A couple in the NSW Snowy Mountains are handcrafting skis from Australian-grown timber, including alpine ash from forests that were declared endangered by the federal government this year, raising questions about sustainable sourcing as native timber becomes increasingly scarce.
Jonathan and Steph Paige, who operate out of a workshop in Jindabyne, began making skis in their seventh year of operations, using a wooden core made from alpine ash, jarrah and paulownia. The alpine ash is harvested by the NSW Forestry Corporation in the Riverina region, west of Canberra, and processed at a timber mill in Eden on the NSW far south coast. As of March, the alpine ash forests of the Australian mainland have been declared as endangered by the federal government.
A Meticulous, Time-Intensive Process
The couple's journey into ski-making began in 2019 when they were living in Western Australia, learning the craft without formal training. Jonathan Paige said, "You could probably get a job at a big company in Europe or the US and have somebody show you the ropes," and added, "Being here, it was very much just learn as you go, refine, reiterate." He said, "The first couple of pairs we pressed were catastrophic. The first one was a total botched job," and described the process as one with many variables, including temperature, humidity of the timber, the day it is milled, the day it is glued up and the type of timber used.
Damien Bunting, the general manager of South Coast Timber, said the request for the specific hardwood boards was unusual. He said, "This is a little bit more meticulous, and you've got to really search for the right quality boards," and, "It is quite specific. They can't have any knots or any imperfections at all." The alpine ash is cut when conditions are right and air dried, before spending weeks in a 40-degree Celsius pre-dryer and a kiln. The drying process can take about six months. Bunting also said, "When you're dealing with a natural product, you can't rush it, or maybe you can, but you're risking destroying it," adding, "Take your time, you push it through nicely and the rewards are at the other end."
Sourcing Scarce Native Timber
Steph Paige said the alpine ash gives weight to the ski and helps improve the feel of the ski, saying, "You need that weight to improve the feel [of the ski], so when you're skiing through something that may not be perfect power or perfect grooming, you want your ski not to be chattering away." In the skis, the alpine ash is joined with the light balsa wood paulownia, and a thin piece of native jarrah holds the core together. Steph Paige said, "[Jarrah] is really good at taking an impact because the grains are so tightly packed and it is naturally water and rot resistant."
Jarrah is a hardwood native to Western Australia, and it has become more challenging to access since the state government banned native forest logging in the third year. The couple had previously accessed jarrah from a mill that was shutting down in Albany in WA and from a tree that had fallen during a storm on a family member's property. They said they were now working with a mill in WA to source timber from other jarrah trees that had already fallen or were being cut down for construction projects, and they were mindful about what they were using. Jonathan Paige said, "We're using small dimensions and so we're able to extend the use of a single board through that," and, "The timber that we're using increases the life cycle of the ski itself, and so [it is] encouraging people to use the same ski for longer and not buy new pairs every year."
Local Production Faces Structural Challenges
The wooden core is glued and dried, then laminated between a plastic base and a wood veneer top sheet, all held together by a steel edge. It then takes weeks to cut, grind, polish and oil the skis before they are tuned, waxed and have their bindings mounted. Jonathan Paige said, "Every step takes time and it all adds up, but everything takes the amount of time it needs. Nothing is fast here," and noted that the plastic base and ski edge are imported products, while the rest of the materials in the skis are Australian made. He said living in a country more familiar with sun and surfing than snow-covered mountains makes ski-making more challenging because of high freight costs and a small local industry, adding, "Whilst we're deep in winter, it's summertime in the northern hemisphere. Most of your suppliers … we're just not on that same schedule."
Desert Skis opened to the public one year ago after five years of trial and error and testing product samples. Steph Paige said, "It was motivating because after five years, you are kind of like, 'This is a long journey. This is a lot of money. Is this going to be worth it?'" and, "There are times when you're kind of looking at each other like, 'What are we doing?'"
Local backcountry skier Rowan Kennedy, a friend of the Paiges, said, "It brings joy, seeing the creation of the ski, knowing where the timber comes from, knowing it's locally sourced," and, "You see the production from start to finish and you know that you're giving a job to a local person." Steph Paige said, "It's really important to us that they are handmade, that we respect the timbers that we're using, that we can source locally," and, "If we scaled too quickly, too fast, we wouldn't be able to control the quality and there would be more waste." Jonathan Paige said, "It might be four, five, six, seven, eight of us on our skis that we've made," and, "It's cool when you sit there and just take it in for a minute. You go, 'Man, this is rad'." He added, "Everything we're having fun on is from here. How cool is that?"
Why This Matters:
The story of Desert Skis illustrates the tensions facing small-scale artisans who depend on native timber resources as environmental protections tighten and forests face endangerment. The federal government's declaration of alpine ash forests as endangered this year, combined with Western Australia's ban on native forest logging in the third year, reflects growing recognition of the environmental costs of timber extraction. Yet these protections create real challenges for local craftspeople who have built businesses around sustainable use of fallen or salvage timber. The couple's emphasis on extending product lifecycles and sourcing only from trees already felled for other purposes demonstrates how small producers can adapt to conservation priorities, but also reveals how Australia's small manufacturing sector faces structural disadvantages—high freight costs, limited local supply chains, and seasonal mismatches with northern hemisphere markets—that make local production more difficult even as consumers express interest in locally sourced, handmade goods. The broader question remains how communities can balance forest protection with support for artisanal industries that provide local employment and offer alternatives to mass-produced imports.