“A traditionalist with a passion for the simple and joyous act of chopping wood with an axe”
Mitchell Hewitt considers tree felling to be the most entertaining but also the hardest chopping event. A fit, determined, quiet achiever, with a hidden competitive fire he performs his best under pressure and has competed with self-confidence and solidarity.
Coming from Caboolture, Mitchell is a 4th generation axeman. With a father (Kerry) who was a world champion tree feller, Mitchell grew up with an axe in his hands. His brother, and butchers block partner, Lindsay also had a successful international tree felling career. Mitchell was second to Matthew Gurr for six years before wresting the World Title from him in 2004.
Now married to a Canadian, Mitchell works as a lumberjack in British Columbia but comes back to Australia for competitions. He usually returns a month before the Sydney Royal Easter Show to overcome the disadvantage of coming out of a Canadian winter and to become “match ready” by chopping in a few lead-up shows.
Mitchell has been Australian, Australasian and World tree felling champion. He competes in the Stihl Timbersports™ competition for Canada, received the World Championship Best Axe Award (Lillehammer, Norway, 2012) and was Canadian Champion in 2017.