Thread: English Elms at Bathurst

Hi Tony,

Wouldn't it be a boon if all councils had the same attitude. Winter in hell springs to mind...

English elm is an attractive furniture timber with character and fairly good working qualities. The seats of old Windsor stick chairs were often made from it.

This board comes from a tree salvaged in Melbourne about 20 years ago.

Photo natural (on the left) is the timber dry, Photo wet (on right) is the timber wet under a desk lamp.

Looks great JB!

Right, here's hoping I get a spare moment today - this is really making me mad-der!!! Especially as I now read that they are talking about getting rid of 30 Camphor Laurel trees from one of the main streets in town here. While the reason is good, I know most of the trees if not all will simply be chipped or stockpiled and gotten rid of later and that p188's me Right Off! Oh and the people that chipped a 100 year old english oak tree:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Ruffley,

As a local, you will have a better chance to get hold of the logs.
There is a market, I know Mal will take a semi trailor load and pay Council $1-2000.
If you get in early and discuss the matter with the Waste recycling engineer and use some 'charm'......Who knows.....
You may end up with a truck load that you can arrange to have slabbed.

Good luck

Regards
Greg

and shipped to Melbourne

Or Sydney

so why can't we (and they) do the same for these elm trees? :confused:

Greg - good idea.

Thanks
Wendy

...or Canberra. Yep this sucks and just reinforces the typical stereotypes so many people have of local councils. How hard would it be to think outside of the normal beaurecratic process and actually do something that makes the council look good, offers a higher value product than woodchips and would pull in more money. When people are actually offering to help out:mad: :mad: Typical council w*****s doing whatever they want because they make the rules and the rest of us can go jump.

Originally Posted by rufflyrustic

This Makes Me Mad!!! :mad:

So, what can English Elm be used for?
What sort of cost does it sell for in Australia?

Wendy

well, for one thing, wheel hubs. The grain makes them excellent. If there is a coach builder or wagon maker/restorer/repairer then let them know about it. Be good to get a few folks on side.

I just received a nice letter from Bathurst Council, acknowledging my "letter" (email) regarding the trees. :confused: Included no real response, reason, change of decision or excuse...


Cheers,

That's good at least - so if we keep email barrage up, they may decide that it would cause too much ill will if they persist with the current plan.

Hi there,
Seems we may have leapt without knowing the full facts! I just received a more detailed response from the council, I hope they don't mind me disseminating it!

Thank you for your interest in this matter, however, you are obviously not aware of the true state of health of the trees. I can advise you that, despite what some may believe or say, the greater majority of the timber was in a very advanced state of decay and mostly not suitable for any of the uses that you have suggested. Council's decision to utilize the timber in the manner in which it did, proved to be the best solution . If you are able to source a copy of the Western Advocate, the local Bathurst paper,dated Thursday 10 August, you may be able to gauge for yourself, the extent of decay in the trees from the photograph on page 4.

Bathurst Regional Council
158 Russell Street Bathurst NSW 2795
Phone: 02 6333 6285
Fax: 02 6333 6115
Web: www.bathurst.nsw.gov.au

It initially does seem a waste (to utilize the timber in the manner in which it did ie. mulch ), but it sounds reasonable now.

Cheers,

Well it is a pity that they just didn't say that at the outset (see post #1 for their original justfication).

I know a good log when I see one.

I stopped and discussed with the tree loppers how I should go about requesting to purchase logs for Mal at Boutique and I can assure you that the logs I inspected had fully solid boles.

Yes, there were some that were unusable and were only good for chipping, but I have no doubt that I could have selected a semi load of around 6-8 logs from the several dozen they were cutting.

And I'm talking about boles that were around 1 metre wide and solid at the base. I should have taken a photo........

Regards
Greg