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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2000
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    Australia
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    Default Favourite Book, Morris Lake's Rainforest Woods of Australia.

    I'd like to discuss Morris Lake's Rainforest Woods of Australia. This is mentioned below under the heading of Timber/Tree books but I though I would start another thread since it is a book that should be more appreciated. It is a terrible shame that people often use what I think is junk wood of radiata and slash pine when these wonderful and unique woods are available. From the start, I was to say that this is one of my favourite books because it combines the growing of rainforest trees with their unique and wonderful timber which unfortunately is not nearly as well known as it should be. This is a large part of my business, the growing of rf trees, sawing up a few of them and then finding a market for them where perhaps their unique characteristics are appreciated. On my farm here, almost all of my rf timbers come from regrowth associated with my mostly Hoop Pine plantations.
    I'd like to think that there will be a second edition of this book where a few changes and additions can be made and these are some of my suggestions.
    There are a couple of pages dedicated to the physiological structure of wood, well I'd like to see a page devoted to those great enemies or wood, the wood borers. Generally Australia is free of most serious wood borers except for the dreadful West Indian Dry Wood Borer and the lyctus borer. This borer mostly only attacks the sapwood in some species. I'd like to see a list of resistant species, species that are susceptible but the damage is not enough to worry about, and significantly susceptible species. It could be mentioned the best treatment is borax which is simple safe and cheap and not other dreadful things.
    Another list I'd like is log storage. Many Eucalyptus species can be stored for months out in the weather. This is not nearly so true for most rf species. Some can be stored under cover and probably it is beneficial to seal their ends. Some must be debarked before storage and some, probably cannot be debarked and so cannot be stored as the bugs just eat them away.
    There are also what I think are a few errors such as Qld Maple being Australia's most valuable species. Really I don't mind the error as I just plant a few more QM's here and give customers the quote from the book.
    I'd also very much like to see a few extra species included that I think warrant it. I won't give my reasons why but if anyone is curious, I can do so. The ones that I recommend are, what I call KinKin Penda, Giant Ironwood, the unnamed KinKin species of Tulip Oak, Cinnamomum oliveri ( my reason is as a local response to the ubiquitous Camphor Laurel), and Cockspur Vine. I know this is a vine but it grows in rainforests and can get big enough to saw into boards.
    I don't like it when it is said that a species has been logged out. This is simply not really the case as the problem is that the rfs have been cleared for agriculture and the trees and the forests now do not exist, at least what can be accessed.
    I'd also like the book to be an advocate of rf farm forestry. The rainforest timber can come from properly managed rf, regenerated rf and rf/cabinet timber plantations and together with the recent invention of mobile sawmills, these unique species can be made more available again.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Brisbane (western suburbs)
    Age
    77
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    Default

    Bob, I don't like to be over-critical as I have some inkling what an effort it takes to put something like "Rainforest Woods" together, but I have to say I am not as enthusiastic about the book as you are. The pictures are often of such poor quality they are useless, and much, if not most of the information on the woods is available elsewhere - both Bootle & that excellent CSIRO book "Forest trees of Australia" contain as much info on many of the species, though there are some species mentioned in Lake's book that don't appear jn either of those texts, of course.

    I think the most useful part of the book is the information on distribution of the species mentioned, and the written notes on the botanical features, though in many cases there is insufficient info to make even a tentative diagnosis of an unknown species & the accompanying photographs purporting to show characteristic features are often just a jumbled blur to my eyes. I do find it frustrating that when giving distribution he uses names of obscure rivers or districts & if you really want to know where boundaries are you need to consult Google maps to find the places or features mentioned. A small distribution map similar to what is used in bird guides & similar texts would be sufficiently accurate for most purposes & be far easier to interpret.

    That said, I heartily approve of your efforts to promote lesser-known, "non commercial" species in sustainable forestry. I know there are many species that may be reasonably well-known on a very local basis, but never get a mention beside the more well-known 'standard' varieties. I've come across some local woods in the past few years that I'd not heard of before, but are just perfect for some applications. Your problem, I suspect, is always going to be marketing; getting these more obscure species known & creating a demand - then you have to maintain a reliable supply. But for small operators content with a manageable business, I reckon the niche market has a lot of potential!

    Keep up the good work.....
    Cheers,
    Ian
    IW

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2000
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    212

    Default

    Ian, Yes, I'd like a rewrite of the book. You are quite right that some changes are needed in the text and an improvement with some of the photos. What I'd like most of all is for the book to be expanded, not by much to be an advocate of farm forestry leading to what could be a fact that these timbers can be made available. There could be a page on rainforests, that is still existing ones, regrowth, plantations and their silvicultural management. The suitability of different species, their characteristics,their sawing up and their marketing and selling. Photographing trees is quite difficult for several reasons but it might be made easier if trees in botanical gardens were included as well as access to online sites such as Atlas of Living Australia.
    As Australians, I'd like to think we need to appreciate our wonderful heritage of our rainforests and their associated timber. At the moment, peoples' knowledge is poor beyond belief. Can I give 3 examples. At the local men's shed, there is a piece of wood which is clearly probably slash pine labelled as Silky Oak. Even on this forum, there are people who mix up Australian Red Cedar, our tree of history and the American western red cedar. All arborists know of tree species is that if they cut it, it goes into the chipper, no matter what!! I'd like this book to encourage an appreciation of the rainforest trees, their timber and how they can be sustainably made available.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Brisbane (western suburbs)
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    77
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    12,095

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    Hoo boy, Bob - lots to digest in your post!

    First up, I think your suggestions of some additions to the second edition would be a good idea. To make room, the section on wood identification at the back should be removed & made into a separate book. Those pics are of excellent quality & an invaluable resource to those who are capable of using them but useless to 90% or more of readers, in my view - how many woodies own even a hand lens, let alone a good 100x microscope? But the more relevant issue is that I doubt anyone who hasn't had a bit of training could use the pics to reliably id an unknown species. I've tried & gotten thoroughly lost & I spent a working lifetime staring down microscopes...

    I agree the knowledge of woods displayed by too many of our colleagues is anywhere from poor to non-existent (don't think I've ever seen anyone mistake a softwood for Silky oak though - that one's a real howler!). However, I'm not sure how you go about educating us all to a better level. Having a good set of samples on hand is a good start (preferably labelled correctly! ); good quality pictures of side & face grain help, but as often as not create more confusion - witness the range of "answers" given to "What's this?" pics posted here...

    As to the general confusion between species, I reckon that's got a lot to do with a relatively small pool of common-names applied to a very large number & range of species, plus the relatively small number (compared to what's out there), even experienced woodies encounter in a lifetime. I think the problem is made more severe here in Oz because we had people from a country with only a handful of tree species let loose in a country with at least 100 times as many. Occasionally they asked the locals what they called the trees & occasionally used those names, but in general, just applied a name they were familiar with on the slimmest of similarities of the live tree or its wood!

    You are promoting a very different & far more intelligent approach to obtaining wood than just heading into the bush & slaughtering the first promising tree you can get at. Being able to offer a range of species with unique properties suited to different uses is a terrific idea, too, but it'll take a while to catch on & spread. One day not too far from now, I hope you & the handful of others scattered around the country doing a similar job will be celebrated as important pioneers by hordes of grateful woodies......
    Cheers,
    Ian
    IW

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