The 1st of September marks the official beginning of spring in the southern hemisphere, and wattles are starting to flower in the bush and in gardens around the country.
Wattles feature prominently in Australian ceremonies, literature, poetry, art and song from the 1830s to the early 1900s.
Noted naturalist Archibald James Campbell established the Victorian Wattle Club in 1899 and organised excursions each spring in search of wattle.
Later in 1908, Campbell made an impassioned speech promoting wattle as our national floral emblem and momentum grew.
The first celebrations of Wattle Day occurred in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in 1910 and in Western Australia and Queensland in 1912.
By January 1913, the Commonwealth Coat of Arms was gazetted, with wattle featuring prominently in the design together with the iconic kangaroo and emu.
And black wattle was included as an element in the Victorian School of Forestry emblem in 1916.
In the early days after Federation in 1901, arbor days, along with bird and wattle days, became popular in Australian schools.
The rise of nationalism that began with Federation continued into the First World War, reinforced sentiment for home and country through images of wattle.
Wattle was a poignant reminder on postcards and letters sent to the Diggers in the trenches.
But the push for a national wattle day petered out after the war ended in 1918 and remained more-or-less dormant throughout the rest of the mid-twentieth century.
However, there was a resurgence of national pride in 1975 when the golden wattle featured in the new Order of Australia medals which replaced the old British Imperial awards.
Green and Gold were adopted as our national colours in 1984 and have been worn proudly by Olympic teams ever since.
During the 1988 Bicentenary celebrations, golden wattle was officially gazetted as Australia’s national floral emblem.
There had been a confusion of dates used beforehand, as each state tried to coincide with local flowering patterns, but finally National Wattle Day was officially declared as the 1st of September by the Australian Governor General in 1992.
But despite all this, a national day of celebration for our magnificent wattles has never really taken hold…
The blame-game and climate conspiracies immediately run hot in the press and social media whenever there are major bushfires, floods, storms or other natural catastrophes. Some of the language is toxic.
Many commentators quickly find an expert opinion, a slogan, a website, an article in the newspaper, or quote the “settled science“ pointing to the impending crisis… or not…
But it seems to me that the answers are rarely as straightforward and one dimensional as many would hope… or claim. Climate Change often being the most convenient and simplistic explanation for just about every natural disaster.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m not a climate change denier… but, like lots of people, I’ve become a bit sceptical and desensitised to the daily deluge of doomsday prophecies.
And there is so much material out there too, some of it is very confusing, some seems very biased and selective, often with a predetermined outcome, depending on your point of view. I readily admit I’m not an expert either.
However, this document published in 2019 by Sarah Harris from the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and Chris Lucas from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) seems very balanced and makes some important points.
In Summary.
The researchers looked at the weather data from 39 BOM stations across Australia from 1973 to 2017 – admittedly only 44 years – but which, by pure coincidence, neatly straddles my career as a Victorian forest firefighter.
For the Victorian region, the BOM sites included Sale, Mildura, Laverton, Mt Gambier, Launceston and Melbourne Airport.
They then examined seasonal variations in the MacArthur Forest Fire Danger Indices (FFDI), which are a function of the drought index, rainfall, temperature, relative humidity and wind.
The authors also examined the relationship of FFDI with El Niño, the Southern Annual Mode (SAM) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
It’s a bit of a slog to read but the main study findings were:
There is a lot of variation (noise) in the data.
The trend of FFDI over the 44 years is slightly upwards.
In Victoria, fire activity (i.e. annual number of fires and total area burned) is strongly correlated to the annual accumulated FFDI.
For Victoria, the number of days with an FFDI over 25 has increased by nearly 50%.
For most of Australia, particularly the eastern seaboard, fire weather is strongly influenced by El Niño.
But there are variations to this general rule. For NSW, particularly the central coast, a negative SAM is a big influence. Spring conditions are the key.
For Victoria and Tasmania, the impact on FFDI is increased with a positive Indian Ocean Dipole.
Importantly, the authors propose, but do not conclude, that climate change may be the primary driver of higher mean temperatures and a shift in large scale rainfall patterns.
S. Harris, G. Millsa, and T. Brown (2019). Victorian fire weather trends and variability. International Congress on Modelling and Simulation, Canberra https://mssanz.org.au/modsim2019/H7/harris.pdf
Cumulative trend in FFDI from 39 BOM stations across Australia from 1973 and 2017 – 44 years. Source: Sarah Harris & Chris Lucas (2019). Understanding the variability of Australian fire weather between 1973 and 2017. PLoS ONE 14(9): e0222328. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222328
These photos were taken during a family outing in April 1977 and show Gregor Wallace, his son Neil on the trig station and daughter Kerryn. His wife Norma took the photo.
The old wooden tower (37°33’25.9″S 144°21’37.6″E) had a great view over to the Brisbane Ranges and the plains towards Melbourne, and over much of the Wombat State Forest. The lookout man lived in Blackwood.
It was replaced with the current metal tower in about 1980.
Sulky – 1961.
These photos were taken in February 1961 and the figure on the ladder is Bruce Ross, Norma’s brother. Jack New is behind the binoculars inside the cabin.
Gregor’s camera then was a very basic 35mm Braun Paxette.
The site was on the highest point on the road between Creswick and Ballarat (37°27’13.6″S 143°52’18.3″E).
The metal tower was erected in about 1930 and is long gone but it had a good view over the young pine plantations of the time, which were bordered on their west and north by the railway line to Mildura and frequent steam engine passes.
Sulky is one of the few lookouts actually on the Great Dividing Range. Mt. Skene being another one.
North America adopted a strident fire suppression and exclusion policy on its National Forests after the Great Fire of 1910, also known as the “Big Burn”. The firestorm razed over three million acres, obliterated several townships and killed 87 people, mostly firefighters. The fire shaped and cemented the US Forest Service for many decades to come.
But in the late 1960s and 1970s the US Forest Service and National Parks Service developed a “Let Burn Policy” as a major shift away from total fire suppression, recognising fire as an essential ecological process.
The policy allowed natural, lightning-caused fires to burn under controlled conditions in wilderness areas for ecological purpose and to reduce fuel buildup.
But major fires in Yellowstone National Park in 1988, which became uncontrollable and deadly, forced a serious rethink.
Some people occasionally suggest that a similar let burn policy should be implemented for lightning strikes in remote State forests and National Parks of Victoria.
But letting fires burn freely in the flammable Australian bush during the hot summer months and then waiting until they break out onto private land before attempting to suppress them presents an unacceptable risk to a modern built-up society living along the interface with roads, fences, farms, livestock, houses and permanent settlements, as well as forest visitors.
Victoria’s Code of Fire Practice has provisions to deliberately let bushfires burn and just be monitored. It generally only occurs late in the fire season and when there are minimal risks, but there is a huge amount of paperwork to get approval.
But if it goes wrong and escapes, the community, armchair experts, politicians and the media are quick to criticise and are very unforgiving.
North America adopted a strident fire suppression and exclusion policy on its National Forests after the Great Fire of 1910, also known as the “Big Burn”. The firestorm razed over three million acres, obliterated several townships and killed 87 people, mostly firefighters. The fire shaped and cemented the US. Forest Service, which at the time was only a fledgling organisation.
Victoria followed a similar pathway after the disastrous 1939 bushfires and the Stretton Royal Commission.
Furthermore, by the turn of the century, European settlement and western expansion had severely disrupted traditional native American land management, hunting and burning. Like Australian Aboriginal people –
they burnt lightly and burnt often.
But the forests of western North America are now markedly different.
During the 1930s, the US Forest Service visited more than 800 fire lookouts across the Pacific Northwest to capture sweeping photographs of the landscape.
At each site, three 120-degree black-and-white images were taken using unique panoramic cameras designed by a forestry graduate from Yale, William Bushnell Osborne Jr, who worked at the Mt Hood National Forest between 1909 and 1953. He also invented the famous Osborne fire finder and a collapsible fire knapsack.
The Osbourne cameras were manufactured by Leupold-Volpel & Company in Portland Oregon and only about ten of the awkward and heavy (75 lbs – 34 kg) instruments were ever made.
The cleverly designed cameras had curved rails inside the film chamber to maintain a constant distance from the lens to the film surface to minimise distortion. A wind-up clock motor rotated the lens during each “transit” to take a sweeping 120-degree photo.
At the height of the project in 1934, six photographers – mostly forestry students from the University of Washington, or Oregon State College – were employed.
The three interlocking photos taken with the Osborne camera faced different directions and were taken at staggered intervals throughout the day to take advantage of the light and avoid shadows. The south-west view was taken at 9 am, the north view around noon, and the final south-east view at 3 pm. (remember, this is the northern hemisphere).
Many of the images were taken using infrared film to reduce the effect of atmospheric haze. A compass bearing was directly recorded onto the top of each photo.
The large (14-1/4 inch by 5-1/2 inch) contact prints were later “stitched together” to create a full circle panorama.
Reference copies of the photos were held in the US Forest Service regional office in Portland to help identify landmarks when smoke sightings were reported from lookouts, and then to despatch firefighters.
As far as I’m aware, there are no similar panoramic images taken from Australian fire lookouts, which is a pity.
Fire Ecology – “The Power of the Patch”.
The amazing collection of about 3000 images is called the Osborne Panoramas, and nearly a century later they are helping US foresters understand the impacts of modern fire management practices.
US Forest Service ecologist, Professor Paul Hessburg, arranged for a professional photographer, John Marshall, to visit and rephotograph as many lookout sites as possible in a project that took many years.
The paired photos tell an amazing story.
The forests of the Pacific Northwest had traditionally experienced regular low-intensity fires. They may have started by lightning or were deliberately lit by native Americans.
These forests once had a grassy and open understory which carried the fires and cleaned out the undergrowth of shrubs and saplings, leaving only the big, thick-barked old trees standing.
The forests were also once part of a broader mix of conifers, deciduous woodlands, open meadows and wetlands in a patchy broth of diverse habitats.
The “cross-talk” between the patches of burnt and unburnt forests, of different structures and ages, sizes and species, in combination with fuels, weather, topography and frequent low intensity fire, created an incredibly complex ecological mosaic.
And furthermore, it was this patchiness that provided some inherent protection from large mega-fires that the US now commonly experiences.
Hessburg convincingly argues that because of the absence of frequent low-intensity fires, together with the removal of larger trees through logging over the last century, the forests have now become overgrown, uniform aged and dominated by younger trees and understory shrubs. They also have tonnes of woody debris on the forest floor which presents an increased risk of dangerous mega-fires.
The debates about the future of forests and fire management, and how to protect communities, are strongly echoed here in Australia.
So why not do yourself a favour and watch this fascinating 14-minute Ted Talk by Paul Hessburg about “the power of the patch” and make up your own mind.
Paul Hessburg (2017). Why wildfires have gotten worse — and what we can do about it.
Mission Peak. The 1930’s view of low to middle elevation forests in north-central Washington’s Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest shows a relatively open, park-like landscape. But in the more recent image photo the trees are more densely packed. The meadows shrinking and the spaces between groves of trees filling in. https://www.wildlandnw.net/mission-peak
Bethel Ridge. To the left is Rimrock lake, and Mt. Adams. The Goat Rocks are to the right of Adams. Mt. Ranier is on the right skyline. https://www.wildlandnw.net/bethel-ridge
All forests change over time, but the changes can be slow and not immediately apparent, unless there is a major disturbance like a windstorm or a very hot bushfire.
These photos of Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) are from the Bitterroot Mountains in Western Montana. They were taken by the US Forest Service and follow the subtle changes to the structure of the forests from 1897 through to 2015. (AKA – Forest Succession).
Before European settlement of the Pacific Northwest, the forests had repeatedly experienced low-intensity fires which burned, on average, every seven years.
The fires may have started by lightning or were deliberately lit by native Americans who burned a lot.
The frequent burning created a complex mosaic of open forest with a grassy understory that carried low-intensity ground fires which cleaned out the dead wood on the forest floor as well as the undergrowth of shrubs and saplings, removing the elevated ladder fuels and leaving only the big, thick-barked trees standing.
Because of the historic fire regime, these ponderosa pine forests were once dominated by scattered old trees with about 50 large stems per acre, but with patches of younger trees in the bigger gaps.
This sequence of amazing photos was taken from a fixed vantage point and clearly illustrates the loss of openness and thickening of the understory.
Also, in the absence of fire to clear out the undergrowth, Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) which is an evergreen conifer, has begun moving onto these sites and threatening the once pure stands of Ponderosa Pine. In wildfire conditions the thick regrowth of Douglas Fir forms very flammable ladder fuels.
US Forest Service ecologist, Professor Paul Hessburg convincingly argues that because of the absence of frequent low-intensity fires, together with the removal of larger trees through selective logging over the last century, the forests have now become overgrown, uniform aged and dominated by younger trees and understory shrubs.
They also now have tonnes of woody debris on the forest floor which presents an increased risk of dangerous mega-fires.
And furthermore, Hessburg says it was the previous openness and patchiness that broke up the continuous fuels and provided some inherent protection from the large fires that the US now commonly experiences.
The debates about the future of native eucalypt forests, fire management and low intensity burning, and how to protect communities, are strongly echoed in Australia.
I’m not aware of any long-term photo study plots in Victorian native forests but I sense the changes would be similar.
1897. A virgin stand of Pinus Ponderosa. Note the openness with lack of small saplings and woody debris on the forest floor.
1909 after some timber harvesting
1938 – 29 years after the1909 picture was taken. Young pine growth is beginning to occupy localised sites in understory
1958 – 49 years after the 1909 picture was taken. Large pine behind centre stump can be seen from a tree felled in 1940s. A shelterwood cut in 1952 removed several other merchantable trees and left slash on the ground.
1979 – 70 years after the 1909 picture was taken. A 1962 selection was cut, and 1966 precommercial thinning decreased stem densities, but rapid establishment and growth of new conifer cohort has filled in the open structure.
1997– 88 years after the 1909 picture was taken. Douglas-fir regeneration that was established by the last photograph has rapidly developed.
2015 – 106 years after the 1909 picture was taken. Stumps from 1909 are still evident after more than a century. Although large ponderosa pine trees are still present in the overstory, Douglas-fir is dominating the midstory and understory. The openness is gone and there is now a dangerous vertical arrangement of fuel.
Desmond (Des) John Collins had never really travelled far from Daylesford until he was conscripted into National Service in September 1965.
Sent to nearby Puckapunyal, Des completed his basic recruit training before being posted as Trooper (3787452) to the newly formed 1st Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron (1 APC Sqn).
Des trained as a driver of an M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), and in May 1966 sailed on the HMAS Sydney to South Vietnam to join the 1st Australian Task Force at Nui Dat.
Upon its arrival, the first tasks for the APC squadron were to secure the new base by erecting defences and keeping the road between Vung Tau, on the coast, and Saigon open.
Because there were so few APCs at Nui Dat, the squadron was constantly busy supporting infantry, fire support, reconnaissance, cavalry roles, offensive manoeuvres against enemy positions, troop transport, moving equipment, towing artillery guns and casualty evacuation.
The squadron’s most notable battle was on 18 August 1966 to transport soldiers from A Company to relieve 108 soldiers of D Company holding out against overwhelming odds of about 2500 Vietcong, in the pouring rain, in a rubber plantation at Long Tan.
The day was supposed to be relaxing for the troops at Nui Dat with a concert by entertainers Little Pattie and Col Joye.
An artillery barrage began around mid-day on enemy positions 2.5 km away while RAAF helicopters flew over the beleaguered solders of D Company to resupply them with ammunition.
The rain became very heavy as Des Collins rumbled his APC out through the wire surrounding the base around 6 pm. It was a typical tropical downpour, but it muffled the noise of the engines and squeaking of the tracks which confused and surprised the Vietcong.
On arrival on the battlefield across the soggy rice paddies and flooded creeks, the APCs fanned out to make a sweep through enemy lines where they inflicted heavy casualties, before the Vietcong broke off and melted back into the jungle.
The battle ended and the monsoonal storm abated, as suddenly as both began. Under cover of darkness, the Australian units withdrew and regrouped while the dead and wounded were evacuated by helicopters. Soldiers spent a restless night as artillery and air strikes continued to pound the battle site and likely enemy withdrawal routes.
The next morning, a combined force of infantry and armoured personnel carriers went back into the battlefield to conduct a thorough clearance.
The Australians lost 18 men killed and 24 wounded. One of those killed was from 1st APC Sqn, and for their actions, three men from the squadron received gallantry awards.
After spending 12 months overseas in Vietnam, Des was honourably discharged in September 1967 and returned home to Daylesford and got married.
Around 1969, Des got a job on the crew with the Forests Commission at Daylesford, a job he loved.
One of his good friends was Alan Lynch, who also worked for the Commission on the crew, and they often walked to work together.
Both Alan and Des had many practical bush skills including roadbuilding, firefighting and driving heavy machinery.
Tragically, both Des and Alan were killed in a bushfire at Greendale on Saturday 8 January 1983 when their machine was overrun by fire.
But their deaths were somewhat overshadowed by the major Ash Wednesday bushfires of 16 February 1983 only a few weeks later.
We will remember them..
Image: Trooper Desmond John Collins, 1st Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron (in beret, looking at camera) looks on as a member of 6RAR inspects a 57mm recoilless rifle captured during the Battle of Long Tan, on display at Dat Do. Source: AWM
Group portrait of a mixture of 2, 3, and 4 Troop, 1st Armoured Personnel Squadron, en route to picking up 6 Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR), taken three weeks before the battle of Long Tan. Des Collins circled.
Providing timber for housing and domestic use from the State’s native forests, together with expanding softwood plantations to support Victoria’s rapidly expanding population, had long been a stated goal for the Forests Commission.
There had also been a very clear directive to the Commission from the State Government to meet Victoria’s timber needs and to expand the State’s rural prosperity.
While there was a local sawmilling industry from the 1850s, Victoria relied heavily on imported timber until about 1900.
There was also an imperative to restore some of the damage done to the State’s forests caused by the indiscriminate cutting during the gold rush, and the mad scramble for land settlement that followed in the late 1800s.
There were loud calls, particularly after shortages experienced during World War One, to increase timber production from the State’s native forests to reduce the dependence on imports.
The timber supply shock was no doubt a factor in the State Government creating the Forests Commission as an independent entity immediately after the War in 1918.
Experimental seasoning workshops and kilns had been established by the Department in 1911 to investigate the properties of local hardwood timbers and to develop a sawmilling industry.
The State Seasoning Works at Newport demonstrated the potential uses of Victorian hardwoods and this pioneering work done in partnership with the CSIRO bore fruit. By 1931 it was estimated that 80% of the flooring laid down in Melbourne was kiln-dried mountain ash cut from the State’s forests.
The research work at Newport and by Dr Herbert Eric Dadswell and his colleagues at the CSIRO from 1929 until 1964 expanded the understanding and uses of native timbers.
Experimental softwood plantations had been established at Frankston and Harcourt in 1909. The largest plot was some 2,500 acres at the McLeod Prison farm on French Island in 1917, but the major softwood expansion wasn’t until the early 1960s.
Victoria’s native forests continued to provide sawn timber, heavy construction timbers, railway sleepers, power and telephone poles, fencing materials, firewood and pulpwood for papermaking.
Timber for Homes.
The rate of house construction between 1920 and 1939 was relatively steady, except for the period of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Green scantling timber was used for wall and roof framing and sub-flooring. Dried and dressed hardwoods, particularly messmate and mountain ash, were used for internal flooring, door and window frames and architraves.
Softwood weatherboards were imported from the Baltic States for external cladding, while old-growth Oregon was imported from North America for large structural timbers. Asbestos cement sheet was also widely used.
With the outbreak of World War Two, the Commission’s efforts were directed towards salvaging the mountain forests burnt across the Central Highlands in 1939 and supporting the War effort.
Sawn timber production for domestic housing increased rapidly in the five years after the War, and then more than doubled by 1955, during the post-war housing boom.
From the mid-1950s the volume of sawn timber remained relatively stable, even though the number of new houses constructed each year increased steadily by an average of about 900 per year, from 20,700 in 1956, to 38,100 in 1976.
The increasing demand for housing during this period was coupled with a trend towards larger homes.
But while local green hardwood timber remained the main material for wall and roof framing, concrete sub-flooring and brick-veneer exterior cladding became increasingly popular, which reduced the demand on native forests.
By the mid-1960s, sawmilling was recognised as one of Victoria’s largest rural industries which provided wide opportunities for decentralised employment.
Techniques for cutting and seasoning eucalypt timbers were well established while builders, architects and homeowners had come to appreciate the strength, versatility and beauty of Australian wood.
The Victorian Timber Promotion Council (TPC) was created by an amendment to the Forests Act in 1969. The TPC was supported by the Commission and the sawmilling industry with a levy on all sawlogs. It strongly promoted the uses of local hardwood and softwood timbers and produced the popular Timber Framing and Stress Grading Manuals to support builders and architects.
But there was a trend in the 1970s for particleboard flooring with carpet or cork covering instead of kiln-dried local hardwoods.
Victoria’s softwood plantation estate (both private and Government) also expanded during this time, but local softwood timber supplies remained very limited until the late 1970s when harvesting from the significant areas of maturing plantations increased.
In the decade from 1974 to 1983, it is estimated an average of 39,500 houses per year were constructed using timber from Victoria’s State Forests.
And while average house size continued to increase, the use of timber per unit of floor space decreased steadily over that period. For example, the average house size in Victoria in 1974 was 150 m2 but then increased to 170 m2 by 1983. However, over the same period the volume of timber per square metre of floor space decreased from an average of 0.14 m3 in 1974, to 0.11 m3 in 1983.
Over the period that reliable figures were reported (1900 – 2022), the volume of sawlogs harvested from Victoria’s native forests was about 90 million cubic meters. Production spiked during the 1939 salvage and then peaked in the early 1950s, but then steadily declined.
And from 1932 to 1992, which coincided with the separation of the Victorian Plantation Corporation (VPC), the production of softwoods from the state-owned plantations was a further 9.5 million cubic meters and was continuing to grow.
Over the decades, hardwood’s share of the traditional house framing market was rapidly eroded by radiata pine. But hardwoods were still sought for applications requiring strength, durability and appearance, including sub-floors, beams, decking, fencing, and furniture.
There is no doubt that the Forests Commission contributed significantly to Victoria’s economic prosperity for more than six decades by ensuring there was a renewable and sustainable supply of timber from the State’s native forests and softwood plantations to build millions of family homes across Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Hardwood sawlog production from State forests between 1919 to 2022. Excludes some of the volume salvaged after 1939. The volume peaked in the 1950s and steadily declined. Source: David Williams.Softwood sawlog production from sate-owned plantations from 1932 to 1993. Source: David Williams.
Typical hardwood timber framed house – Moorabbin, 1944. FCRPA Collection
Particleboard was developed in Germany in the late 1940s and introduced to Australia in 1957 when Coreboard Ltd. (later purchased by Softwood Holdings Ltd.) established a plant at Mt. Gambier.
The Coreboard plant created a much-needed market for early thinnings from the rapidly expanding radiata pine plantations as well as for sawn waste.
Before mechanisation, the 6-foot timber billets were hand cut, stacked in the plantation in heaps and extracted to the roadside before loading and transport.
At the factory, the bark was then removed, and the logs converted into thin flakes which were dried, mixed with urea-formaldehyde resin and then continuously extruded and pressed through a heated die.
A second plant was built in 1960 at Oberon in NSW by Pyneboard Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR).
The Oberon plant used an improved process which formed the board onto an endless steel wire mesh, cut it into lengths and then pressed it between heated platens.
Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM), based in Gippsland and operator of the major pulp mill at Maryvale, also owned a substantial pine plantation estate and acquired a 50% share in the Oberon plant in 1964.
The acquisition led to another Pyneboard factory, jointly owned by CSR and APM, being established at Rosedale with production commencing in 1964. But because of its small size, the factory became unprofitable and was closed at the end of 1978.
The Rosedale factory was subsequently used as a leather tanning works and then to manufacture industrial cable.
Preparing 6-foot 8-inch billets to be loaded onto trucks at Flynn in 1964. They were then carted to the Pyneboard factory at Rosedale. Photo: Gippsland & surrounds logging & log truck History
Photo: Gippsland & surrounds logging & log truck History
Photo: Gippsland & surrounds logging & log truck History
Removing bark and docking. Photo: Gippsland & surrounds logging & log truck History.
Pine billets stored in rotating bin before being graded for surface and core flake manufacture. There were maybe 4 or 5 shaver units around this table and the small logs were manually fed one-by-one into the flaking machines. Photo: Gippsland & surrounds logging & log truck History
Loading pine billets. Photo: Gippsland & surrounds logging & log truck History
Oberon. Source: NAA
Forklift working inside the Pyneboard factory in 1964. Photo: Gippsland & surrounds logging & log truck History
Train at the Pyeboard Factory in Rosedale – August 1966. Source: Victorian railways
The “Normal Forest” is a theoretical condition where the growing stock of trees has a more or less even series of age classes, with an even spread of tree sizes, with full stocking on each site growing with normal increments (AKA – The Trinity of Norms).
The idea of the normal forest emerged in the 1800s in Germany as a simplified mathematical framework for forest management, particularly to produce timber. It works best for single aged stands rather than complex multiple aged forests.
For example, in a hypothetical 100-ha forest, where each age class is equally represented in 1ha plots from 0-100 years, and each hectare is fully stocked and grows normally at 1 m3/ha/year, then each plot will carry 100 m3 of timber at age 100. Then if the harvesting rotation is 100 years, a mature 1 ha plot can be cut each year and then replanted, which will yield 100 m3 per year in perpetuity.
A normal forest serves as a doctrine of faith that allows for a balance of growth that matches the area harvested and creates an even and sustained yield of timber. It also serves as a standard to which actual forests can be compared.
The normal forest is possible in managed short-rotation softwood plantations but is not found in Australian native forests, particularly when they have either been heavily harvested in the past, like the Wombat State Forest during the gold rush, or burned by extensive bushfires, such as the ash forests in the Central Highlands which have large stands of uniform, single-aged, 1939 and 1983 regrowth.
Masonite is an engineered panel board that was patented in 1924 by American inventor William H. Mason. It is made by steam pressurising wood chips followed by explosive decompression through a “Mason Gun”. The wood fibres are then passed through an endless wire mesh to be pressed and dried into thin rigid sheets. The large dimensioned panels use the wood’s natural lignin to bond everything together without artificial glues.
The Masonite Corporation (Australia) Ltd. opened a plant in 1938 at Raymond Terrace in NSW and used chips from local eucalypts.
Meanwhile in Victoria, an agreement was reached with Australian Paper Manufactures (APM) to build a major pulp and paper plant at Maryvale in the Latrobe Valley under a Legislated Supply Agreement. The first intake of pulpwood from State forests was in October 1937.
Anticipating an increase in post-war demand for woodchips for the manufacture of pulp and fibre board like Masonite, the Forests Commission began a major resource inventory across State forests in the early 1950s.
A Wood Supply Agreement with the Masonite Corporation soon followed in 1955 to harvest pulpwood (other than Ash species) from forests in the southern part of the Upper Goulburn River catchment to feed a Masonite and hardboard plant.
The company was using a new dry-forming process developed by the US Masonite Corporation to produce a hardboard which was smooth on both sides.
The company purchased the works area that had been used to build the Eildon dam to manufacture the wallboard, but it proved unsuccessful due to technical reasons.
The Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) took over the Australian operations of the Masonite Corporation in 1959 and closed the Eildon plant.
A new agreement was then reached between the Forests Commission and CSR to supply 70,000 tonnes of pulpwood from the Wombat State Forest for a new hardboard plant at Bacchus Marsh using the Asplund defibration process on eucalypt wood. Production began in 1961. The company also had a factory at Mitcham.
Wood was also supplied by students from the Forestry School at Creswick. Eight-foot billets were hand-cut and split with axes then stacked in the school’s demonstration forest. A cartage contractor then picked up the wood from the bush and delivered it to Bacchus Marsh. After costs were paid, the surplus cash went into the school sports fund
Hardboard made from eucalypts proved to have excellent strength properties, superior to those of similar products based on softwoods, and for a time a significant part of the local production was exported.
However, in 1999, the Bacchus Marsh plant finally closed, and CSR moved its operations to Queensland.
Masonite has fallen from favour but is still commonly used as an affordable flooring underlay and furniture backing. But it best used indoors because, without treatment, it absorbs water which causes the boards to swell and blister.
These two sketches by famous colonial artist Nicholas Chevalier are clearly the same and are from reputable sources.
One copy is from the Victorian State Library with the caption “McMillan’s party clearing road to Wood’s Point” and was published by David Syme on 25 May 1864.
The other copy is from the National Library and there is handwriting on the sketch – “Splitters in the Dandenong Ranges”. The library catalogue says it was a wood engraving exhibited by the Commissioners of the International Exhibition, 1873.
Chevalier is known to have toured in Gippsland and the Dandenongs with Alfred Howitt as early as 1858. A study by Simon Gregg (𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘴 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳: 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺, 2011) suggests the artist encountered the now controversial explorer and pastoralist Angus McMillan around Dargo. This was during a journey Chevalier undertook with explorer Georg von Neumayer and his assistant Edward Brinckmann between November 1863 and February 1864, camping for a time together and enjoying a roast joint of wombat, according to von Neumayer’s account of the expedition. Chevalier sketched and later painted a number of works from this journey.
However, other accounts note McMillan’s exploratory work on the track would not begin until March 1864. So it is unlikely the sketch is contemporaneous with McMillan’s track making.
Equally, while Chevalier also created images of the Dandenongs, on balance it is unlikely this is actually one of them; more likely a bit of lazy captioning by whoever collated the woodcuts for the exhibition later in the 19th century.
Source: Mt Dandenong & District Historical Society
Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) operated a logging camp in the Boola Boola State Forest, north of the Latrobe Valley, from 1947 until August 1958.
It was situated near W11 track on the road to Walhalla.
Workers harvested mixed species pulpwood for the Maryvale Mill to make Kraft paper when the ash salvage program following the 1939 bushfires in the Central Highlands was winding down.
This unusual panorama image of the Boola Camp in 1951 is from Bernie MacManus and has been enhanced to make it sharper.
This was found in the shed at Powelltown recently.
The hammer has a brand on one side and a magnetic face on the other to pick up the metal numbered tags that are held inside the tubular magazine and then belt them into the end of logs.
Google tells me that system was developed by Latschbacher, and the instructions are in German.
I must say I have never seen one before.
I guess it belonged to VicForests. Any ideas ?
My photo has been edited to remove the background and make the hammer clearer.
Timber pricing evolved over more than 150 years, from a rudimentary licensing system which gave unrestricted access to the forest for very little payment, through to current market pricing, involving competitive processes and mill door sales. The evolution of pricing was in four distinct phases.
Licence system – this entirely inadequate scheme applied to timber sales from the mid-1800s until the early 1900s. A small fee was paid which gave the holder unrestricted and mostly unsupervised access to the forest to cut and remove timber. The system resulted in excessive wastage and sometimes large trees were cut and left on the forest floor. Wastage by sleeper cutters and timber splitters were the constant frustration of the first Forests Conservator, George Perrin. The licence system also produced a very poor financial return to the Crown.
Berthold Ribbentrop reported in 1896 on the poor state of Victoria’s forests, and observed…
The present licence system, which permits a scramble for the forest produce so long as it can be found anywhere, is at the bottom of much of the disorder which exists.
He also noted that…
The income from the forests is ridiculously small.
Ribbentrop’s scathing report prompted a Royal Commission between 1897 and 1901 into the destruction of Victoria’s forests.
Report Number 10 – “Forest Royalties and the Royalty System”, published in June 1900, recommended applying a “royalty” for timber, together with improved regulation of the quantity of timber harvested.
Royalty payments – the 1897-1901 Royal Commission highlighted the shortcomings of Victoria’s timber sales with the stark example of a sawmiller from Echuca who paid a paltry £31 for 1,600 logs from the Barmah Forest, but they would have attracted a royalty of £700 if cut just over the border in New South Wales.
The Government changed the system, and from the early 1900s, timber royalty was charged on logs from Victoria’s State forest.
But the royalty was charged on the quantity of sawn timber produced from a log rather than the input volume. Royalty payments relied on sawmillers honestly self-reporting their production and this approach did little to reduce timber wastage, or trees left in the forest.
The State Forest Department obviously favoured a sales system based on input log volume, measured in the forest or as they were received at the mill.
For many years, the Department unsuccessfully sought change, but unsurprisingly there was vocal opposition from sawmillers together with intense lobbying of their parliamentary representatives.
It took until the 1930s before the system was changed and royalty payments were based on input log volume.
The shift resulted in a 12-fold increase in royalty payments from £50,845 in 1930, to £645,793 in 1950.
Half of this revenue was retained by the FCV in its Forestry Trust Fund for on-ground works in the forests.
Royalty Equation System (RES) – was introduced on 1 January 1950, during the height of the post-war housing boom. At the time, the timber industry was progressively being moved eastwards after the completion of the 1939 salvage in the Central Highlands.
The RES was a significant step, and it aimed to overcome cost disadvantages for more distant sawmills and to “equalise” the costs of sawing and transporting base-grade scantling timber to three marketing zones, including Melbourne.
Individual sawmiller rates were built-up from a base royalty known as the Standard Mill Formula (SMF).
Divergence factors were applied to allow for differences in the value of the timber produced from each grade of logs. The haulage distances were measured for different classes of forest road from the bush to the mills and then the costs of transport from the mill to markets was factored in, with a preference given for rail transport to Melbourne, where available. A residue allowance was applied for the sale of sawdust and chips.
Price increases were set within the Government’s fee and charges guidelines, leading to increases generally below the CPI.
The equitable system was long lasting and was initially retained in the Timber Industry Strategy (TIS) in 1986.
The RES was suitable for its time during the post-war housing boom, but over time it became apparent that it failed to reflect the State Government’s commercial enterprise or ensure that the revenue at least covered the costs of producing the logs.
Market Pricing – was a longer-term commitment by the Government in the Timber Industry Strategy in 1986.
It aimed to generate at least a 4% return on the invested funds and introduction of commercial accounts for the State’s publicly owned forest resources.
The new Victorian Plantations Corporation (VPC) introduced full market pricing for softwood logs from 1993 during individual negotiations for its established supply agreements, while VicForests introduced a similar system for hardwoods from 2004. VicForests also introduced “mill door” sales which covered the full costs of its own operations, plus the costs of harvesting and haulage.
The 1986 Timber industry Strategy (TIS) required hardwood sawlogs to be licenced and allocated to the highest value end use.
In general, each tree harvested produces a range of wood products from high grade sawlogs through to material only suitable for pulpwood.
Once felled, logs were to be crosscut in such a way as to produce the largest volume of the highest-grade products.
In 1988, new hardwood sawlog grades were introduced. They replaced local sawlog standards which varied across the state for different forest types and ages.
The new log grades ranged from Adown to E, and were defined by several features such as:
tree species – e.g. ash, mixed species, red gum.
volume dimensions – centre diameter (under bark) and log length.
small logs less than 40 cm in diameter were classified as D class. A lower class of E grade logs was introduced later.
number of defective quarters with visible external faults such as branch stubs, swellings, gum veins, stain, sloping grain and dry sides.
amount of pipe defect (rotten or absent wood from the centre of the log).
termites and ambrosia infestation could reject a log or reduce its grade.
A new log grading card enabled a quick visual assessment and judgement of defects in the bush.
Sawlogs were then measured, graded, recorded and branded (or marked with plastic barcodes) by harvesting contractors or forest officers before being dispatched to sawmills.
E grade logs – the lowest grade of sawlog and often used for pallets, as well as pulpwood logs that were not sawlog quality, were usually sold by weight and are not manually measured with a tape.
A statewide audit of log grading was undertaken in 1996. Overall, the results were good, but there was some slippage between grades and improvements were required. As a result, a random sample check was made of all logs and pulpwood.
In general, each harvested tree can generate a range of wood products – from high grade sawlogs through to material only suitable for pulpwood. Once felled, logs were crosscut in such a way as to produce the largest volume of the highest-grade products. Source: TIS 1986.
Log Grading Card – CFL June 1989
The revised card had the minimum Small End Diameter (SED) changed slightly, and A grade was dropped. These logs were so incredibly rare they were eventually excluded from the grading card and license allocations. VicForests Version. 2014.
Sphagnum moss is highly absorbent and can hold up to 20 times its weight in water.
It is widely used in horticulture as a soil conditioner and for growing orchids, and terrariums, as well as for lining hanging baskets.
In Victoria, it was once harvested from State forests, mostly in the Central Highlands.
In the 1970s, Stan Storrie was a careful harvester of moss. He was able to harvest the moss repeatedly, and he never removed it all, but carefully left a healthy sward to thicken up again.
Sometimes he would bring his harvest past the FCV East Warburton Office. A paper trail was established and royalty paid.
However, the moss sold commercially in Australian garden centres is now typically farmed and imported from New Zealand.
Photos: Gregor Wallace – 1973.
Stan Storrie – Sphagnum moss harvesting. Big River. Jan. 1973. Photo: Gregor Wallace.
Stan Storrie – Sphagnum moss harvesting. Big River. Jan. 1973. Photo: Gregor Wallace.
The Forests Commission purchased two Bedford RLHS cab/chassis trucks that were imported into Australia from England in January 1959.
John Phillips and Syd Bloxidge were flown to Sydney by GV Clarke Motors to drive the vehicles back to Melbourne.
They were assembled as tip trucks for use on the Tamboritha Road project north of Heyfield.
Based on their success, additional trucks were purchased and fabricated into FCV fire tankers.
They were designed using the configuration of the earlier ex-military Blitz tankers, with a rectangular tray-mounted water tank and a manually operated hose reel attached to the tank lid. Grab rails were installed along each side of the tray.
The water tank had three connecting compartments providing a total capacity of 600 gallons.
The Howard pump engine equipped with a rope start could be temperamental and difficult to start and was later replaced with an electric start 7 HP Wisconsin Gaam 30B pump.
This example of a Bedford bullnose tanker from Casterton is refilling at the Stawell fire #16 in March 1964. The truck was notable for having a forward-opening windscreen. Les Twigg was driving but the other two people are unknown.
Photo: Gregor Wallace Collection.
Bedford bullnose tanker from Casterton is refilling at the Stawell fire #16 in March 1964. Photo: Gregor Wallace
The two new Bedfords on their way from Sydney – January 1959. Source: Rocky Marsden
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 