Axe Handle Wood - Who would have thought?

**Fuzzie** · 16th March 2017, 09:48 PM

..... there is a tree named Axe Handle Wood, otherwise known as Aphananthe philippinensis.

I've been doing a few of the walks around the Bunya Mountains this week. One of the exceptional little walks is one down to Carbine's Chute. The track winds through a section of rainforest where many of the trees have retro painted name plaques (original '50's vintage?). A lot of these trees are 30-40 metres tall and it's hard to see the leaves, but seeing those trunks with 20m clear to the first branch

Some of the names I recognized, many I didn't, Red cedar, white cedar, yellow cedar, Native olive, Bunya, Hoop,..... and Axe Handle Wood.

Courtesy of google I see most of these (are?) have been commercial species useful for joinery, furniture etc. No timber yards around here though with boards for sale.

Nice little walk for a woody.

**dai sensei** · 16th March 2017, 09:58 PM

Sounds like a really interesting walk. How long and how difficult is the walk?

Edit: Just looked it up here Walking Tracks - Bunya Mountains Accommodation. I must try it one day

**Fuzzie** · 17th March 2017, 07:55 AM

Hi Neil, You found it. The Carbine's Chute track is one of the shortest tracks here and is easily accessible. The chutes are a couple of sites where the original timber getters would push their trunks of Red Cedar over the edge of the plateau to be picked up below for the saw mills. We have also done some of the longer walks. Another thing that surprised me were the raspberries along the tracks. Originally coming from Victoria I assumed they were an unwelcome weed like blackberries, but it appears these are native, and very nice too!

Chatting to one of the rangers about Axe Tee Wood, he wasn't aware of it but said when he was slashing tracks he sometimes hit a smallish trunk with his machete and it just bounced off. He thought that was probably the same tree.

**dai sensei** · 17th March 2017, 10:34 AM

The Bunya Mountains were always on my list. That site gave me a renewed interest for perhaps the long way home from Melany, or on my way out/back from trip out near Roma to collect some Ooline later this year

**Bob Whitworth** · 23rd March 2017, 09:25 PM

It is quite a common tree in rainforest regeneration. It has small sandpapery leaves that you can sharpen pencils with and is often called Native Holly. If anyone wants some they are welcome to contact me.

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