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

In about 1900, experiments were conducted in England by Mr William Powell to perfect a new process of preserving wood.

Mr Powell, who owned a sugar refinery in Liverpool, had noticed that the wooden staves supporting the vats on the side where the molasses was spilt lasted longer than those untouched by the solution.

Pondering the reason, he decided that sugar must have some durable effect on the wood, and by experiment gradually evolved the powellising process.

William Powell took out patents in 1904 for his new timber preservation process and companies were formed to exploit his idea around the globe.

The process was very simple. Timber was first cut to size such as sleepers or floorboards and then stacked onto small rail trucks which were run into large iron tanks about 15 ft high and 25 ft deep and then made watertight.

A thin syrup of molasses and other chemicals was poured into the tanks until the stack of wood was completely immersed. Arsenic was added as a preservative against termites.

Brought to boiling point by steam passing through pipes the solution was kept at high temperature for about three hours, or longer depending on the size of the timber, and then allowed to cool.

After about 24 hours the process was complete, and the solution was drained off. The treated timber was then taken out and placed into drying kilns where it was kept for about 12 days.  Sleepers were not dried in the kiln but were stacked wet.

It was claimed that the Powellising process could convert both hardwoods and softwoods into nonporous, homogenous timber that was harder, stronger and tougher than the timber in its original state. It was also claimed the treated timber would resist dry rot and termites.

In Australia, the process was first demonstrated in 1905 at a small plant near Perth. The Western Australian State Government then contracted the company in 1908 to supply 230,000 treated jarrah railway sleepers for the Port Hedland – Marble Bar railway.

A plant was also built in Sydney and Powellised timber was used for telegraph poles for the NSW railways, flooring for the Sydney Harbour Trust and wooden blocks for paving the streets of Sydney.

In January 1911, the NSW company wrote to the Victorian Conservator of Forests, Hugh Mackay, seeking details of timber royalty charges and information about the availability of mountain ash forests in the Upper Yarra and Neerim districts.

The Managing Director of the NSW parent company, John Rose Gorton, (father of future Prime Minister, John Grey Gorton) applied for a permit in July 1911 and the proposal was submitted to State Cabinet for consideration.  After some due diligence and checking on the financial status of the company, an offer was made in September 1911 for two, 1,000 acre cutting areas with a further 2,000 acres in reserve.

In 1912, the Victorian Powell Wood Process Limited (VPWPL) was established, and during its first year of operations work proceeded rapidly on the construction of a sawmill and timber processing works at Powelltown.

To support the mill the company built a town around it, and to provide transport, it built a 3 ft gauge tramway, some 11 miles long from Yarra Junction.

It’s a long story, but it was called a “tramway” for legal purposes. An Act of Parliament was needed to build a railway, something not easy for a private company to achieve. The Yarra Shire, and not all the locals were entirely pleased about a private line either and would have preferred a Victorian Railways one.

And even before any rails had been laid, a Baldwin 2-4-0 steam locomotive, “Little Yarra”, arrived in Yarra Junction. The line to Powelltown was in operation by May 1913 carrying machinery to the new mill site.

The Powelltown tramway was unique in providing a passenger service and it also carried goods for farmers along the Little Yarra valley. The service continued until the construction of an all-weather road to Powelltown in the late 1920s.

Beyond Powelltown the company built a further two miles of tramway into the bush to access its log supply. This network was progressively extended over the subsequent decades and serviced many small sawmills in the bush.

However, the company was a financial failure and only operated for one year. It had secured a lucrative contract to supply 100,000 Powellised sleepers to the Trans-Australian Railway, then under construction to link South Australia with Western Australia.  But of the first delivery of 6000 sleepers, only 500 were accepted, and only nine met the contract specification. The sleepers were cracked and distorted in shape. It was thought that the drying process and sap replacement had damaged the timber. Not surprisingly the contract was cancelled.

This was not the only example of the failure of Powellised timber. A Royal Commission was held by the Commonwealth Government into the fiasco, but the WA Government was uncooperative and refused to give evidence. The Commission heard damming testimony that Powellised sleepers in NSW had been a failure as early as 1909. It was the same story in New Zealand where 66% of the powellised softwood sleepers had to be removed within two years.

Just why the company went ahead in 1911 with such a huge investment at Powelltown after the inconclusive results in WA and NSW remains a mystery. But by September 1915 the company had folded with huge losses.

The site at Powelltown then reverted to a sawmill which was operated successfully for many years by the Victorian Hardwood Company.

Ref: Stamford, F. E, Stuckey E.G., and Maynard, G L. (1984). Powelltown. Light Railways Research Society.

https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/maps/centralhighlands/centralhighlands28082020/index.html#11/-37.8862/145.9530

http://media.lrrsa.org.au/ptc/Powelltown_Tramway_Centenary_spreads.pdf

Timber bridges demonstrate the fundamental significance that State forests played in the rapid development of the new colony of Victoria after the gold rush of 1851.

Two Acts of Parliament passed in December 1880 and December 1884, authorised the construction of 89 new railway lines, more than doubling Victoria’s network to over 2,900 miles by 1892.

The legislation became famously known as the “Octopus Acts” in reference to the tentacle like web of tracks created. The period was characterised by blatant political interference in railway planning with parliamentarians shamelessly lobbying to have railways built through their own electorates or even to serve land developments in which they had a direct financial interest.

From the early 1870s the Victorian Railways maintained a policy of building all new bridges from timber to reduce costs, except in special circumstances which required the use of more permanent materials like brick, steel and concrete.

Although cheaper to construct, the timber bridges required more frequent and expensive on-going maintenance. Most of the elements such as sleepers, girders, cross beams, piles etc would have been progressively replaced with locally sourced hardwoods.

Over 2000 wooden bridges were built on the railway network but most of these lines are now closed. The bridges then fell victim to decay, neglect, floods and bushfires, but a few operational bridges remain, mostly on heritage railways like Puffing Billy.

In December 1976, the Maldon line was closed by the Victorian Railways, but the Castlemaine and Maldon Railway Preservation Society was quickly formed, and ten years later reopened the line from Maldon station to the Bendigo Road level crossing.

The six surviving wooden bridges on the Goldfields Railway are historically, scientifically and aesthetically significant and are listed on the National Trust database at the state level.

The Muckleford Creek bridge was originally constructed in 1889 and as part of the railway restoration works, the Army Reserve’s 91 Forestry Squadron (The Woodpeckers) milled structural timbers during their annual camp at Puckapunyal in October 1989 using their 60-inch sawmill. The large logs were sourced from State forest.

The Woodpeckers were then invited as special guests at an open day hosted by the railway preservation society on 19 May 1990.

But maintaining access to large dimension and specialty timbers from State forests for these types of community projects is currently under a cloud.

Photos courtesy of the RAE collection PV521. https://raevictoria.com/

http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/search/nattrust_result_detail/69245

The Army Reserve was always willing to help the Forests Commission and rural municipalities blow stuff up.

In November 1976, sappers in the 7 Field Engineers Regiment (7FER) from Ringwood, plus some other engineers from Gippsland, helped the Horsham Shire remove an old wooden bridge on Bulgana Road, east of Stawell.

About 63 kg of plastic explosives, 11 kg of TNT, a bag of ammonium nitrate, 60 detonators and primers, plus several hundred metres of detonating fuse was enough to shatter a 50 m long timber bridge on the Wimmera River.

It was replaced by a low-level crossing.

Source: RAE photo collection.

The Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) had a large and active engineering branch for making stuff… as well as breaking stuff…

Most overseers, as well as some foresters, were trained in the use of explosives to “blow stuff up” such as removing stumps and rocks from roads. Districts usually had a small powder magazine tucked away in the bush for storage of gelignite and detonators.

However, the legendary FCV demolitions expert, Jock Paxton, was on-hand for large or more complex works like road construction and quarry blasts.

In January 1977, a minor demolition project was arranged to remove the silt from a small fire dam on Clematis Creek in Sherbrooke Forest, which just happened to be adjacent to the main Belgrave-Kallista Tourist Road.

In his thick Scottish accent Jock directed proceedings from the roadside, while the difficult and dirty work of wading through the mud, digging holes and loading the charges fell to a couple of forestry school students, Geoff Pike and Megan Varty, working over their summer vacation.

Blast holes, about 3 inches in diameter and about 3 feet deep, were dug on a grid pattern into the gooey mud. The holes were filled with granular ammonium nitrate mixed with diesel, which is an ideal “lifting charge”. Half sticks of gelignite and detonators were then inserted into the blast holes.

The charges were electrically wired with micro delay fuses. The sequence of ignitions was set to direct the blast upstream of the small dam and away from the wall.

Local staff were on hand to observe the blast including Ranger – John Lloyd, Overseer – Max Seamer and Assistant Forester – Phil Evans

All was set to go, and the forestry students were given the honour of detonating their hard work. They hid behind a nearby tree and Megan flicked the blasting switch.

KABOOM !!! … mud went flying everywhere…

Maybe there had been a miscalculation, but the effect was mud mayhem.  Tree ferns were also laid flat in concentric circles around the dam.

The blast certainly cleared the dam as intended but also spread an inch-thick layer of mud across the adjoining Belgrave-Kallista Road.

Luckily it was a quiet day with not too many tourists around. There was no traffic management in place other than Jock standing on lookout. But one car came down the road from Kallista and slid on the gooey mess into an embankment.

The shire grader happened to be passing from Upwey and scraped the road clean of mud while the Olinda tanker came down to give it a wash down.

Megan and Geoff spent the remainder of their afternoon propping up flattened tree ferns.

But Jock’s valiant utility had been parked on the roadside, and forgetfully he had left the passenger-side window down, so the entire inside, including the seat, steering wheel and dashboard became smothered with thick mud and debris. The tray of Jock’s work ute also received a pasting.  Staff tried hard not to laugh.

Everything was cleaned up and life resumed to normal, but the sorry tale of the layers of sticky mud inside Jock’s car became the stuff of local legend. But sadly, there is no photographic evidence of the embarrassing escapade.

Blasting by departmental staff and crews continued until about 2008 when there was a serious accident at a quarry near Marysville. All blasting is now done by qualified contractors.

https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/fire-sidebar/memories/211-evans-bernie-gelignite.html

Edge-notched index cards were invented in about 1896 and have holes punched around the borders. The top right-hand corner is also clipped to help stacking the deck. The holes could be clipped to search and sort information.

For foresters, these cards were commonly used to identify timber samples.

Using a 10X magnifying lens, or a microscope, the key structural features of the timber sample were first identified. For example, softwood or hardwood.

A long knitting needle was inserted into the hole for the feature and the cards shaken. Those cards which matched fell onto the table. The fallen cards were then restacked and the next identifying feature selected with the needle. The whole process repeated until there was only one, or maybe a few, cards left.

Each sample card had a more detailed description of the timber.

It was a very simple and effective binary (yes/no) decision process to search through hundreds of timber types.

Needless to say, computers replaced the old wood technology cards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge-notched_card

The decision to build the massive Thomson Dam in Gippsland was a result of a State Government inquiry into Melbourne’s water security in the late 1960s.

The dam wall and diversion tunnels were built in three stages between 1969 and 1985.

But unlike the Upper Yarra and Maroondah catchments which were “vested“ in the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) and closed to public access, the Thomson catchment remained State Forest to managed by the Forests Commission and available for timber harvesting and some other uses.

It’s fair to say, that neither the MMBW nor the Forests Commission were entirely happy about the arrangements.

One of the major issues was the delineation of land to be inundated for water storage.

The wonderfully straight horizontal line along the 450 m contour of the high-water mark was no accident.

Forests Commission staff spend many months trudging through the thick scrub with an aneroid barometer marking the exact elevation.

The barometer relied on differences in atmospheric pressure to measure elevation. Regular radio calls were made back to the FCV Erica Office throughout the day to check on deviations in atmospheric pressures to recalibrate the gauge.

The sawlogs and pulpwood below the line were salvaged before MMBW bulldozers scraped the slopes bare and pushed all the debris into the bottom of the gullies ready to be burnt.

Above: Pocket Altimeter – Aneroid Barometer Type, Fitzpatrick & Co, Melbourne, circa 1900
Photographer: Jon Augier. Source: Museums Victoria

The 1960s saw more prolonged droughts and water restrictions.  There were also deadly bushfires on the fringes of Melbourne in 1962, and again in 1968.

Growing concerns about long term water security led to a Parliamentary Public Works Committee inquiry between 1965 and 1967.

In response to the inquiry, the Bolte Government immediately approved works for a 20 km diversion tunnel from the Thomson River and began planning for the massive Thomson Dam in Gippsland (the Upper Yarra Dam had been completed in 1957).

In addition to the Thomson, several smaller diversion catchments known as the Yarra Tributaries were set aside in 1968 under a 10-year lease agreement between the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) and the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW).

Five small concrete weirs on the Armstrong (east and west), Starvation, McMahons and Cement Creeks were built to divert water directly into the Silvan Conduit which connected the Upper Yarra Reservoir to Melbourne.

All the newly designated “Yarra Tribs” as they became known, as well as the Thomson Catchment, sat on State forest, unlike the major Yarra water catchments which were vested with the MMBW in 1891.

The Forests Commission had long opposed the closed catchment policy of the MMBW, arguing that timber harvesting, controlled public access and the protection of water supplies were all compatible.

Previously, in 1958–60, the State Development Committee held an Inquiry into the utilisation of timber in watersheds of the State and the Forests Commission advocated strongly, but unsuccessfully, for access for logging in closed catchments.

However, during the latter 1965-67 Parliamentary Inquiry, the Commission remained more concerned that access to timber in the Thomson catchment would be restricted with construction of a new reservoir. The Commission once again advanced as evidence its successful conduct of harvesting in many proclaimed catchments across Victoria.

The State Government had no appetite to overturn the long standing MMBW closed catchment policy but resolved that timber harvesting would continue in the Yarra Tributaries and Thomson catchments but with some additional protections and they were closed to public access and gates were erected.

Releasing water from the Yarra Tribs was also important to maintain environmental flows in the Yarra River.

Construction on the new Thomson Dam and diversion tunnels commenced in the early 1970s and was completed in 1985.

Long term agreements were eventually negotiated between Melbourne Water and the Forest Service to manage activities in both the Thomson catchment and the Yarra Tribs.

Source: McHugh, Peter. (1991). Statement of resources, uses & values for the Dandenong forest management area (Yarra forests). Dept. of Conservation and Environment. ISBN 978-0724198498.

Melbourne grew rapidly after the 1851 gold rush and struggled to maintain adequate water supplies and sewerage disposal.

All the night soil, trade waste, as well as waste from kitchens and homes was just thrown into open channels in the street and it simply flowed wherever gravity took it… mostly into the Yarra River. The problem got so bad that some British journalists unkindly described the city as ‘Smellbourne’.

In response, the Yan Yean reservoir was built on the Plenty River in 1857 as Australia’s first water supply reservoir, followed by the Werribee sewage treatment farm in 1897.

But water-borne diseases, particularly cholera, remained fearful killers in cities throughout the nineteenth century.  A Royal Commission was established by the Victorian Government in 1880 to address these concerns.

In a bold and visionary political move, large catchments in the Upper Yarra River were vested in the newly established Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) in 1891.

A closed catchment policy was also introduced where timber harvesting, recreation, mining, farming, settlements and all public access was not permitted, mainly as a step against the threat of disease.

The relatively small O’Shannassy watershed was vested in the MMBW in February 1910 and an aqueduct commenced soon after to carry water some 50 miles to the Surrey Hills Reservoir to supply the fast-growing eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Its sometimes claimed the aqueduct was named after Sir John O’Shanassy, three times Premier of Victoria, although I have my doubts because the spelling is slightly different and the dates don’t align with the period of his reign.

The open concrete channel skirted along the southern slopes of Mount Donna Buang on a constant gradient of 2 feet to the mile and operated completely by gravity.

The channel, 9 feet 3 inches wide at the top and 3 feet 4 inches deep, was dug by hand and horse-drawn scoops.

Next to the cement lined channel, a flat access track was constructed from the excavated material with a rail line on top to deliver heavy construction materials like timber, stone, pipes, steel and cement.

Water was also carried up and down the steeper slopes, across roads, creeks, rivers and through both farmland and residential areas by siphons, pipes and weirs.  Some of the pipes were made from timber staves and some from steel.

The total cost of construction of the O’Shannassy aqueduct on its completion in 1914 was £426,890.

But Melbourne’s water supply woes continued and in 1924 the channel was increased in size to 12 feet 11 inches wide and 5 feet 2 inches deep. Its capacity effectively tripled from 20 million to 60 million gallons per day.

The O’Shannassy scheme was augmented in 1929 by a new weir on the Coranderrk Creek near Healesville which diverted water into an aqueduct that joined near Woori Yallock.

Resident caretakers stationed along its length carefully controlled water flows with a series of manually operated locks and gates. They also patrolled the channel to keep it clear of debris and functioning properly.

The next major phase in the O’Shannassy project was the construction of Silvan Dam in the eastern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges. Works began in 1927 and were completed by 1930.

The sumptuous O’Shannassy Lodge was also built near the aqueduct. It was mostly used by the MMBW Commissioners and their guests as a private weekend retreat. The Lodge famously hosted Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip when they visited Melbourne in 1954.

But by the mid-1990s, the ageing aqueduct was nearing the end of its service life. There had been several serious collapses over the years, the main one being at Dee Road above Warburton which placed the town and community at severe risk of flash flooding.

Eventually in December 1996, the open aqueduct was closed and replaced with large underground pipes to carry the water to Silvan.

Today, a 34 km section of the old O’Shannassy aqueduct is a spectacular bushwalking and bike riding route.

https://oshannassyaqueduct.weebly.com/

Up to a thousand Sessile oaks (Quercus petraea) were felled to reconstruct the ancient 800-year-old timber roof and fallen spire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after it was destroyed by fire in April 2019.

A nationwide tree hunt began soon after French president, Emmanuel Macron, decided that the iconic Cathedral would be rebuilt exactly as it was before.

The oaks were between 150 and 230 years old, with trunks at least one metre in diameter and lengths over 18 metres.

Eight of the trees – destined for the most monumental part of the spire – were found in the Forest of Bercé that once belonged to the kings of France.

The trees were harvested over the late winter of 2021 when they were dormant and without leaves, otherwise harmful tree sap and moisture could enter the wood fibres. The logs were then left out to air dry for up to 18 months.

But harvesting the oaks was not without controversy.

Craftsmen then used medieval carpentry techniques and traditional hand tools to shape the replacement roof timbers.

Perhaps, sustainable forestry’s “finest hour”.