The arrival of the Victorian Railways narrow gauge train (now the iconic Puffing Billy) into Gembrook in about 1900 signalled the rapid expansion of sawmilling in the district.

Sawmills had operated at Gembrook from the 1880s, but their produce was transported by primitive tramways to places like Nar Nar Goon in the south. A new Victorian Railway with direct access to timber yards in Melbourne was a major turning point.

While not on the scale of the harvesting of the mountain ash forests at Noojee and Powelltown, at least sixty small sawmills worked the drier mixed species bush, and for some time the timber industry was the largest single employer in the Gembrook area.

By industry standards the individual mills were not large producers of sawn timber but there were many of them operating in the forest.

The mills ranged in size from small itinerant two-man spot benches to larger more permanent mills operated by well-known local identities like the Mortimer, Russell, Ure, Dyer and Williams families.

Together these mills produced a huge volume of sawn timber for a rapidly growing metropolitan Melbourne, but also fruit cases for the local orchards.

A complex network of tramways developed through the private land and adjoining State forests. These bush railways were built with ingenuity and resourcefulness by men with little or no formal engineering training but plenty of courage and years of experience.

But like most of Victoria’s timber industry, steam and rails were progressively replaced by diesel and roads in the post war area. Then in 1953, a landslide blocked the track and the line to Gembrook closed.

The production of sawn timber from Gembrook peaked in the 1920s and 1930s, with another spike in the 1950s, but then declined steadily over time, and by the mid-1980s only a few local hardwood sawmills remained. The reopening of the post 1939 ash timber resources in the Central Highlands had a big impact on the competitiveness of the smaller under capitalised Gembrook mills.

Today, much of the land around Gembrook is dedicated to farming. The State forests have been redesignated as national park and timber harvesting has ceased. But there is still evidence of these fascinating old tram lines and sawmills if you know where to look.

Ref: Mike McCarthy (1987). Bellbrakes, bullocks and bushmen. LRRSA.

https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/maps/centralhighlands/centralhighlands28082020/index.html

Photo: My grandmother, Annie May Evans, is one of those ladies with the funny bonnets sitting on top of a load of sawn timber at Gembrook. C 1905.

Building the Fyansford Paper Mill, on the Barwon River near Geelong, commenced in the 1870s and was completed in 1878. When the site opened, it was claimed to be one of the most advanced paper mills in the southern hemisphere.

At the time, there were seven paper mills in Australia and Fyansford is one of the earliest and operated for the longest period.

The mill used rags, offcuts of rope, recycled books, sails, straw, cloth and other by products collected from around the region as its main feedstock rather than wood fibre like Maryvale in Gippsland.

In 1895, the Australian Paper Mills (APM) acquired the complex and operated it until 1923.

From 1929 to 1941, the site was home to the Hydro Ice Company which used it as cool stores and to manufacture ice. The site was acquired by the Australian Navy during WWII.

The Fyansford Paper Mill remains as one of the most complete of its kind, still retaining many of its original mill buildings and water race.

Photos: State Library Victoria.

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~paper/barwon.html

Sugar Gum (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) originates in South Australia in three distinct populations: the Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.

Sugar Gum is also widely planted across the drier western district of Victora as a windbreak or shelterbelt and for durable farming timber as well as magnificent firewood.

Sawn timber harvested from sugar gum has little defect and is prized for its durability. It is particularly suited to situations requiring high strength where appearance is also important, such as flooring and joinery. Its durability also makes it a valuable timber for exterior applications such as cladding, decking, outdoor furniture and pickets.

The Forests Commission recognised value of sugar gum from its earliest days.

In 1890, a nursery was established at Gunbower Island to grow sugar-gums and blue gums for the arid dry plains of the Avoca and Loddon catchments, and the dry sandy mallee wastes of the north-west and northern portions of the Colony.

By 1905, it was reported that large wattle and sugar gum plantations were established in the Portland district, and smaller ones at Mount Beckwith, Eddington and Cave Hill.

The 1907-08 annual report stated that plantations at You Yangs, near Lara cover some 1,300 acres, and consist chiefly of blue gum, sugar gum, pine of several species, and wattles for tanning.

A year later it was reported that commencement has been made at Dimboola, where 2,500 acres are enclosed with sowing and planting of sugar gum, bluegum and various other hardwoods.

The plantation expansion continued, and by 1917 the Commission reported “Eucalypts, chiefly ironbark, spotted gum, blackbutt, red mahogany, and sugar gum, were planted and sown at Dimboola, Dargile, Callawadda, and Korumburra, to the extent of 320 acres. Black featherleaf wattle was sown on 393 acres at the Grampians, at Lake Lonsdale (near Stawell), and at Mount Beckworth (near Clunes).

However, it now appears that there are only four significant areas of sugar gum plantation remaining.

• Barrett near Dimboola – 160 ha. A late planting – perhaps 1960s -1970s. Very small areas can also be found in the Bryntirion State forest dating from the 1950s.
• Majorca near Maryborough – 210 ha. Establishment of this plantation was underway as early as 1887.
• Wail – 300 ha. Surrounding the old FCV nursery from about 1909-1910.
• You Yangs – 680 ha. Establishment of this plantation was underway in 1887 and trees can still be found.

Given the expected shortfall in firewood with the cessation of timber harvesting on State forest in 2025, it seems a shame that these plantations were not maintained and expanded.

In the wake of the 1939 bushfires, the Forests Commission invested heavily in a radically new communications network. After suffering some inevitable delays due to the war, radio VL3AA switched into full operation in October 1945 proudly beaming out 200 watts across the State.

The RC-16 radio phone had been designed and built by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) just before the outbreak of WW2. The Forests Commission adopted a version in 1939 that had been modified for the Australian Army and the RAAF – designated the RC-16B.

The RC-16B weighed about 9 Kg and used fragile valves that failed if the unit was dropped or bumped. As a portable, it was powered by a dry-cell battery weighing 1.6 Kg while a much heavier battery was used in office situations.

They used a thin dipole wire antenna strung up between two trees to get reception in the bush.

The availability of cheap solid-state transistors from the 1960s and 1970s enabled more robust radio sets to be fitted to the 4WD fleet.

Photo: Thought to be Bert Head, District Forester at Warburton and Upper Yarra, with his RC-16B and trusty steed. If you look carefully, you can see the dipole antenna wire. c 1940. FCRPA Collection.

http://messui.polygonal-moogle.com/valves/SC201101.pdf

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 in 1885.

Water from the combined 11,500 acres of the Wallaby and Silver Creeks, which are on the northern side of Great Dividing Range, was diverted via deep granite lined channels over the range at a low saddle into the 10,500-acre Lower Plenty River catchment at Jack Creek, at a glorious spot known as the “Cascades”.

Public Works Department engineer, William Thwaites, designed most of the works.

In 1891, together with surrounding buffer areas, the catchments were vested in the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works.

Wallaby Creek once had some of Victoria’s tallest mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans), some growing at 300.5 feet. But the forests were extensively burnt in the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires and the trees were nearly all killed. The MMBW caretaker’s lodge was lost as well. The subsequent thick regeneration has severely affected its water yield in accordance with projections of Kuzera’s Curve.

Long term research by the legendary botanist from Melbourne University, Professor David Ashton, showed that the oldest trees in Wallaby Creek originated from a bushfire in about 1700, whilst other old trees regenerated after the great fire of 1851.

Interestingly, before the fires some stands of mature mountain ash were very open with very little understory

The catchment is now part of the Kinglake National Park.

I spent 40 years as a field-based forester and firefighter in rural Victoria, mostly around the Powelltown and Central Gippsland forests.

And while it had its ups and downs, like any job, I mostly enjoyed my career.

But one of the things that upset me the most, were the small number of people (bogans I shall call them), who deliberately set out to trash the bush.

It’s been a problem for as long as I can remember, and it comes in many forms.

• Rubbish dumpers. Things got worse after asbestos rules were introduced and when councils stopped issuing free tip tickets.
• People who shoot holes in things, particularly new signs.
• Those that get enjoyment smashing toilet facilities and setting fire to picnic tables.
• Graffiti that was never clever or witty.
• Hoons that threatened and intimated other visitors, scaring them away.
• Trail bike and mini bike damage in the 1970s was bad enough, but heavy 4WDs, and now cheap quad bikes and ATVs has raised environmental mayhem to a new level.
• Ripping up roads and tracks, or off road, for the fun of it.
• Smashing down or stealing gates as trophies.
• Setting out to deliberately get bogged, or do burnouts, and then leaving a muddy mess in their wake.
• Pyromaniacs and arsonists.
• Firewood cutters that indiscriminately cut down living trees.

All good fun…eh…

As a forest manager, I spent a large amount of time and effort developing facilities for visitor enjoyment.

It broke my heart, and made me angry, to go back after a long weekend to see them trashed.

And all this cost money… public money… your money… my money… money that could have been better used to maintain and upgrade facilities.

Weekend patrols were only part of the answer, but it chewed into our meagre State forest recreation budget.

Gathering evidence and prosecutions were difficult. And it’s not possible to be everywhere, all the time, in a 7-million-hectare estate.

Hardening up facilities to look like an ugly fortress, or secret cameras weren’t a 100% effective solution either.

There were some successful education programs like Camp Host and other things, but they seemed to have little long-term impact on bogans.

But probably the lowest point was when a new picnic table at Peterson’s Lookout in Tyers Park, north of Traralgon, was stolen.

The table was put there by the staff and crew and dedicated to the memory of colleague and friend Peter “Crackers” Cramer who died in 2013 while on deployment to a bushfire in Tasmania.

I know it’s only a fraction of the visitors… but I don’t have an answer to this widespread problem.

Today, 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.

But until the early 1980s, three sets of colours were unofficially associated with Australia.

1. Red, white and blue formed the colours of the Australian flag.
2. Blue and gold were Australia’s heraldic colours, seen in the wreath on the Commonwealth Coat of Arms granted by royal warrant in 1912, whilst also being chosen as the colours of the ribbon of the Order of Australia in 1975.
3. Green and gold represented Australia in many ways – the green symbolising the colours of the Australia bush, with gold symbolising wattle, grain harvests, sheep’s wool, mineral wealth, beaches and sunshine.

The colours of green and gold have also been informally associated with Australian sporting teams since the late 1800s, but were never formally adopted as its “national sporting” colours.

However, on 19 April 1984, Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen officially proclaimed Australia’s national colours as green and gold.

The gold most closely resembled the shades of Australia’s national floral emblem, the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha).

https://www.facebook.com/groups/forestcommisionheritage/posts/8715527325140207

This photo from the State Library comes in black and white as well as colour versions, so I guess it was sold as a postcard.

It also features in the Leader Newspaper published on 30 August 1902. The caption says the road was recently constructed with an unemployment scheme.

I clambered all over those soggy and leach infested hills as a young forester and I reckon the photo was taken a couple of km south of Gunyah Junction on the Toora-Gunyah Road, near the turn off to the old Mt Fatigue firetower.

The scrub on the left side of the road is the current Gunyah Rainforest Reserve, with the monumental Gunyah Tree nearby.

Ironically, this area of about 2000 acres was set aside in June 1882 for “growth and preservation of timber” after concerns from early foresters about the wastage of forests in the hasty, and ultimately failed, scramble to settle the Strzelecki Ranges for farming.

Interestingly, the trees are labelled black butt which was an early, and now rarely used, name for mountain ash (Eucalyptus regans), or “King of the forest”.

As you can see the understory is sparse but that’s not uncommon for dense and mature mountain ash stands.

I’ve seen it suggested that the understory looks as though it’s been recently burnt, and while it’s hard to be certain, bushfire generally kills mountain ash trees, and the photo was taken three years before the major bushfires in 1905-06 which swept through the hills behind Toora and killed 7 people.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196582413

Hardwood poles have always been a very high value forest product with a royalty much higher than sawlogs.

In 1946 the Forests Commission produced some 250,000 lineal feet (76.2 km) of telephone and electric power poles, mostly for the Post Master General (PMG) and State Electricity Commission (SEC).

From about 1947, as the power grid expanded during the post war period, durable species such as Gippsland grey box was getting harder to find so the SEC allowed Class 2 of round timbers such as white and yellow stringybark.

From about 1957, Class 3 species such as messmate and mountain grey gum were also in use.

The use of creosote and CCA to protect poles from decay began in about 1972 while treated pine and concrete poles were in widespread use from the mid 1990s.

Each hardwood pole carried a metal inspection tag which indicated its date, class, and species.

SEC Annual Report 1946. https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1945-47No26.pdf

Sundial Peak in the Grampians National Park sits at the southern end of the Wonderland Range and overlooks Lake Bellfield.

It was named by early settlers who noticed that the 2360-foot-high peak received the first and last rays of sun each day.

In 1968, form-five students at nearby Stawell Technical School, under the guidance of their maths and science teacher, the legendary Ralph Sinclair*, were making their own sundials as a class project.

One student asked, “Why is there no sundial on Sundial Peak,” and so began the quest to design and install one.

Then State forest, permission was granted for the installation from the local District Forester at Stawell, George Jennings.

It was decided to make the sundial for the princely sum of $50 which was covered by the School Principal and Hawthorn footballer, John Kennedy, who said he would just “find the money”.

In early November 1968, the 150 kg black granite sundial, mounted on a special frame made by the school’s sheet metal department, was delicately carried over 2 km from the car park to the mountain peak by the students along the difficult and winding track. They also carried sand, screenings, timber, cement, water and watering cans.

When correctly oriented and mounted on its cairn the sundial was carefully grouted into place.

The names of all the school students involved in the project were embossed onto an aluminium strip and placed under the new installation.

A large number of Forests Commission staff, civic dignitaries, school teachers and journalists joined the students for the unveiling.

• Ralph Sinclair was also my maths and science teacher in the early 1970s. Very deservingly, Ralph was awarded an Order of Australia in 2012 for “service to science education”. I can also personally attest that he made a huge and lasting impression on so many young lives.

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