1 A MESSAGE FROM TRUSTEE HARRY: Number 81 February 2015 Members of the International Wood Collectors Society are devoted to advancing information on wood, distributing information on collecting word, correctly identifying and naming wood specimens, and using wood in a creative and sustainable way. AustralAsian Region Trustee Harry & Esther Dennis 566 Wodonga-Yackandandah Rd, Staghorn Flat. Vic 3691 Phone: (02) 60208637 E-mail: [email protected]Newsletter Editor Peter Simpson, 33 Heath Lane, Kureelpa, Q 4560 Phone: (07) 5445 7748 M: 0408150624 E-mail: [email protected]Australian Membership Secretary Brian and Lyn Fraser, 361 Salisbury Highway, Parafield Gardens, SA 5107 Phone: (08)8258 3383 E-mail: [email protected]State Representatives Victoria: John Lyons. (03)9899 0063 Queensland: Morris Lake. (07)3844 1246 South Australia: (Acting): Brian & Lynn Fraser (08)82583383 Tasmania: Vacant New South Wales: Vacant Western Australia: Charles and Lalleen Broadbent (08)9752 2111 (08)9752 2111 New Year’s Greetings to Wood Collectors from Staghorn Flat, Good news! The application for the international 2016 AGM to be based at Charleville Qld has been accepted by the IWCS Board of Trustees. The Charleville committee will meet at Maryvale Station on March 26 th & 27 th 2015 to commence de- tailed planning of the dates etc. for this meeting. More details coming in later editions of Down-under. Morris & Robin, Peter & Jan and David & Marcia advise that planning for the 2015 Australasian Conference & AGM on the Sunshine Coast 5th - 9 th October 2015 is well advanced and an application form is included in this edition of Down-under. The result of the plebiscite re distribution of Down-under : all votes received were for distribution by Email or hardcopy. Thus, if you wish to choose to receive Down-under by Email you may. A reminder members fees are $65 for 1 year $180 for 3 years & $275 for 5 years. A report of the Victorian meeting at Werribee at the home of Graham & Bronwen Hickman is included in this Down- under. The meeting was coordinated by Ian McLaughlin in his normal efficient manner. Thankyou Ian for job well done. The next Victorian meeting is planned for the week- end of April 25 th - 26 th at Balook, South Gippsland with John Lyons as coordinator. An application form will be sent soon. I have had no response to my previous request for trustee reps for NSW and Tas. so if you are out there and would like to take on either of these roles, please contact me. There is a busy calendar ahead for Esther and me as we are off to Wagga Turnabout the last weekend in Feb and then on to Turnfest on the Gold Coast in March where we will promote IWCS with a display stand. We will return home via Maryvale Station & Charleville. We have included a new membership application form that Brian Fraser designed in this edition of Down-under. Good wood collecting & crafting. Esther & Harry Dennis PLEASE NOTE: IWCS (Australasia) membership fees from 1st Decem- ber 2014 are 1 year - $65 3 years - $180 5 years - $275
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1
A MESSAGE FROM TRUSTEE HARRY:
Number 81 February 2015
Members of the International Wood Collectors Society are
devoted to advancing information on wood, distributing
information on collecting word, correctly identifying and
naming wood specimens, and using wood in a creative
and sustainable way.
AustralAsian Region Trustee
Harry & Esther Dennis 566 Wodonga-Yackandandah Rd, Staghorn Flat. Vic 3691
While the focus and venue for some meetings are yet to be confirmed, the following dates have been allocated. * Sat 11th April - TBC * Sat and Sun 2-3 May - Maleny Wood Expo * Sat 6th June - Proposed launch of Morris Lake’s book . Venue to be confirmed. * Sat 8th August - TBC * Sat 12th September - Preparation for 2015 Australasian Conference and AGM * 5-9th October Australasian Annual Meeting. Forest Glen and area. * Sat 7th November - TBC * Sat 5th December - Christmas meeting.
QUEENSLAND
Book Review: by Keith Towe
The Biggest Estate on Earth. How Aborigines
made Australia Bill Gammage. Allen & Unwin
ISBN 978 1 74331 132 5 Published 2012
This very interesting book provides an insightful account of how Aus-
tralian aborigines managed the country using controlled burning to
promote “parklike” areas to encourage both plant food and animals
for hunting, and the philosophy of their obligations to the land.
Although he has over-emphasised many examples, Gammage has put
forward excellent instances of the differences in our landscape in
1788 and how it has changed over the ensuing years.
This controlled burning action invariably changed the habitat of our
flora. It prevented many smaller plants/trees from becoming estab-
lished, and maintained the “parklike” environment to encourage plants
and animals to certain areas for the benefit of the Aboriginal people.
These ideas are something that I had not previously considered, I
assumed that much open land apart from arid areas, had once been
forested and had been cleared for farming and agricultural purpose. That they had been planned and enacted
by the Aboriginal people is certainly food for thought.
Chapter 1. Gammage sets out to confirm the Fire Management theory.
Chapter 3. The Nature of Australia, I found the most interesting as there are good sections on plants, par-
ticular the wattles, of which 10 new species have recently been found in the Pilbara, and other rare and re-
clusive species, and of some of the peculiarities of our Eucalypts.
This then makes me wonder about the “Greens” policy of no grazing in the high country, a policy that many
believe leads to huge amounts of undergrowth and eventually fierce bushfires rather than the Cool fires
that result from cleared or grazed land. So is the above policy a mistake?
The author has been accorded 8 or 9 awards for this book, and I believe that most IWCS members will en-
joy and reflect on the information he has presented. - Keith Towe
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Get to Know Our IWCS Members: Harry Dennis
Harold Geoffrey Dennis, born 12/4/1942 at Longford, Tasmania. Eldest child with two younger sisters. Immigrat-ed to Bendigo, Victoria in 1952. Joined the Scouting movement and stayed for 25 years, gaining the Queen’s Scout award, and ended as Scout Commissioner. Matriculated from Bendigo High School and went on to gain a pharmacy degree in Melbourne. Returned to Bendi-go to practise pharmacy for next 14 years in which time I met & married Esther. James and our three children Scott, Michelle & Narelle were born during this time. My interest in wood and wood construction commenced during this period as we renovated a 1906 weatherboard and lathe plaster home we had purchased in a sound but neglected state. We moved to Albury-Wodonga to purchase a partnership in 2 Pharmacies where I continued to practise pharmacy for the next 26 years until my retirement in 2001. During this time we lived in suburbia and added a large exten-sion to our brick veneer home, doing all the construction ourselves. As our children continued to grow, we sold this property in 1982 and moved to our present location, first on 20 acres and now with additions, around 450 acres. The house we bought was an original soldier settlement house constructed entirely of local timber: red stringy bark frame; red gum stumps and Murray pine floors, built in late 1950. We spent the next 10 years completely rebuilding and towards the end of the construction I was pushed aside as by now our son Scott had completed a carpentry apprenticeship. Our daughter Michelle is a florist & Narelle a nurse. During these years we bought a further 430 acres and gradually built up a herd of 150 pure bred Angus cows which, with the aid of all family members, we still manage today. Our extended family of three children, their spouses and eight grandchildren all live on various parts of the farm today. During the Albury-Wodonga working period I also had the privilege of being a member of Albury-Hume Rotary Club where, during a 32 year stint (with 100% attendance for 32 years) I held all positions from President down. Esther & I also had the privilege of going on two Rotary Friendship two week exchange visits to England 2004 and Canada in 2008. We enjoyed the return visits to us from England and Canada the following year. Following my retirement I thought I would like to try woodturning after seeing a demo at a local hardware store. After a series of lessons at local TAFE College and 3 lathes later, I was hooked. I soon joined the Albury Wodonga Woodcrafters and Esther followed soon after, having now taken up pyrography. For last seven years I have been secretary of this group and it is in this capacity I was shown a report of the IWCS Australasian meeting at Neerim, 2007.
Esther’s pyrography
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Esther & I spent 2 years (3 days each month) helping Ian McLaughlin to preserve Dadswell collection for presentation to Melbourne University Creswick campus and the remainder for use by IWCS. Our next task together with Victo-rian Trustees, Doug & Heather Malsem, was to run the Australa-sian meeting at Beechworth in 2013. Prior to joining and with no ink-ling that IWCS existed, Doug Mal-sem started a "WeedPot " collec-tion, turning a small vase 60 to 100mm high depending on how much material was available. I was encouraged to follow suit and both our collections take this form. In the last six years I have turned 845 small vases, most of which are Australian species.
Small sample from the ‘Weed Pot’ Collection
Esther & Harry at the Wandering Termites gathering Merimbula 2013
In conjunction with Albury Wodonga Woodcrafters we run a Lucas mill workshop on two Tuesdays each month, milling logs of local indigenous timber and exotics planted by our early settlers. These are mostly of European or Nth American origin. My other interests over the years include
sport (sailing, squash and cricket played till 56 year old);
photography; outback travel; genealogy (I have traced all ancestors trans-
ported as convicts & free settlers of both sides of my direct family and have visited English sites);
cattle breeding and genetic traits; and tree planting (I have planted over 10,000 trees
on various parts of our farm).
Harry working on a platter of Athetrosperma moshatum (southern sassafrass)
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Did You Know ? …. The WORLD’S TALLEST FLOWERING PLANT is in Tasmania.
5km from Forestry Tasmania’s Tahune Air Walk there stands a giant (Eucalyptus regnans) at a height of 101 metres with a diameter of more than 4 metres. It’s the tallest hardwood and the tallest flowering plant in the world nicknamed Centurion by Forestry Tasmania. It was discovered in 2008 by Tasmania Forestry using LiDAR (light detection and ranging). "It is the only known standing hardwood tree in the world to be over 100 metres tall." Forestry Tasmania managing direc-tor Bob Gordon said. “The swamp gum is the only known standing hardwood tree in the world to be over 100 me-tres tall," and that it is “the tallest known tree in Australia. It is the world's tallest eucalyptus tree, the tallest hard-wood tree, and the tallest flowering plant.” Centurion measures 405cm in diameter and its height was measured using laser survey equipment. The previously known Australia's biggest tree, El Grande, was announced by Forestry Tasmania in 2002 and then burnt down a year later in a regeneration burn. Although there were taller trees on Tasmania El Grande, which stood at 79m was thought to be the largest tree in Australia in terms of volume and grew in the Florentine Valley about 100km northwest of Hobart.
Centurion from the forest floor at Geeveston, Tasmania.
Californian redwood trees grow taller than Centurion, but they are softwood trees, and botanists do not classify them as flowering plants. Centurion is alternately known as The Bradman as the height of the tree is close to the test run average of the leg-endary Australian cricketer Donald Bradman. The tree was only recently discovered because it is located in
a secondary forest and survived logging and forest fires by lucky coincidence. Near Centurion grows another giant tree: the 86.5 metre tall Swamp Gum named Triarius.
The Styx River in Tasmania runs through a forest of Eucalyptus regnans, myrtle beech and tree ferns. The mountain ash rise high above the forest.
Registration fee includes: all meals at conference site, bus tours, museum entrance, Sunset River Cruise, morning and afternoon teas
Exclusions: Wednesday dinner at Mooloolaba, (after river cruise), accommodation at Big4 Forest Glen Accommodation: to be booked directly with Big4 Forest Glen under IWCS: Peter Simpson
Reservations have been made for 22 self-contained cabins and 2 ensuited caravan sites for Mon 5th to Fri 9th Oct. Please advise of any special dietary needs when registering. Make cheque, money order or bank draft payable to IWCS Direct debit NAB BSB: 084-447 Acc: 52-615-4012 Please show membership number and surname as a reference when using direct debit payment.
Forward registrations by 31st August 2015 to: Peter Simpson 33 Heath Lane, Kureelpa 4560 Ph: 07 5445 7748 Mob: 0408 150 624 Email: [email protected]
Members are asked to bring items for Show & Tell, Swap or Sale and The Auction. All items for inclusion in the Auction must be registered by 31st August, 2015 with Marcia Tommerup. Email [email protected]
No item will be accepted for auction after 31st August 2015. Example of Auction Registration:
Type Common Name Species Comment Donor
Wood Hill Gum Eucalyptus fasciculosa 100 x 100 x 300 Brian Fraser
Interstate delegates flying into Brisbane can connect with Sunair Airport Transfers to Sunshine Coast by booking with [email protected] or Ph: (07) 5477 0888
Delegates flying into Maroochydore airport can be met and transferred to the conference site by arrangement with Peter Simpson Mob: 0408 150 624 email: [email protected]
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FORM
Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia 5th - 9th October 2015