The Victorian Firewood Emergency. The 1940s were a busy and difficult time for the Victorian forestry profession. One of the pressing requirements placed on the Forests Commission during World War Two was to organise emergency supplies of firewood for civilian heating and cooking because of shortages in the supply of coal, briquettes, electricity and gas.Continue reading “Keep the home fires burning.”
Category Archives: Forests
Barmah Piles.
Most River Red Gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) are beautifully twisted and gnarled, but there are a number that are unusually tall and straight stems in the Barmah forest on the Murray River. They were often referred to as the Barmah Piles. They were sought out as “elite trees” for tree breeding purposes with the aim to grow straighterContinue reading “Barmah Piles.”
Otways Redwoods & The Balts.
The first batch of “Balts” destined for the Otway forests arrived in Colac on 8 April 1949, after having travelled by train from their processing centre at Bathurst in New South Wales. Others had been assigned to nation-building projects like the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Many of these post-war immigrants and refugees came from Lithuania, Latvia,Continue reading “Otways Redwoods & The Balts.”
Sussos.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to a worldwide economic collapse, which quickly spread to the Australian economy and signalled the beginning of the “Great Depression”. At its worst in 1932, unemployment in Australia reached 32 percent, but this figure did not include women who had lost their jobs or teenagers who had neverContinue reading “Sussos.”
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 