Category Archives: Forests

Driven by a deep philanthropic desire to provide employment for some of the more seriously maimed returned soldiers, several prominent Melbourne citizens, together with the support of Department of Repatriation, established the Tobacco Pipe Manufacturing company in Leicester Street Carlton in 1918. The factory needed to not only invent, but also build its own machinery,Continue reading “Disabled diggers.”

Pteridomania was the 19th century European craze for ferns and an obsession for collecting the rare and beautiful, just as Tulipomania had been two centuries before. “Fern Madness” was coined by Charles Kingsley in his work Glaucus, or, The Wonders of the Shore in 1859. It was in full swing in Britain from 1850 toContinue reading “Pteridomania.”

The famous Vienna Mozart Boys Choir found themselves stranded in Australia on the final leg of their global tour. Australia declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, the day after their final concert in Perth Town Hall, so the choristers suddenly found themselves no longer celebrities but, in effect, Australia’s youngest aliens. On theContinue reading “The Vienna Boys Choir.”

One of the pressing requirements placed on the Forests Commission during World War Two was to organise emergency supplies of firewood for heating and cooking because of shortages of coal, briquettes, electricity and gas. Employing Prisoners of War was one part of the solution The Forests Commission had first occupied a 14-acre site at Graytown,Continue reading “Graytown POW Camp.”

One of the men at V12 Camp No.2 was Karl Muffler. He was born in Germany and as a teenager chose to pursue a career as a pastry cook. Karl migrated to Australia in 1930 and worked in Melbourne at Ikinger’s cake shop in Brunswick. He then established his own business, the Embassy, which operatedContinue reading “Karl Muffler.”

There were at least 17 bush camps operated by the Forests Commission which held smaller groups of CAC workers. Over the period of the war its estimated that about 700 men cut firewood and produced charcoal to help ease Victoria’s energy shortage. Probably the best-known camps used by the Forests Commission during “Emergency Firewood Project”Continue reading “Mt Disappointment – Emergency Firewood Camps.”

On 1 September 1939 war broke out across Europe, which was followed by the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini’s declaration of war on the 10 June 1940. Then on 7 December 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy bombed Pearl Harbour,  starting war in the Pacific. With the renewed conflict, combined with the terrible memories of the previousContinue reading “Enemy Aliens, Internees and POWs.”

The name A.D. Hardy often appears in connection with big trees in Victoria. During the period 1918 – 1940 he published several articles in “The Gum Tree” and the “Victorian Naturalist”. He appears to have been very thorough preparing his articles. He traversed access tracks and thick bush by chain and compass to locate theContinue reading “Alfred Douglas Hardy.”

This massive tree was named after King Edward V11 (1841 – 1910). It was in the Cumberland Valley on the south side of the Marysville-Cumberland Track near the Cora Lyn Falls. Its girth at ground level was 112 feet. At a height of 6 feet above ground it was 88 feet. It then tapered toContinue reading “King Edward VII.”

Foresters, naturalists and the public have always remained fascinated by Victoria’s tall trees and magnificent wet forests. But by the late 1800s, most of the giant trees reported by Government Botanist Baron von Mueller, and many others, were being rapidly lost to bushfires, timber splitters and land clearing. The magnificent stands of mountain ash at theContinue reading “Cumberland Reserve Dispute.”

In preparation for the visit of the British Empire Forestry Conference in 1928, the Forests Commission cleared an acre of dense undergrowth from a stand of tall mountain ash forest in the Cumberland Valley east of Marysville, which it then suitably labelled the “Sample Acre”. FCV tree expert Alfred Douglas Hardy wrote in March 1935Continue reading “Sample Acre – Cumberland Valley.”

The east branch of the Plenty River, Silver Creek and Wallaby Creek catchments were permanently reserved for water supply purposes in 1872. Together with the 5,700-acre Yan Yean, which was completed in 1857, the catchments were part of the first system of reservoirs and aqueducts suppling water to Melbourne. The Toorourrong Reservoir was added inContinue reading “Wallaby Creek Catchment – The Cascades.”

Water-borne diseases were killers in all major cities throughout the nineteenth century. There was shocking news about the outbreak of cholera in Britain in the late 1840s. Such diseases were caused by a lack of clean drinking water, together with unhygienic wastewater and sewage disposal. Melbourne grew rapidly after the 1851 gold rush and theContinue reading “Melbourne’s Closed Water Catchments.”

By the time of the formation of an independent Forests Commission in 1918, the area of Victoria’s Reserved forest estate had stabilised at about 4 million acres. All forest experts and enquiries said this figure was far too low for Victoria’s future timber needs and it was claimed that a minimum of 5.6 million acresContinue reading “Soldier Settlement Schemes.”

“One of the grandest public estates in the Colony”. Conservator George Perrin – 1894. The European settlement of the Red Gum forests along the Murray River, like many other places, followed the initial routes of early explorers such as Hume and Hovell, Charles Sturt and Major Mitchell. Despite attempts by the NSW Governor to restrictContinue reading “Barmah Forest Timber Reserve.”

A large chunk of the Otways State forest between Apollo Bay and Hordern Vale was the focus of a bitter dispute in the early 1920s. It was only saved from clearing and sale for agriculture by the determined efforts of foresters, sawmillers, the media and the community. The land is now part of the GreatContinue reading “Trouble in the Otways.”

Charles Edward Lane-Poole was born in England in 1885 into an intellectual and widely travelled family. He began studying engineering in Dublin but lost his left hand in a shooting accident when he was 19, and felt he could not continue as an engineer so turned to study forestry at the prestigious National Forestry SchoolContinue reading “Charles Lane-Poole.”

Following Federation in 1901, the States retained control of forests within their borders. But within a decade, the heads of the various State forestry authorities were expressing interest in developing national policies and were given political approval and encouragement to meet and discuss them. The first of what were to become regular interstate forestry conferencesContinue reading “Towards a national forest policy.”