Our Story

 

From the Ground Up: The Story of Arborsmith

I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon — but I did grow up with sawdust on my hands. Melbourne in the 1980s wasn’t always kind. My brother and I carved out a childhood between uncertainty and imagination. Perhaps it was our way of coping with a broken family but I never really quite felt like I fit the mould — maybe that’s why I started making my own. When most kids were chasing footys or fitting in, I was off creating little worlds: building, sketching, shaping, imagining. My escape became my calling.

My father was often working, but when my brother and I would stay with him, I do remember watching him in the garage, focused and steady, turning raw timber into something useful on his Triton Workbench. Bookshelves, pergolas, small fixes around the home — nothing major, but it was magic to me. Wood was more than a material; it was something alive. It held story, memory, weight. It still does.

Following my schooling years I worked a number of jobs and tried a couple of career paths  — you know the kind of path you take when you’re searching for something you can’t quite find. Eventually, after landing a job at a timber yard I was re-acquainted with the idea of carpentry. It just made sense to me. Of Course! I had found something I could really emerse myself in. My hands were good at this, and so was my head. I quickly contacted the nearest TAFE College and enrolled in the very next pre-apprenticeship course in Building & Construction. During this course I landed a job as an apprentice carpenter with one of Australia’s major developers, climbing the ladder and eventually becoming a Site Manager. I soon got my building licence and before long was running my own show.

But after nearly 25 years in the building industry, something shifted. I’d built a career — but now I needed to build something more meaningful.

Shortly after Covid I decided to leave the Building industry and I registered with an arboriculture training school, earning some basic tickets that allowed me a way to explore and immerse myself in an industry that was always close to my heart. A material that had been with me all along. Wood.

Not just as a building product — but as a living, breathing piece of our natural world.  I joined a tree crew as a groundy, working the ropes, clearing limbs, and getting an up-close look at the trees that often had to be removed due to safety concerns. It was raw, real, and very grounding.

That experience changed everything.

From there, I progressed into milling. It was here that everything began to come together — the carpentry, the building experience, the woodworking instinct, and now this deeper understanding of the source: the trees themselves.

As I worked with the local arborists we were salvaging logs from these dead, dying, or dangerous trees— full of strength and character, yet too often destined to be chipped, dumped or burned. We just couldn’t let that happen. So we began reclaiming them. Milling them. Drying them. Crafting them.

That was when Arborsmith was born.

I decided to invest in a commercial kiln of my own. I enrolled at the Timber Training School in Creswick and earned my kiln drying certification. I began building a commercial kiln with a 20ft insulated container and a woodmizer dehumidification kiln kit. — I wanted to do things properly, from start to finish.

From there I built a compound and purchased two mills, a loader and various other machinery necessary to facilitate the operation. My vision was simple but ambitious: to close the loop. To work alongside local arborists who were already removing trees, reclaim what would otherwise be lost, and supply ethically sourced, kiln-dried native hardwoods and cedars to the woodworking community. Additionally, I wanted to offer the wider community the choice of natural solid timber furniture, home & office décor. Timber that had been ethically and locally sourced.

It wasn’t easy. I was building the entire operation and infrastructure on my own. Sourcing logs, developing products, milling, building & running the kiln, marketing, setting up a showroom, etc. etc.. Long days. Uncertain moments. But I’ve been fortunate to have the best people in my circle — a very trusted arborist, an incredible crane truck operator, and most importantly, my family.

What I do now is more than a business. It’s a labour of love. It’s the culmination of a life lived in timber — from that garage in my childhood to the operation I run today.

Every slab I dry, every product I craft, every log I reclaim — it’s a way of giving back. To the trees. To the craft. To the community that’s supported me.

My hope is that Arborsmith continues to grow not just in size, but in impact. That we keep inspiring people — tradesmen, woodworkers, artists, and everyday folks — to see timber not just as fuel or mulch, but as possibility. I want to foster curiosity, creativity, sustainability, and care. I want to help others awaken that inner kid who once saw a pile of offcuts and imagined a whole world. Because I was that kid. And in many ways, I still am.

Alan

(Arborsmith)