Hempcrete, hemp blocks, panels and boards are starting to be made at scale in Australia. What the material is, how it compares with brick veneer, and whether it has a real place in the future of Australian housing.
Walk through most new housing estates in Australia and the walls follow the same recipe. A timber or steel frame, insulation in the cavity, plasterboard inside and a skin of brick outside. Research on Victorian building permits from 1996 to 2019 found brick veneer over a slab on ground was the dominant form of house construction.
Hemp is one of a growing number of materials positioned as an alternative. What has changed in the past year is where it is being made. Hemp building products are moving out of small specialist projects and into Australian factories.
So what is it, how does it perform, and could it really replace brick?
Hemp building materials come in four main forms
Hemp is a fast growing crop. Its stalk is split into the woody core, known as hurd, and the outer bast fibre. Both can become building materials, and four product types are now on the Australian market or close to it.
| Product | How it is used | Australian examples | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loose hurd and lime binder | Mixed on site and cast into formwork around a frame | Australian Hemp Masonry, X-Hemp (Tas), SouthFibre hurd | Established, project by project |
| Hempcrete blocks | Laid in walls in a similar way to masonry | Hemp Block Australia; Murray Industrial Hemp (planned) | Available; local block plant funded |
| Prefabricated hemp lime panels | Factory made wall, floor and roof cassettes | Living Canvas | Facility being established |
| Hemp composite boards | Sheet material for linings, joinery and panels | HulkBuild | In production |
Hempcrete, hemp board and hemp batts are three different things
Hempcrete is hemp hurd mixed with a lime based binder and water. It is used as an insulating wall material, cast in place, made into blocks or set into prefabricated panels.
Hemp board is a composite sheet made from hemp fibre and hurd, used much like other sheet materials.
Hemp batts are insulation made from hemp bast fibre. In Australia they are currently imported.
Australian Hemp Masonry, one of the longest running suppliers, says it has supplied materials to more than 280 residential projects across multiple climate zones, mostly through specialist builders and owner builders.
Insulation is the notable gap. A 2024 study by University of Melbourne researchers found that no natural fibre insulation panels were being manufactured in Australia and that all hemp insulation sold here was imported from Europe and North America. We found no local hemp batt manufacturer announced since.
Hempcrete works as a whole wall system, not a like for like brick
Hempcrete is light and soft compared with masonry. University of Technology Sydney researchers testing Australian hempcrete measured a compressive strength of about 0.15 MPa for wall mixes and concluded it is unlikely to be used without a load bearing frame.
That sounds like a weakness until you look at how a brick veneer house works. There the frame carries the load too, and the brick is a weather skin. A hempcrete wall is cast around the frame and finished with lime render, so one material does the job of the cladding, the cavity, the insulation and often the internal lining.
Hempcrete does not replace the brick. It replaces the wall.
Hempcrete does not replace the brick. It replaces the wall. The University of Tasmania, for example, chose it for its Forestry building in Hobart in place of plasterboard for internal walls, and describes the project as the largest commercial use of hempcrete in Australia.
On thermal performance, the same UTS testing measured conductivity of 0.137 to 0.284 W/mK across the mixes. On those figures, our calculation puts a 300 mm hempcrete wall at roughly R1.1 to R2.2 for the material alone, before render and air films. Its case rests as much on thermal mass and moisture buffering as on R value. The researchers also recorded strong sound absorption, with a coefficient around 0.90 at about 700 Hz for wall mixes.
The carbon case can be measured
The clearest Australian comparison comes from a 2025 study by researchers from Western Sydney University and the University of Melbourne, which assessed the external walls of a hempcrete house at Narara Ecovillage on the NSW Central Coast.
Over the full life cycle, the hempcrete walls came in at 49.57 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, against 61.81 tonnes for brick veneer on a timber frame. That is about 20 per cent lower. The totals credit the carbon the hemp absorbs as it grows and as the lime cures.
The detail that matters for industry is where the emissions came from. Transporting materials was the largest single source, at 51.04 tonnes. The authors note the result comes from one house, and that the hemp carbon figures rely on UK field data because there are no peer reviewed Australian field studies yet. Their suggested fixes are local cultivation, cleaner transport and prefabrication.
Manufacturing is moving into Australian factories
That is exactly where the new investment is going. Hemp stalks have to be decorticated, separated into hurd, fibre and fine dust, before they are useful on site, and processing has long been the step in short supply.
SouthFibre says its Central Victorian processing line commissions in September 2026, producing hurd, fibre and fines. The company lists hempcrete among its end uses, with bulk supply from September and packaged products from the first quarter of 2027. It says it is recruiting contract growers in Victoria, NSW and South Australia, supplying seed, agronomy and a buyer while farmers supply the land.
In June, the NSW Government named Murray Industrial Hemp at Barham as a $10 million recipient under the Sustainable Communities Program for a processing and manufacturing facility producing low carbon hempcrete blocks. The same round gave $10 million to Ausuntech near Carrathool for a plant focused on linen quality textile fibre.
Living Canvas, based at Toormina near Coffs Harbour, was awarded $2 million in NSW Government funding, announced in late July, for a hemp processing and prefabricated panel facility. Its product is a structural insulated panel made from hemp hurd and a lime binder, supplied as wall, floor and roof cassettes. That puts it squarely in panelised construction territory rather than traditional hemp masonry.
In Townsville, Wandarra’s subsidiary HulkBuild makes composite boards from Australian grown hemp at a facility in the Bohle industrial estate that the group leased late last year. The boards are CNC cut to standard sheet sizes and marketed for construction, cabinetry, interiors and architectural panels. Wandarra has also outlined a longer term vision for cyclone, fire and termite resistant small homes.
What stands out across these businesses is how much of the chain each is taking on. SouthFibre supplies seed and agronomy to its contract growers as well as processing. Wandarra’s group covers growing and harvesting alongside manufacturing through HulkBuild. Murray Industrial Hemp plans processing and block making together at Barham. That integration is how a young industry builds reliable supply.
What stands between hemp and the mainstream
Approval. Tweed Shire Council’s guidance notes that some alternative materials are not specified in the National Construction Code and need a performance solution report, including within the bushfire assessment on bushfire prone land. That is the compliance pathway most hemp builds follow, and product testing for it can run to tens of thousands of dollars per test, building designer Dick Clarke told the 2024 Australian Industrial Hemp Conference.
Skills. Training is run by suppliers. Australian Hemp Masonry delivers online theory and practical workshops, with CPD points available, and X-Hemp runs workshops at its Cressy site in Tasmania. We did not find hempcrete installation in a nationally accredited trade qualification.
Climate and detailing. The Narara study authors note that careful detailing may be needed in high rainfall and cyclonic regions to ensure durability. Hemp lime is also kept out of below ground use.
Cost. We could not find a current, independent benchmark for the installed cost of a hempcrete wall. Suppliers and installers quote per project.
Crop. NSW, the largest hemp state, approved 19,306 hectares for harvest in 2024/25, but licence holders reported 1,088 hectares of actual crop production, according to its Hemp Industry Development Plan. Contract growing arrangements like SouthFibre’s are designed to lift that. Victoria has also proposed standalone industrial hemp legislation to move hemp out from under its drugs and poisons law.
Could hemp replace bricks?
Not as a straight swap, and not soon. Brick veneer is standardised, deemed to satisfy under the NCC, priced into every project home and backed by a large trained workforce. Hemp is a different way of building a wall, and it still goes through a performance solution on most jobs.
A more likely path is steady growth in the parts of the market where its strengths count. That means homes chasing low embodied carbon and high comfort, retrofits, bushfire and acoustic applications backed by testing, and above all prefabrication. Factory made hemp panels and blocks take the wet work and drying time off site, and they are where the new manufacturing is concentrated.
The Good Builder Take
The future of the Australian house is unlikely to be one material replacing another. It is more likely to be a wider menu of systems, with builders choosing the wall that suits the client, the climate and the budget.
Hemp has earned a place on that menu. It has measurable carbon benefits, real thermal and acoustic qualities, and for the first time a local manufacturing base. Its growth will depend on tested products, trained crews and a reliable crop.
Brick is not going anywhere soon. But the conversation about lower carbon construction methods is widening, and hemp is now part of it, grown and made in Australia.
If you have built with hemp or installed it as a trade, we want to hear how it went. Get in touch with our team, and follow The Good Builder for more on how Australian building materials are changing.
Frequently asked questions
Not as a like for like swap. Hempcrete is not load bearing and is cast around a structural frame. It replaces several layers of a conventional wall at once, including cladding, cavity insulation and often internal lining, so it competes with the whole wall system rather than the brick alone.
No. University of Technology Sydney testing of Australian hempcrete wall mixes measured compressive strength of about 0.15 MPa, and the researchers concluded it is unlikely to be used without a load bearing frame. Some hemp block systems are promoted for load bearing use, so builders check the specific product’s engineering.
An Australian life cycle study of a house at Narara Ecovillage found hempcrete external walls produced about 20 per cent lower embodied emissions than brick veneer over the full life cycle. Transport of materials was the largest emissions source, and the result comes from a single house.
Hempcrete is generally treated as an alternative material. Compliance is usually shown through a performance solution prepared by a qualified consultant and accepted by the building surveyor or certifier, including within the bushfire assessment on bushfire prone land.
Not as far as we could find. A 2024 University of Melbourne study found that all hemp insulation sold in Australia was imported, and that no natural fibre insulation panels were manufactured locally.
Related articles
- Australia’s prefab construction market: from fringe to foundation
- Metricon built two prefabricated homes in twenty working days
- NCC 2025 preview and modernisation agenda
Last updated: 12 November 2026. Company timelines, grant status and product availability in this article reflect information published by the organisations named at that date.
General information only. This article is general information and does not take into account your particular circumstances. It is not legal, financial, technical or compliance advice. Product performance claims are those of the manufacturers named. Seek advice from a qualified building surveyor, certifier, engineer or other professional before relying on any material or method described.
0 Comments