WA Firewood Guide: The Best Local Woods for Outdoor Cooking

Most firewood guides are written for the northern hemisphere. They tell you to use hickory, post oak, cherry. All excellent woods, all largely irrelevant to what is growing in Western Australia's backyards, roadsides and bushland.

WA has its own firewood landscape, and understanding it will change how you cook outdoors. Some of what grows here is exceptional for cooking. Some of it will ruin a cook. Knowing the difference is the point of this guide.

How to Think About Firewood for Cooking

Not all firewood is equal, and firewood for cooking is a different consideration from firewood for warming a house. For cooking you care about three things: heat output, burn duration, and the quality of smoke produced. Dense hardwoods generally score well on all three. Soft, resinous woods generally fail on the third.

Seasoning matters enormously. Green wood, freshly cut, contains significant moisture that produces thick, acrid white smoke as it burns. This is the smoke that makes food taste like an ashtray. Properly seasoned wood, dried for at least 6 to 12 months under cover, burns cleaner, hotter, and produces the thin blue smoke you actually want.

Whatever wood you are using, if you can snap a piece and it makes a sharp crack rather than a dull thud, it is dry enough. If it hisses when it goes on the fire, it is not.

WA Hardwoods Worth Using

Jarrah

Jarrah is the benchmark WA cooking wood. It is a dense, hard eucalyptus that produces a long, hot burn with relatively mild smoke. The smoke character is earthy and clean, sitting somewhere between post oak and mild hickory. It works well with beef, lamb, and pork, and it is what most WA backyard cooks have grown up using without necessarily knowing what it was doing.

Jarrah as a cooking wood works best when it has been seasoned for at least 6 months. Freshly cut jarrah burns poorly and produces bitter smoke. Aged jarrah, dense and heavy with a deep red-brown colour, is excellent. It is widely available as a byproduct of construction and renovation work, and many suppliers stock it specifically for cooking.

Best for: Beef, lamb, pork, direct heat cooking, coal base

Marri

Marri is another native WA eucalyptus and performs similarly to jarrah as a cooking wood, though it is slightly less dense and burns a little faster. The smoke character is comparable, slightly earthier. It is often available as an alternative to jarrah and is equally suitable for most outdoor cooking applications.

Best for: Beef, lamb, general-purpose cooking

Wandoo

Wandoo is arguably the best firewood in WA by raw performance. It is one of the densest local hardwoods, burns extremely hot and long, and produces relatively little ash. For pure cooking performance it is exceptional. The smoke is mild and clean.

The catch is availability. Wandoo is not as commonly sold as jarrah, but if you have access to a property in the wheatbelt or south-west with wandoo growing on it, the prunings and deadfall are worth collecting and seasoning. It is a genuine premium cooking wood.

Best for: Any application requiring sustained high heat, coal-based cooking

WA Sheoak (Allocasuarina)

Sheoak is not a true oak and is not related to the American oaks used in American BBQ, but as a cooking wood it shares some qualities. It burns hot and clean with a mild, slightly sweet smoke that works well with chicken and pork in particular. It is dense enough for sustained burns and is reasonably common across the south-west.

Best for: Chicken, pork, mild-flavoured cooks

Woods to Be Careful With

Eucalyptus (Most Species)

WA is home to over 700 eucalyptus species, and the advice is necessarily broad: most eucalyptus is usable as a cooking wood when properly seasoned, but many species have medicinal oil content that can transfer to food in noticeable and unpleasant ways, particularly if the wood is green or the smoke is thick.

The safest approach with any eucalyptus you have not cooked with before: burn it to coals first and cook over the coals rather than the active smoke. The coal phase of eucalyptus produces good heat and much less of the medicinal terpene smoke that causes problems.

Flooded Gum and River Red Gum

Both are used for cooking in other parts of Australia and produce reasonable results when seasoned. They are mentioned here because they appear in WA occasionally as salvaged timber. Treat them as you would any unfamiliar eucalyptus: season thoroughly, burn to coals before cooking.

Woods to Avoid in WA

Pine and other softwoods: Widely available as building waste and pallet timber, and completely unsuitable for cooking. High resin content produces toxic, bitter smoke. Do not use it.

Painted, treated, or stained timber: Any timber that has been treated with preservatives, painted, or stained will release toxic compounds when burned. This includes old fence posts, pallet timber with stamps or markings indicating treatment, and any timber from demolition sites unless you can confirm it is untreated. When in doubt, do not burn it over food.

Oleander: Growing widely as a garden shrub across Perth suburbs, oleander is toxic when burned. The smoke is dangerous. It should never go anywhere near a cooking fire.

Any wood you cannot identify: This is the simple rule. If you do not know what it is, do not cook over it. The risk is not worth it.

Grapevine: WA's Hidden Asset

For cooks in the Margaret River, Swan Valley, Great Southern and other WA wine regions, grapevine prunings are available each year in late winter and early spring. Dried grapevine produces a sweet, slightly winey smoke that is exceptional for short, direct-heat cooks. Steaks, lamb chops, seafood and vegetables all benefit from it.

If you have a contact at a winery or vineyard, it is worth asking about prunings. Most vineyards are happy to give them away. Dry them for 3 to 4 months and use as small pieces on an established charcoal base.

Where to Source Good Cooking Wood in WA

Specialty BBQ suppliers increasingly stock properly seasoned jarrah and other hardwoods in chunk form. For larger quantities, firewood merchants who supply the Perth metro area will often have jarrah or marri available, though quality and seasoning varies. If you are buying from a general firewood supplier, ask specifically for seasoned hardwood and check it yourself before you use it for cooking.

Salvaged timber from old houses and outbuildings, particularly from older Perth homes built with jarrah floors and frames, can be excellent cooking wood, provided it is not painted or treated. Old growth jarrah from pre-1950s construction is especially dense and burns beautifully.

The Short Version

Jarrah is your reliable WA standard. Wandoo is premium if you can find it. Season everything. Burn eucalyptus to coals before cooking over it. Avoid pine, treated timber, and anything you cannot identify. And if you are anywhere near the wine country in late winter, track down some grapevine prunings.

Cook with what grows here. It is better than importing it.