IT's a long way from the red dirt of outback Western Australia to the New York headquarters of global fragrance and cosmetic houses such as Estee Lauder.
But a unique partnership is helping to put WA sandalwood back on the map by shoring up supply of its highly-coveted oil for the foreseeable future.
Unique Kalgoorlie-based sandalwood oil distillation business Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils (DSO) marries traditional indigenous foraging with modern Western harvesting of wild and cultivated sandalwood.
This combination allows the company to guarantee a sustainably sourced supply to customers for at least the next 20-30 years of the oil extracted from the Australian native Santalum spicatum, which is often regarded as liquid gold due to it fetching about AU$2000 per kilogram.
The establishment of the DSO joint venture back in 2017 between Central Deserts native title holders Dutjahn Custodians, Kutkabbuba Aboriginal Corporation and the founders of WA Sandalwood Plantations (WASP) Keith Drage and Ron Mulder is gaining recognition.
Last month DSO became the first Australian organisation to ever be awarded the United Nation's prestigious Equator Prize.
DSO was one of 20 Equator Prize 2019 winners to be chosen from a field of 847 nominations and was the only recipient from a developed nation.
It was selected as an outstanding example of a local, nature-based solution to climate change and sustainable development.
DSO chairwoman Katina Law said it was a significant achievement for the company and was testament to all the hard work of the team in developing sustainably and ethically sourced sandalwood oils.
"DSO strives to create world's best environmental approach to produce sandalwood oil by allowing Indigenous people to wild harvest a precious natural resource while phasing in the new plantation supply," Ms Law said.
"I am extremely proud of all DSO has accomplished since we were formed in 2017 and of what our company will achieve in the years and decades ahead."
The prize was the latest in a string of awards recognising the unique company, which is 50 per cent Indigenous owned.
In 2017/18, DSO was recognised as the Australian Emerging Exporter of the Year, based on inaugural exports of $1.3 million.
With the signing of a series of strategic long-term contracts, exports in the current financial year are estimated to increase to more than $4.5m in the luxury perfume and cosmetic sector.
In 2018 DSO was recognised as both the WA and Australian Emerging Exporter of the Year, and earlier this year gained global attention when it won the prestigious Sedex global responsible sourcing award for Best Collaborative Effort.
The company has also been recognised by the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce for sustainable innovation as it opened a $1.5m facility there to process the sandalwood into oil in December 2017, the first such facility in the region.
According to DSO director Mr Drage, the establishment of the business had brought together three primary avenues of long-term sandalwood supply.
There was the premium wild harvest wood that was currently sustainably managed and harvested by the Kutkabbuba Aboriginal Corporation in the Gibson desert near Wiluna; a 100 tonne of wild wood per annum 10-year supply agreement between DSO and the State government; and the 13,000 hectares of spicatum plantations managed by he and Mr Mulder's company WASP.
Mr Drage had been attracted to the aromatic wood industry for many years, having established WASP with Mr Mulder in 2001.
"We were attracted to the 150-year history of exporting wild wood from the greater central Wheatbelt, and the uniqueness of WA sandalwood which already had a well-established name in the market," Mr Drage said.
"But we were also aware of it being a depleting resource, with its supply ebbing and flowing, and could see that it's future required investing into plantation sandalwood as a resource."
Since then, they have grown the business into Australia's biggest sandalwood plantation company, managing more than 19 million trees across the central Wheatbelt, stretching from Goomalling down to Narrogin, where the sandy soils and annual rainfall of about 350mm make for ideal growing conditions.
By joining forces with the Dutjahn Custodians and establishing DSO, they could see an opportunity to deliver a very sustainable, responsibly sourced, high-quality fine product.
"We can now give guarantees of a consistent and credible long-term supply of sandalwood, which gives buyers, brands and perfumers a level of security and confidence," Mr Drage said.
The plantation sandalwood takes about 20 years to reach maturity, growing to about four metres in height and about 140mm in diameter, which is more quickly than in the desert as there is more access to water.
And while the WASP timber is not quite at that point in its rotation, the plantation estate requires thinning which has allowed about 400 tonne of the younger wood to be harvested each year since 2016.
Some of this wood has been steam distilled to produce an ISO quality oil.
This has then been combined with the well-established "old" shrubby wild wood harvested by indigenous foragers managed by Kutkabbuba Aboriginal Corporation chairman Clinton Farmer.
Such is the stringent nature of the management of the indigenous resource, any harvesting of sandalwood is tracked by GPS and is done so under a strict quota covering both green and dead wood, the licence for which has to be reapplied for each year.
All harvested wood is taken to the Kalgoorlie-Boulder facility after it is made into a pre-grind material, before the oil is distilled and then processed, including cleaning and blending it, for the domestic and international market.
Mr Drage said the correlation between their age and the chemistry of the oil was that there was more likelihood of the older tree having more of the good oil.
"The younger Australian sandalwood trees, both wild and plantation, contain an allergen that reduces considerably as the trees age, while the old wood from the Gibson Desert produces an oil characterised by being earthy, pungent and powerful," he said.
"There is a very neat synergy between the chemistry of the oils in the old and young trees which complement each other when they are blended, making a very unique product."
While fine fragrance was the number one target market for the DSO oil, Mr Drage said the North American aromatherapy market was growing at an aggressive rate.
Only about 40 to 50 per cent of the wood harvested was suitable for oil extraction, with the remainder sold into the Asian market, primarily for incense.
Mr Drage said it was an exciting proposition to be able to participate in the downstream market, rather than simply exporting the wood for incense, or to other domestic oil processors.
The establishment of DSO had been particularly beneficial for part owners the Kutkabbuba Aboriginal Corporation, as they had a buyer for the wood at market prices while also receiving shareholder distributions from the oil distillation business.
These activities generated much-needed work and funding to the community, allowing them to invest in community projects to generate further employment.
Going forward, Mr Drage said a longer-term licence for harvesting indigenous wild wood under the quota rather than reapplying each year could be helpful to the business.
"A longer commitment of around three years would provide more security for the Kutkabbuba people, and give them more incentive to invest in equipment," he said.
"It's difficult to invest in the business if there is no tenure of licence."
But Mr Drage said the future was looking bright as the company became more well-established and was able to offer long-term supply.
"For varying reasons some perfumers have used less Australian sandalwood in production over the last decade," he said.
"We see that we have an opportunity to really reinvigorate Australian sandalwood as an essential ingredient in fine fragrance."
