this paper, which addresses itself primarily to the issue of the sustainability of timber harvestin g in the region. Many conservationists claim that timber harvesting in rainforest is not sustainable. Certainly there are many examples from other countries where indisc riminate logging has occurred, often preceding clearing for agriculture or heading to serious land degradation. In contrast, timber harvesting operat ions in north Queensland have been closely supervised by trained Departmental staff and follow conservative silvicultural practices defined in tre emarking guidelines (Preston and Vanclay 1988) and in conditions which limit road and track constructi on for timber harvesting and extraction (Qld Dep. For. 1983). There is no evidence to suggest that such logging l eads to a loss of species. Research indicates that species may be lost from undisturbed rainforest and that there are strong indications that disturbance is necessary to maintain species richness (Nicholson e t al. 1988). Logging is as effective as natural dis turbance in maintaining this diversity. Previous sustained yield calculations for north Que ensland (Preston and Vanclay 1988) are obsolete due to changes in the area zoned for logging, alter ations to the logging guidelines, and improvements in modelling techniques. The present study makes no attempt to determine the sustainable yield for the whole region. Rather, a project area has been selected to demonstrate tha t selection logging is sustainable. The area select ed for this investigation includes hinterland tropical rainforest in the vicinity of Koombooloomba Dam, i n the headwaters of the Tully River (Figure 1). As th is study area lies within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, it is not clear whether the area wil l again be logged as pa...

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