Butter Boxes.
Warrnambool in southwest Victoria has a strong dairy industry that once boasted two factories making thousands of wooden butter boxes. The first factory was opened in 1896 near the railway station by Welsh immigrant Henry McGennan. The second factory owned by the Western District Co-Operative Box Company, came a few years later in 1912, on…
Sleepers
The figures for railway sleepers produced from State forests are simply astounding. More than 26 million were cut between 1919 and 1986, primarily from the red gum forests along the Murray, the yellow stringybark forests of Mullundung near Yarram and greybox from East Gippsland. Sleeper cutting began around Orbost in the 1920s and there are…
Footy and Rabbits.
For many years, the number of students at the Victorian School of Forestry (VSF) at Creswick was too small to field its own competitive football team. In 1942 there were only about 17 students, but in 1944 the annual intake increased, with the result that by 1946 the number in residence had more than doubled…
South Cascade Bridge.
In the wake of the 1939 bushfires, a major log salvage program was undertaken by the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) across the Central Highlands. Logs salvaged from the Thomson Valley and destined for sawmills at Erica travelled on a complex network of timber tramways. Before the fires, the well-established Ezards company already operated several sawmills…
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Peter McHugh
Retiring in 2016 after nearly 40 years as a field forester and firefighter in Victoria I now find time to write about the forests and their rich history..
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The 1982-83 Victorian Bushfire Season.
Including Ash Wednesday – 16 February 1983.
A forester’s perspective – Peter McHugh (2022).
Forests and Bushfire History of Victoria: A compilation of short stories. Series 3.
Peter McHugh (2022).
Forests and Bushfire History of Victoria: A compilation of short stories. Series 2.
Peter McHugh (2021).
Forests and Bushfire History of Victoria: A compilation of short stories. Series 1.
Peter McHugh (2020)
Forest Faces : Mysterious carved wooden faces of Gippsland’s forests and roadsides.
Peter McHugh (2021)
1965 Gippsland Bushfires : A reconstruction of events from February to March 1965
Peter McHugh (2020)
Copyright © Peter McHugh – 2022. All rights reserved.
This blog draws a selection of my original stories from a parrallel FaceBook Page.
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 