A Tradie, an Engineer and a community

Dovetail Timbers is a Tasmanian business based in the Huon Valley, passionate about sustainability, design and craftsmanship.

The concept was conceived in 2008 after Bodie, our resident engineer, came to the realisation that he was more suited to fresh air and Blunnies than an office and a tie.

Danny soon came on board with his tools and tradie enthusiasm for craftsmanship. He has always been an advocate for recognising the beauty in simplicity and then making it.

Since these early days our dreams have bloomed, passions persist and an army of people have contributed. We are still working with a small dedicated crew. Danny is helping our next generation of craft people, Casey and Talia, learn their trade milling timber and making garden beds. While Bodie and Lydia work ensuring the orders are taken correctly or when lucky enough, are out installing garden beds. We also regularly have Alan and Tamas help when we are busy.

When we need a little expertise we call on Christina to guide us on how plants grow best and James on how to engineer a new machine or solve a problem.

There are more who help, lots more, but it’s hard to say where our core team ends and the community begins…

So what do we do?

Well, we make stuff from Tassie timber. We believe Tasmania has an amazing natural resource right on our doorstep…trees! They’re good for us if we’re good to them! We save timber that has been felled but isn’t suitable for mainstream forest industries. Where possible, we salvage it, mill it, dress it and craft it into  cool stuff for your garden and home. We use the centuries old dovetailing method of construction because it’s strong, simple and because we think it looks really good!

Our timber dovetailing technique has a long history in log cabin construction and we have spent many years refining what we do, offering a range of products such as cabins, garden shacks and our raised timber garden beds. More recently we have narrowed our focus to garden beds so we can do them really well.

We’re also working with The New Black Biochar, turning sawdust, timber off cuts and green waste into charcoal to be used in gardens, animal feed, filtration and more. In doing so we’re on track to be locking thousands of tonnes of carbon up every year. Another step towards a sustainable future.

With all of our products, we aim to minimize the impact we have on our environment.  Our locally sourced timber coupled with a low intensity processing and a zero waste goal enables us to produce products with very low embodied energy.  The timbers we use represent a significant carbon sink while preserved in our products and their removal from regenerated forests allows regrowth with great capacity to absorb carbon dioxide an opportunity to flourish.

As a result, our products truly are green, sustainable and environmentally friendly.