A common reaction to the native trees was one of doubt as to their suitability for the many purposes to which they would have to be put in the building of the new colony. They were generally large, their wood dense, slow to dry and prone to defect. Axes and saws blunted quickly. To produce the building timbers needed, pit-sawing, hewing with broad axe and adze, and splitting were employed, the choice depending on the end-use and the available species. Pit-sawing, in which two men cut a log lengthwise, using a saw about 2.5 metres long, with one standing on the log and the other underneath it in a pit, was particularly exacting with many of the eucalypts because of their size and density. Fortunately some split easily and split slabs, palings and roof shingles became widely used.

Timber was one of the major materials of the aboriginal culture. The technology used in its harvesting and fashioning was based on edge-ground stone tools and its successful application involved an expert knowledge of the range and properties of the wood types available. The form and functionality of aboriginal wooden artefacts were of a high order -for example the woomera (a spear thrower, sometimes fitted with a stone cutting tool to serve as an axe), the boomerang and the pitchi (a long flattish, basket-like container carved from one piece of wood and used by women for carrying food, water and sometimes small children). Equally impressive were the industry and skill involved in their fabrication.

A wide variety of woods was used by the aboriginals, from very dense species such as mulga (Acacia aneura)* from inland Australia to some of the softwoods of the eastern coast. In some instances local deficiencies in supply were made good by trade with other areas, for example softwood shields from the coastal forests of the northeast were traded in the Cooper Creek area of central Australia.

* Common names are used for tree species in this Chapter but where a species is mentioned for the first time the botanical name is added in parenthesis. The common names follow Boland et al. (1984).

Timber export started soon after white settlement, when Sydney blue gum (E. saligna) and some other species were sent to England for use by the Royal Navy which was then short of supplies of oak and mast and spar timbers. Of greater significance to the colony, however, was the discovery of red cedar (Toona australis) on the Hawkesbury River. The beautiful texture and colour of this wood, together with its good working properties, soon identified it as a valuable commodity and its export was begun about 1795. It was cut eventually at many locations along the east coast, from Ulladulla, NSW to the Barron River in north Queensland, but with the depletion of the more readily accessible stands, the industry had declined significantly in importance by the end of the 19th century. The early cedar-getters relied mainly on bullock teams and water for transport of logs. As many of the rain forest areas where the cedar grew were close to rivers the logs, suitably branded, were floated downstream to booms, where they were collected and segregated and then either loaded into barges or tied together as rafts and towed to Sydney or Newcastle.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering