below the soil surface — and should not be confused with an agricultural rotary hoe.

2 benchmarks·6 buying criteria·2 traps

Processing & biomass

2 classes

Whole-tree chippers

Sits between harvesting and biomass markets — and starves without a properly engineered feed system.

2 benchmarks·6 buying criteria·3 traps

Horizontal grinders

The tolerant machine — for material that is dirty, mixed, contaminated, irregular or stump-heavy.

1 benchmarks·6 buying criteria·2 traps

Carriers & systems

2 classes

Winch-assist systems

Mechanises terrain that previously required manual falling — but the whole system must be engineered.

2 benchmarks·7 buying criteria·2 traps

Forestry carriers

Excavator or purpose-built machine — the biggest single commercial buying decision.

1 benchmarks·8 buying criteria·3 traps

Reading this reference

Classes are defined by the job, not by the machine

The boundaries between these classes are commercial rather than mechanical. A tree shear and a grapple saw both sever standing timber; they are different classes because one drops material and the other holds and places it, and that difference decides which jobs each can be used on. A chipper and a grinder both reduce wood; they are different classes because one produces a clean, consistent product and the other tolerates contamination.

That is why every class page here leads with what the machine is for and who profitably buys it before reaching the specifications. Specification comparison within the wrong class is a fast route to an expensive machine that does not fit the work, and it is the most common mistake this reference exists to prevent.

A pattern worth knowing

The headline specification is almost never the working limit

It recurs across every class in this reference, and it is the single most reliable source of over-buying in Australian forestry machinery.

What is advertisedWhat actually binds
Harvester head maximum cutting diameterThe delimbing opening, and the published optimum diameter range where the head is designed to be productive
Tree shear or grapple saw maximum cutThe carrier lift chart at working reach, once attachment, rotator and coupler weight are deducted
Mulcher maximum material sizeSustained hydraulic flow and cooling capacity at continuous full load in summer conditions
Chipper or grinder horsepowerFeed rate — the loader and extraction chain that keep the infeed supplied through a shift
Feller buncher cutting capacityAccumulation per cycle and travel between trees, in the stem class that fills your working day
Forwarder load spacePayload weight, because dense hardwood reaches the limit before a softwood-sized space is full
Stump shear openingCylinder force in dense, well-rooted material, and stump diameter measured at ground level

Four ways in

If you do not already know the class you need

Start from your kind of business

Six buyer groups, each with a different binding constraint and a different definition of the right machine. Most businesses recognise themselves in one.

Start from the work

Eight fleet configurations for specific applications, each naming the element that sets its production and the questions that size the rest against it.

Start from a choice you are already weighing

Head-to-head comparisons for the decisions buyers arrive with — shear or feller buncher, chipper or grinder, buy or hire, new or used.

Start from your current constraint

Establish which stage limits your production before comparing machines. Capacity added anywhere else changes your costs and not your output.