The long wait for Australian-made cross laminated timber (CLT) is nearly over reports Wood Week.

Xlam Australia will open its first CLT manufacturing plant in Wodonga and be producing panels for construction by the close of 2017.

The company shared its plans to build a factory in the Albury Wodonga region with Architecture & Design last year, but only now do we know that it is actually going to happen.

Fairfax is reporting that the plant has the backing of local, state and federal government and will be complete by April.

The facility will produce 60,000m3 of CLT each year and at capacity production will produce enough to build a project the size of Forte Melbourne – Australia’s largest timber apartment building – each week .

It will be produced from local pine, increasing demand for the plantation industry and shortening delivery time and distance.

Currently, CLT is being purchased overseas from companies like Stora Enso, Meyer Timber and Novatop. Australia’s Lendlease has opened a prefabrication plant in Sydney that manufactures CLT framework but it doesn’t create the actual CLT.

Xlam has a number of Australian projects currently underway, including a massive CLT house designed by Fitzpatrick + Partners director James Fitzpatrick.