During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Forests Commission ran a large unemployment program of firebreak slashing, building roads, erecting firetowers, silvicultural thinning, firewood cutting, weed spraying, soil erosion works and rabbit control. Importantly, most of the work was in country areas.

By 1935-36 almost 9000 men were employed for periods of up to eight weeks at a time. Their bush camps generally comprising 25 men with two-thirds being from the city. And despite the blisters, many remained in the country to make their future.

The Country Roads Board, State Rivers and Water Supply Commission and Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works also employed large numbers of men known as a sussos, which was slang for sustenance workers.

However, there was a special need to provide opportunities for young people.

Newspapers warned of long-term consequences of enforced idleness of youth of the Nation, claiming that if nothing was done “many would become permanently unemployable and would settle down to a life on the dole or turn to crime”…

With the support of two prominent Melbourne businessmen and philanthropists, Herbert Robinson Brookes and George Richard Nicholas (of Aspro fame), together with Forests Commission Chairman, A. V. Galbraith and the Minister for Forests, Sir Albert Lind, a unique and enterprising “Boys Camp” was established at Noojee in 1933.

The Commission provided a timber hall and other facilities, but the boys camped in tents and there was initially no electricity. Commission officers also supervised thinning and ringbarking of young stands of messmate, silvertop and mountain ash together with fire protection works on the 2000 acres of private land purchased and donated by Brookes and Nicholas.

Groups of about 30 young boys, aged between 16 and 19, were at the camp at any one time and were paid at rates applicable to Forests Commission workers, but money was deducted for food, accommodation and medical support. And if they didn’t work… they didn’t get paid.

The idea was a success and extended across Victoria to another 15 sites including a second camp at Noojee.

By June 1934, the Forests Commission ran Boys Camps at Noojee (X2), Bruthen, Bairnsdale, Powelltown, Acheron/Marysville, Gunbower Island, Otways, St Arnaud, Maryborough, Bendigo, Beechworth, Macedon, Daylesford and Ballarat.

Some 1276 boys had passed through the camps by 1936.

For many, it was their first experience of country life and Boys Camp proved one of the success stories of the 1930s and it was later reported two-thirds of the boys found employment.

With the outbreak of the War in September 1939, there was no longer a need for a youth unemployment program, but some of the camps were used by high school and university students to produce emergency firewood for Melbourne until 1942.

After the war, the Noojee camp was once again occupied as a temporary home for immigrants fleeing Europe. But all trace is now gone.

The humble timber pallet (or, less typically, a plastic or metal one) has at some time or another, probably carried almost every type of object in the world.

For a mostly unseen and unnoticed item, pallets are everywhere, and there are said to be billions of them circulating through the global supply chain.

While there is some debate about their pedigree, pallets as we now recognise them, were not around until the forklift arrived in about 1915.

Australia was one of the first countries to develop the standard timber pallet. During World War 2 the United States as part of their huge logistics effort to supply allied troops, used pallets for transport on a scale never seen before.

When the war ended in 1945, the Americans left behind their materials handling equipment and a very large stock of wooden pallets. The Australian government seized upon the opportunity during the hectic post war reconstruction period and formed the Commonwealth Handling Equipment Pool (CHEP). It was a game changer.

The Government sold the assets of CHEP in 1958 to Brambles, which is now the largest pallet rental business in the world.

But despite efforts for global standardisation from the 1950s, the Australian standard pallet is rarely found elsewhere. But its square size (1165 mm × 1165 mm) fits perfectly into a standard RACE container used by the railways.

In Victoria, the largest producer of CHEP timber pallets is Dormit which began operating in about 1989, and now has modern sawmills at Dandenong and Swifts Creek.

The company sources low grade hardwood logs from State forest and private land that would have otherwise only been suitable for pulpwood.

From a small allocation of about 80,000 tonnes, the Dormit has grown into Australia’s leading manufacturer of over 1.2 million pallets in 2021.

However, the long-term supply of pallet grade sawlogs from State forests is under a cloud.

The timber pallet is possibly the single most important and under recognised object in the global economy, other than maybe the shipping container.

And then of course there is the cardboard box.

John Klunder Jensen was born in Bendigo in 1884 but had to leave school at the age of 11 to find work following the early death of his father in 1895.

He moved to Melbourne in 1898 and in 1900 took a job as a junior messenger boy in the Defence Department’s ordnance stores branch at Victoria Barracks, which at a time was dispatching large quantities of ammunition and equipment to the South African Boer War.

A self-educated man, John eventually forged a highly successful career with the Department of Munitions, including during the critical war years.

A compulsive worker he presided from his office flanked by a ‘tin hat’, Bren-gun and portable typewriter.

Sir John Jensen was appointed OBE in 1938, and knighted in 1950, for his services to Australia.

John was also an active member of the Melbourne Walking Club from 1922 to 1938 and continued his interest in walking and the Australian bush until his death in 1970 at the age of 85.

He regularly went long treks lasting from several days, and up to a week at a time, which covered between 70 and 130 miles.

Luckily for us, John Jensen often carried a camera and tripod and fastidiously recorded his photographs in albums. But most significantly, his photos give us a glimpse into the forests before the devastating 1939 bushfires.

John Jensen sometimes contributed articles to “The Melbourne Walker” magazine and the club have generously placed his extensive collection bushwalking photo albums in the care of Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

They are also online:

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jensen-sir-john-klunder-10621

https://www.melbournewalkingclub.org/photo-gallery/archives

Here is a just a sample from the Starvation Creek – Federal Mills Walk near Powelltown c 1922.

Free e-book now available.

Forty years ago, south eastern Australia was in the middle of a prolonged drought and facing a perilous bushfire season.

A new ebook provides a detailed account of the 1982-83 bushfire season from a Victorian forester’s perspective.

And while the bushfire season is best remembered for those on Ash Wednesday on 16 February 1983, where 47 people died In Victoria and a further 28 in South Australia, significant bushfires occurred right across Victoria from August 1982 until April 1983.

It was a long and hectic fire season for the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) which attended 878 fires on State forests and National Parks totalling 486,030 ha, which was well above the 11-year average of 141,000 ha.

Over the 1982-83 fire season, 22 Total Fire Ban (TFB) days were declared. Close co-operation was maintained with the Victoria Police and Country Fire Authority (CFA) which attended nearly 3,200 fires during the summer fire danger period.

A large part of this document outlines the accumulated wisdom, achievements, planning and preparations undertaken by the Forests Commission (now DELWP / FFMVic) to build an effective firefighting organisation in the decades following the catastrophic 1939 bushfires leading up to the 1982-83 season.

Major campaign bushfires at Cann River together with a forensic analysis of the bushfire at Greendale on 8 January 1983 which killed two Forests Commission machine operators, Des Collins and Alan Lynch, is included.

The role of the Commission in major bushfires on Ash Wednesday is also described in some detail.

The aftermath of the bushfires is outlined as well as the major organisational changes introduced by the new Cain Labor State Government from mid-1983.

Sadly, very little can be easily found in old newspapers, in books, or on the internet about the significant role of the FCV. 

This story of the 1982-83 fire season was assembled nearly 40 years after the momentous events using internet searches, newspaper accounts, coroner’s reports, FCV files held in the Public Record Office, witness statements, police reports, personal recollections and some limited interviews.

There remain significant gaps and sadly many of the key FCV staff are no longer alive or available to give their version of events.

My main hope is to tell some of the rich story of the Forests Commission during the 1982-83 fire season and place it on the public record in time for forthcoming 40th anniversary next year.

A free e-book has been lodged in the State and National libraries as an enduring record of the Forests Commission, and its staff’s, achievements.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3112961467/view

or here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pd4XYyC3pIiEszsFPjsz6TRvcoNh3-Ky/view

I’m happy for you to download and share this work.

Cover: Forest firefighting by Robert McHugh (Age 9).
World Forestry Day – 1999.

Harvesting of various wattle species began in Victoria and southern NSW around the time of the gold rush in the 1850s.

Black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) is a small, fast-growing, leguminous tree and was highly prized for tanning leather. The tannin is also used to produce waterproof adhesives in reconstituted wood products.

Bark was stripped from the wattles in spring and into summer when the sap began to flow which made it easier to remove. But harvesting killed the tree.

The bark was bundled and dried, then chopped and crushed by machine or by hand and mixed with water and other chemicals in deep pits to brew tannin liquor. Large hides, which had already had the hair removed by using a lime solution, were immersed in the pits until completely tanned. The hide was then stretched, dried and compressed by rolling between massive brass rollers.

Unsurprisingly, the left-over bark material was called “tanbark” and was often reused as a garden mulch or on pathways. The Tan, the 4 km path around the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, gets its name from its original wattle bark surface.

By the early 1800s, areas around Western Port and Portland were major centres for wattle bark stripping, but operations soon extended across Western Victoria and well into the southern estuaries of East Gippsland.

At Lakes Entrance bark was used to tan sails and season fishing nets to protect them from decay in the salt water.

The industry developed very rapidly and at one stage in 1868, there were 2000 tonnes of bark ready for shipment from Bairnsdale. During the period 1871 – 1884 nearly 20,000 tons of wattle bark was exported from Portland.

The establishment of tanneries at Sale, Stratford and Bairnsdale added to the demand and by 1875 wattle stripping had even extended to Orbost.

By 1882 a pound and a half of Black Wattle bark was said to make 1 lb of leather, and a ton of bark was considered sufficient to tan between 25- 30 bullock hides.

The strong demand for bark coincided with the selection of land for agriculture. Bark stripping not only helped farmers to clear their land but also provided much needed income.

State forest was also harvested by ex-miners and other itinerant workers. Bark stripping paid well but it was very arduous work.

Bakeries valued the left-over wattle branches, a by-product of bark stripping, because it produced a quick hot fire. The wattle timber also produced a very fine white ash, which could be blown out of the oven and the bread cooked in the residual heat.

Wattle was used as garden stakes.

But tanning required large quantities for fresh water and were always sited on waterways and usually close to towns. Tanneries had a reputation from being smelly and polluting waterways with effluent. Most of Melbourne’s tanneries were in the northern suburbs and along the Yarra.

But uncontrolled bark striping across the State forests nearly brought wattles to the edge of extinction.

The State Government’s concern about forest devastation and the potential impact on both the footwear and tanning industries led to the Wattle Bark Board of Inquiry in 1878.

The Inquiry had some distinguished figures including Joseph Bosisto, Member of Parliament and eucalyptus oil pioneer, and Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, the State Government botanist. The Board made many sweeping recommendations including licensing of wattle harvesting, seasonal restrictions and encouraging cultivation.

Attempts were made to grow wattle, with some degree of success. A Government financed plantation was planted in the Kentbruck area but was burnt out by a bushfire before it was harvested. Others were established at Majorca near Maryborough – 500 acres, Havelock – 300 acres, and the You Yangs – 1,080 acres

Forests Commission Annual Reports indicate an ongoing supply of tan bark from State forests at 1919/20 – 471 tons, 1929/30 – 614 tons, 1939/40 – 796 tons; 1949/50 – 424 tons and 1956/57 – 445 tons. Most harvesting had concluded by 1960 because of the increased availability of alternative chemical tanning agents.

Black Wattle is native to Australia but was introduced to South Africa in 1871 and now dominates what remains of the global market.

Report of the Wattle Bark Board of Inquiry – 1878.

https://archive.org/details/wattlebarkreport00victrich/page/n2/mode/2up

Forest and bushfire management in the Colony of Victoria from 1851 through to Federation in 1901 can best be described as chaotic.

Prior to European settlement, nearly 90% of Victoria had been forested but it was rapidly, and indiscriminately, cleared by miners during the gold rush, by timber splitters and then in a mad scramble for land settlement.

At the time, the State’s forests were generally considered as the inexhaustible “Wastelands of the Crown”.

Timber splitters cut palings and other building materials and first operated around the gold fields in the 1850s to supply the mines and bustling townships. The splitters progressively moved east of Melbourne into the expansive wet forests from the 1860s.

Splitters camped in the bush and were attracted by the huge stands of mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans), a tree that splits easily, and messmate (E. obliqua), which proved durable as a building material.

But by the late 1800s, most of the giant trees reported by the Government Botanist Baron von Mueller were being rapidly lost to timber splitters and land clearing.

There was little regulation and massive wastage of the forests and timber resources during the 1800s that could no longer be ignored.

However, the Government mostly responded with inquiries, inertia and inaction.

There were inquiries and independent reports from D’A. Vincent (1887) and then Perrin (1890) into the parlous state of Victoria’s state forests but with little result.

In 1895 the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey, Sir Robert Best, invited Inspector-General Berthold Ribbentrop, from the Imperial Forest Service in India to visit the new colony.

State forest conservancy and management are in an extraordinary backward state.

The forest laws of the country are inadequate.

The protection of forests against fires has never ever been attempted, and neglect and waste in their treatment are now as rampant.

The income from the forests is ridiculously small, and quite out of proportion to the large supplies drawn from them; and the money spent on their protection, maintenance and improvement is entirely inadequate.

His scathing report prompted a Royal Commission which commenced in 1897 and produced 14 separate reports before closing in 1901.

And despite spirited opposition by agricultural and grazing interests, the State Forest Department was finally created in 1907 with legislation formally setting aside timber reserves, regulating cutting and providing for rehabilitation after mining and logging.

Timber splitting eventually ceased but was replaced by steam powered sawmills and tramlines operating in the bush to cut palings and other sizes of building timber.

Building fire dams was another of the many recommendations of the Stretton Royal Commission after the 1939 bushfires.

The Forests Commission annual reports give a clue to the increase in the numbers over the years.

There were no fire dams reported in 1939-40, but by the time that the Forests Commission ended and became Conservation, Forests and Lands (CFL) in 1982-83 there were 2169.

Building and maintaining fire dams was a local district responsibility. There was an engineer’s branch to help for bigger jobs.

But mostly the District Forester or overseer would simply identify a spot, usually near a road in a strategic location where there were no natural water sources, like rivers or creeks. Road drainage and table drains from the road were redirected into the dam to keep them filled.

They were built and kept clean with departmental machinery and crews. The FCV had lots of heavy machinery as well as small district FADs to clean them out. Excavators weren’t around until the 1980s.

They were shaped with shallow entry and exits so FADs could keep them clean and so tankers could get closer.

They weren’t all just simple holes in the ground either, some were proper stone weirs like Cosstick’s Weir in the Colquhoun forest near Nowa Nowa. There were bores and overhead tank stands as well.

The dams were often used for annual pre-season pump schools where all the district staff would familiarise themselves with the pumps in the fire shed. Usually ending with an epic water fight.