Pole Plot – Sherbrooke Forest.

The Sherbrooke Forest pole plot is at the southern end of Coles Ridge Track, between Belgrave and Kallista.

The study plot in wet forest was paired with another site in drier bush near Winton, on the old Hume Highway.

Both research plots are thought to have been established in the 1930s by Post Master General (PMG) Department to test the durability of different species of hardwood poles under field conditions.

Initially, each plot had 160 poles with different treatments including charring and creosote. Some poles were capped while others were not. Some wooden cross beams were also part of the trial.

Copper Chrome Arsenic (CCA) pressure treatment of pine poles was available in the 1930s but didn’t come to dominate the market until the 1970s when durable hardwood timbers became harder to get.

Over time many of the test poles rotted away and were not replaced but some still have PMG metal identification tags. Others just have numbers.

Somewhere in the Forests Commission’s files at the Kallista was a map and key to the research treatments.

It’s also thought that the CSIRO may have taken over monitoring of the plots at some later stage.

In the 1970s the scrub was regularly slashed by the Commission, but the site doesn’t look like it’s had any maintenance for many years and is being slowly reclaimed by the forest.

Info: John Llyod – FCV Ranger at Sherbrooke, 1968-1999.

Photos: Tom Fairman 2020