Thread: Not too shabby

Yeah, very nice John. My Grandad was a Cedar getter in the Dorrigo (I have his last axe).

I heard once that the topsoil in the Atherton Tableland is up to 19 feet deep, which is astonishing.

I've been out planting trees in that soil this arvo, I didn't have to dig down 19'.

I a bit south of that triangle, higher up on steeper ground, it was dairy country, I'm turning my 10 Acres back into scrub. (Native rain forest.)

Looks like a few of us have links to the old cedar cutters. My grandfather & his brother used to cut & mill cedar at Upper Pappinbarra, up behind Wauchope, back in the 1930's. Here's a photo of him with my mum & one of her brothers, dragging a little stick home. Mum would be in her early 80's now, if she was still with us. The photo of the house they lived in was taken when we were on holidays there in the mid 60's. I can just remember that visit to the old house.
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LOOGXERY THAT, 'avin tractor! My Grandad were an Oxen whisperer.

Great grandads brother was an oxen whisperer too. Musta got laryngitis from swearing at them one day because him and his team wound up smeared under a log at the bottom of a hill near Evelyn. Some big hills and big logs through there.
It happens - been quite a few deaths in my family from logging and sawmilling accidents but I guess thats standard because thats what they did and its a dangerous business at the best of times.

More like 90 feet deep in isolated areas. The CSIRO rainforest research station in Atherton & DNR have done extensive soils mapping. Most soil surveys only look at the top 1.5 - 1.8 m. A DNR soils / land use report for the Atherton tableland listed top soil losses at 400t/ha on moderate slopes (up to 8%) and at 60t/ha on flat country (<3%) in the 1985 wet season.

John. the original survey plan of the portions on the northern side of the Tolga - Kairi Road just out of Tolga showed the surveyors vegetation notes that said "cleared, numerous red cedar stumps to 12' high" if I recall correctly. That would have been to the top of the buttress roots I presume.

Great grandads stumps probably, they took that country around Tolga up as virgin in 1880 something and proceeded to remove cedar and black nut and burn the rest. Wasteful old bastards: maple, oak etc they torched as quick as they could drop it on the ground.

Getting better on the reverse face.
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Originally Posted by John.G

Getting better on the reverse face.

Crikey, I'll say!

In the early 70's I lived in Mareeba NQ and worked at the Foxwood mill (originally Lawson's) too (payclerk, nothing romantic guys ) The legend was that the Masterson Hotel in Mareeba was almost entirely built out of Red Cedar. Brings tears to the eyes these days just thinking of it.

I do recall that the GM of the mill took possession of the rare small stand of ARC for himself one day and had it shipped to Tassie where he hailed from. Lucky coot!

Originally Posted by John.G

.....Wasteful old bastards: maple, oak etc they torched as quick as they could drop it on the ground......

It still happens, there is a whole maple tree standing dead in a cow paddock that we have to drive past every day, I suspect the cranky old bastard who owns the paddock poisoned it.

Wednesday arvo I spotted a whole maple tree cut into logs that 2 blokes could move at the Millaa Millaa dump.

Tempted to go back with a chain saw & a trailer but I know they wouldn't let me use a chain saw at a council dump.

Down in the guts of him. This is where the inherent flexibility of a swingmill shines when coupled with traditional roll the log for stress relief approach./you get boards that are straight and accurate in the sizes ordered, which is why I get away with my exorbitant contract sawing rate.

Two quartersawn faces showing:
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One pack out, great colour and showing plenty of hairy patches which is fiddle when planed. Comfortable $6-8 grand a cube stuff, that's going to get mostly ripped down for chair components.

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Too hot, go home, start again at 3.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

It still happens, there is a whole maple tree standing dead in a cow paddock that we have to drive past every day, I suspect the cranky old bastard who owns the paddock poisoned it.

Wednesday arvo I spotted a whole maple tree cut into logs that 2 blokes could move at the Millaa Millaa dump.

Tempted to go back with a chain saw & a trailer but I know they wouldn't let me use a chain saw at a council dump.

Well ask if he'll donate it to the shed. I did offer to saw one for free for you to get some timber in store for y'all, or give you something you could cash out to buy equipment with. We might be destitute sawmillers but we're happy enough to help how we can.

Malanda doesn't have a shed yet, still working on it.

Originally Posted by John.G

One pack out, great colour and showing plenty of hairy patches which is fiddle when planed. Comfortable $6-8 grand a cube stuff, that's going to get mostly ripped down for chair components.

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Maybe it's a trick of the light, but I'm thinking that it looks SPECTACULAR!