It is about a year since I first heard of the hardwood samples at the
Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia's National
Capital. Their story, which I researched and wrote up some months ago,
has nothing whatever to do with biodynamics. However, I have submitted
it to the list knowing that there are members who are tree-lovers or who
appreciate the value of timber in mapping out the history of our planet
and people. It is my fervent hope that someone will come up with an
inexpensive answer to the problem posed.
*************
The Dadswell Collection
In the 1920s, Australia was a timber importer and a fledgling timber
exporter. Someone (at the Council of Science and Industrial Research
(CSIR) in Melbourne, as the Commonwealth Scientific amd Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO) was known then) recognised that we as a
nation did not have a ready means of positively identifying our hardwood
timber species and set about organising one by calling for samples from
all over this country. In the early 30s, the samples were assembled into
a collection by a CSIR person named H.E. Dadswell, in conjunction with
two other people (Maisie Burnell & Audrey M Eckersley) who then produced
several reference works.
In all, the Collection consisted of samples "from 13,000 tree species of
9,000 genera belonging to a total of about 270 botanical families - from
Acanthaceae to Zygophyllaceae." Samples from butt sap, butt truewood,
and toplog were taken from each tree. Each sample was an undressed
block approximately 600mm x 100mm x 50mm (24" x 4" x 2"). Pieces
measuring 100mm to 150mm long were cut from the butt truewood samples
for macroscopic and microscopic examination.
One of the reference books is entitled Methods for the Identification of
the Light-Coloured Woods of the Genus Eucalyptus. I have a copy which I
tracked down at an auction house in Adelaide, South Australia. It
contains 60 pages of methodology; tree descriptions (of 41 species of
Eucalypts) including common & botanical names, distribution, general
properties, basic density, burning splinter test result, and anatomy;
and 41 photographic plates. The tree species range from E. gigantea -
Alpine Ash to E. consideniana - Yertchuk.
The Collection was held by CSIR's Division of Forestry Products in
Melbourne for some considerable time and then one or more pieces 25mm
were cut from each sample and collated into a second collection. They
number in total 47,000. At some time (presumably when Dadswell died)
this second collection was named the H.E. Dadswell Memorial Wood
Collection; since then the words 'and Slide' have been added after
'Wood". In 1993, three further reference books were compiled using this
collection which has been described by CSIRO as 'an important national
resource'.
(One would have to agree, considering that a great number of these tree
species are now either extinct, commercially extinct, or 'locked up' in
national parks. One would also think that the original collection was an
equal important national resource. However .....)
When the second collection had been put together, the original one was
offloaded on to Latrobe University in Victoria ('offloaded' is my word -
it may not have been as casual as that). It was kept there for a number
of years until the institution ran out of space (or the inclination to
hold on to it wore off) and then the decision was made to dispose of it
at the local landfill! Fortunately, a Reader in Wood Science at the
Department of Forestry, Australian National University, Dr Philip Evans,
heard about it and with the help of a sympathetic faculty head, had the
collection trucked to Canberra.
A happy ending, one might think. But, No. The collection (down, I think,
to a few hundred samples) is stored under tarpaulins in the open air;
the blocks are packed in banana boxes. They are deteriorating badly,
which is hardly surprising.
There was a woodworking exhibition last year called Rings of History.
The beautiful artefacts in it were made from some of the blocks in this
collection. They may (probably 'will') be the last objects made if we do
not somehow get that collection into clean, dry and secure surroundings
very quickly indeed.
You may wonder what my interest in this affair is. It's very simple.
Most of my life I spent in the RAF and RAAF but it's irrelevant to this.
For most of the last 15 years I was a woodworker working with recycled
timbers. (Not a turner, but a box and cabinet maker.) Most of the woods
I have used have been common-or-garden compared to many in this
collection; indeed, I know my limitations very well and while I have the
skills to dress and lacquer the samples (which is surely part of what
they need) I could in no way match the brilliance of the Rings of
History collection.)
In 1993 I was living in a tiny village near the Sassafras Hills between
Braidwood and Nowra in NSW. At that time I was exploring the old
woodworking methods - broadaxes, froes, adze work and so on - for which
one needs green timber and so I asked a friend for a tree. Not a
problem, he said, drove me to a spot on his property and indicated some
stringy barks, all about 30m high, asking which one I would like. I
picked one out and he sent me to stand right away while he cut it down.
With a chainsaw. In less than 5 minutes. Then he trimmed the branches
off, cut the trunk into two-metre sections, rolled them on to his truck
and took them and me home. There he unloaded them and peeled the bark
off for me.
After he'd left, I knelt and ran my hands over the cool surface of the
logs and then I stood up and looked down at them for what seemed to be a
long time. In my mind's eye I could still see the tree standing so
majestically in the paddock with its mates, leaves waving in the breeze,
and it came to me that I had done a terrible thing. Then and there I
swore to myself that I would never cut down a living hardwood tree again
unless it was diseased or dying, and I haven't yet.
I have a love for wood which has, I think, been handed down to me from
many generations back, and has grown upon me in the last 15 years. I
believe it would be sacrilege of a very special sort to waste this
collection and an insult to the memory of Dadswell who, I am sure, would
have been the last person to allow it to rot outside as it is doing.
That is my interest. If I had the money, I would save it myself. What
the Collection needs, however, is a permanent home.
roger
