There are some possible liabilities when choosing paling fence timbers, and they’re not as obvious as you might think. Timber quality is a major issue:

• Basic boards may look good in the pictures online, but they’re nowhere near as good as high quality timber fencing. If you’re looking at pine fencing, you need top quality fencing, and that’s the whole story.
• These low grade timbers are notorious for warping, splitting, and deterioration. They’re basically useless in the Australian climate. They simply do not last, and really don’t deliver value.
• You can start off with a nice-looking fence and in a few years, have something that looks very much like those poor, dilapidated old fences you still see around Australia, with added maintenance issues. Low grade timbers weather very badly and don’t keep their appearance for long.
• Low grade timber is just not good enough, and it’s potentially far more expensive than it looks. These inferior quality paling fences cost more in maintenance, and ultimately in replacement, than top quality timbers.

Some Australian fencing contractors will even try to be polite when confronted with low quality fencing timbers. They’re just trying to be nice. In practice, they wouldn’t even consider using these alleged fencing timbers on a bet. They don’t use anything but the very reliable, long-lasting, Australian Standard timbers, and that’s all there is to it. You get what you paid for.