Emeritus Professor Ian Stewart Ferguson was an internationally recognised forest economist with a distinguished career in forest education, research, management and forest policy in Australia and particularly Victoria.
Ian was born in Melbourne in 1935 and died in Melbourne in 2019. He received a Diploma in Forestry from the Australian Forestry School in Canberra in 1958 and commenced work as an Assistant Divisional Forest Officer in the Forest Department in Western Australia. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of Melbourne in 1961. He was awarded a Master of Forestry degree in 1963 and a Doctor of Forestry degree in 1967, both from Yale University after which he returned to a research position at the Forest Department in Western Australia. He was appointed a Senior Lecturer at the School of Forestry at the University of Melbourne in 1968 and then in 1971 as a Senior Lecturer and subsequently Reader at the Department of Forestry, Australian National University in Canberra.
His career in forest education and academia in Victoria was stellar. He was appointed as Foundation Professor of Forest Science and Head of the School of Forestry at the University of Melbourne in 1981. He was instrumental in managing the challenging changeover of forest education in Victoria from the State Government run Victorian School of Forestry at Creswick to the School of Forestry in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Melbourne, allowing for the continuation of forestry education at the Parkville and Creswick campuses of the University. During his tenure he recruited many new staff and expanded research programs and facilities at Creswick. While at the University of Melbourne, Ian held positions of Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Pro Vice-Chancellor and President of the Academic Board. He retired from the University in 2003.
His research and consulting centred around growth modelling, yield, inventory, valuation, environmental management systems, forest biometrics and systems analysis. He wrote 12 books, 29 chapters in other books, 55 refereed journal articles, 25 conference papers and supervised 40 postgraduates many of whom went on to careers in the forest sector. A major contribution with the late Jerry Leach was the development of the Australian Forest Valuation Standard (2010/2012). Influential books included “Management of Radiata Pine” (1993), a comprehensive account of the management of the southern hemisphere’s most important plantation tree species co-authored with Norm Lewis and others. “Sustainable Forest Management”, published in 1996 by Oxford University Press, encapsulated his views on the complexities of forest management, drawing on examples throughout the world. His high-level expertise in forest economics and management was sought by both Government and industry and his consultancies were extensive, internationally and in Australia.
Ian’s major contributions to Commonwealth and Victorian forest policy were as Deputy Chair of the National Plantations Advisory Committee (1991), and as Chair (and sole Member) of the Victorian Timber Industry Inquiry 1985. The former influenced the development of plantation policy in the 1990s and the major expansion of hardwood plantations during that period. The latter Inquiry was to provide options for a long-term strategy for the development of Victoria’s timber and forest products industries consistent with the Government’s social, economic, employment and environmental policies and objectives (Timber Industry Inquiry, 1985). This formed the basis of the Victorian Timber Industry Strategy 1986. Victoria was the first state to develop such a comprehensive strategy and it initiated a revamping of the forestry sector in Victoria.
As a Director he contributed to the directions and governance of research organisations (CRC Hardwood Fibre and Paper Science and the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation), industry bodies or government advisory groups (Timber Promotion Council Victoria, the Victoria Timber Industry Training Centre, the Wood and Paper Industry Forum) and commercial entities including Lignotek Pty Ltd, Hancock Victorian Plantations, Tiaka and Taumata Plantations (New Zealand) and Softwoods Tasmania. He was influential in gaining local superannuation fund investment in newly privatised plantation entities in the late 1990s. He was President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia (1995-1999) where he initiated changes to update the organisations policies and structure. He delivered the Institutes Maxwell Jacobs Oration in 1989.
In his spare time Ian was a long-standing member of Rotary and the Rotary Club of Melbourne from 2002. He was member of the Scholarship Committee for three years and Chair of the Rotary Parks Committee (2002-2018) responsible for the Victorian Heritage listing for Melbourne’s Domain Park and assisting in the development of tree plantings at Westgate Park. Ian was presented with a Paul Harris Award by the RCM in recognition of his continuous work as Chair of the Rotary Park Committee.
He received numerous awards and commendations including a Commonwealth Forestry Scholarship, Yale University scholarships, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Parks and Recreation, Fellow of the Institute of Foresters of Australia, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the NW Jolly Medal the highest award of the then Institute of Foresters (now Forestry Australia), Fellow of the Institute of Wood Science, Centenary Medal Commonwealth of Australia, Erskine Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and was a Member of Order of Australia.
Ian Ferguson made major contributions to Australian and Victorian forestry and forest industry through research publication, the education of foresters and postgraduates, consultancies to government and industry, expert testimony, corporate governance and policy recommendations. He was a voice of common sense during a period of conflicting ideas on forest management in Victoria and elsewhere in Australia. He is remembered as a prominent and influential figure in reshaping Victorian forest policy and practice.