Red Cedar Trees as a Subject for Aesthetic Appreciation.

**Bob Whitworth** · 17th January 2012, 07:53 PM

I grow Red Cedar [RC] trees here on my farm which I take very seriously. The RC tree grows a most figured and beautiful deep red wood and is probably Australia’s most desired and expensive timber. This is known by the people who appreciate this beautiful furniture and the cabinet makers who make it. The appreciation of figure and patterns in slabs of wood for fine furniture probably reached its zenith in Ancient Roman times. I have a book on Roman history that is a reprint of a late 19th century book that says that the best slabs in Roman times were sold for 500,000 HS currency units[?] which the author has converted to the then current English pounds of 5,400 and even as high as 15,150 pounds. This is an appreciation and a value far beyond what our society places on slabs of rare beauty for furniture. I occasionally sell wide slabs of RC and it is the hard to come by wide slab that shows to best effect the figure in the wood. Occasionally I have even sold slabs to connoisseurs. When they heard that I had some home grown RC slabs for sale, they came and purchased the widest board, no questions asked, because they know that what they are getting is of stricking rare beauty. Unfortunately though, the sale price was nothing at all like ancient times. I though grow the RC trees and when they talk about figure in the wood, I think bent tree because it is the tree with the curve that grows the most alluring figure in the wood. In conventional silviculture [the science of growing trees for timber], it is the straight tree that produces the straight grained strongest and best wood but for RC, the market is mostly for figure from the bent tree. In my forest, I have developed an appreciation of the bent tree and its form knowing the wonderful figured wood that it is growing. Each tree is special to me and I attempt to appreciate them all. To me it is a genera of the RC tree. Just as there is a genera of photographing humans, I have a similar genera of photographing my RC trees and I have so far photographed about a third of my 720 recorded trees. To me they are all inherently interesting but I admit that some are more interesting than others Trees are difficult to photograph because the scale is so large and they have many features of interest and so the photograph usually picks up on only one main point. Sometimes I might place a human beside the tree or an object of interest for scale such as a chainsaw, a brush hook or machette, the tools of trade. Sometimes I photograph another interesting tree or rock beside the RC tree because it seems the obvious thing to do. Topics are; large and small trees, the whole tree or a part, bent and straight, trees of open grown form and those with competition, those on good sites and those on poor sites, trees with good prospects and those with poor prospects, fast and slow growing, single or multistems, branches and stubs, buttressed and round, silvicultural treatment and cutting to form, and finally, old stumps, gone but not yet totally forgotten.

Sometime soon, I hope to have these photographs organised together with an introduction and a comment on each tree photographed. It is also a record for me as the trees grow and unfortunately sometimes become unhealthy and die. I have been closely observing and measuring the trees since as far back as 1987 and my first inventory was in 1989. Is it possible that there is anyone else who has an appreciation of this obscure genera? Sometime, I hope to place all of this on line but in the meanwhile, I could place all the information onto a memory stick and post it to anyone who shared this interest. I also have some small diameter RC logs to give away. RC wood also has a most fragrant and attractive aroma.

**rustynail** · 17th January 2012, 09:17 PM

How do you cope with tip moth?

**Bob Whitworth** · 18th January 2012, 08:24 AM

Strange to say but it seems to me that the borer only attacks the tree when it is quite small. The RC seem to have difficulty getting through the shrub stage and it can twist their growth but after that they seem okay.

**Greg Ward** · 18th January 2012, 09:11 AM

I think you will find cedars of Roman times were a totally different species, which doesn't diminish the quality of the Australian tree (above title should read Cedar of Lebanon)
Toonas (Cedar, identical species) grow all through the Pacific Islands up to India and are quite a fast growing species.
I'm not sure that it is the most expensive Australian timber, Rosewood is generally more expensive and rare and there is plenty of red cedar around at $2000-3000/cube depending on colour etc. Many Qld timbers such as walnut and black bean are of similar price .....let's not seek the price of Huon.
But they are a beautiful tree with a great 'mane' of leaves in summer. We've got around 100++ growing, know the largest ones well, but they can be almost an invasive species when a lot of seeds spout and I can imagine the joy of old timers when they found the almost 'pure' stands of almost red cedar trees. Fires unfortunately kill off the young ones.
Greg

**Toymaker Len** · 18th January 2012, 08:17 PM

Funny thing about the romans was that their most precious wood was citrus so if a roman villa was going up in flames the first thing to be saved was the citrus wood table. As for the price they would pay... well not a lot of money spent on cars and computers and phone bills and air fares etc.

**Bob Whitworth** · 19th January 2012, 09:38 PM

Greg,
I’m not really familiar with Rosewood but I cannot believe that the wood is more figured, has better colour or is more stable than RC. There is though a naturally occuring Rosewood next door which must be about the very northern limit of its range. RC is in certain circumstancess quite a fast growing tree but it doesn’t compare with Euclayptus or Hoop Pine. In some situations, it can regenerate very well. Yes, RC is available and Rosewood is much harder to come by.

Len,
I don’t really agree since the Romans could still spend their money on luxury things such as villas, town and country, art and culture, and what surely must have been best of all, slaves! I believe some households had a many as 80 slaves. I know where I would have spent my money.

**TTIT** · 27th January 2012, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by Bob Whitworth

......... Is it possible that there is anyone else who has an appreciation of this obscure genera? .............

I'm passionate about trees and timber too Bob but I do have reservations about photographing them sometimes! That might sound odd, but if you knew how many of the trees on my website met untimely demises within a year or two of my taking their picture, you would start to wonder too! Not sure what it is but I'm blaming the old camera for the curse - the big new DSLR can do no harm - I hope

**Hardenfast** · 23rd February 2012, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by Bob Whitworth

I also have some small diameter RC logs to give away. RC wood also has a most fragrant and attractive aroma.

Would love to receive some of your small diameter RC log giveaways, Bob. Whereabouts are you?

I too am something of an Australian Cedar afficionado. I love the grain configurations and the smell of the timber when working it. In particular the older large trees seem to produce the most magnificent deep red pieces which is so prevalent in much of our early colonial furniture & fixtures. It's a great timber to carve and machine, so it's no wonder they all went mad for it in the 1800's and early 1900's and cut most of it down.

We had a small farm at Ourimbah (NSW) some years back and had acquired about 12 Australian Cedar plants (around 1.2m high) to spread around the property. They seemed to be going OK for about 2 years and I wasn't taking much notice of them. However, I noticed that several of them had suddenly started to look a little poorly, and when I checked them they had all been badly attacked by grubs (tip moth?) which had virtually destroyed all the new limb growth. Only a couple of them survived.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to do some renovations on an old terrace house in Surry Hills (Sydney) which had a staircase + handrail constructed from Australian Cedar and Kauri Pine, and which needed to be partly demolished. I was able to salvage quite a few pieces for my stash and have been working that into small projects ever since. Quite amazing that even though this timber is at least 130 years old the distinctive smell is there as soon as you start working it.

Regards. Wayne

**Bob Whitworth** · 26th February 2012, 12:55 AM

Wayne,

Glad to speak to another RC afficionado! Yes, it is a wonderful wood with its colour, figure, texture, stability, and aroma and really nothing can compare with it. I would though disagree with what you said about colour. Of all the trees that I have cut, I would say that size doesn’t have anything to do with it. Virtually all of my small logs have a very bright colour.
I’m not sure if I’ve seen the tip moth actually kill a tree but they certainly stunt them and make them weak. If it gets dry, they can certainly die from lack of water. There prefered situation is fertile and moist gully flats.
Also, if wood is kept dry, it will more or less last for ever so 130 year old wood is not really that unusual.
I’m located in south east Qld. You are welcome to call in if you come this way or if you like, I could place some on a truck and send them to Sydney. I don’t think that it would cost too much.

**rustynail** · 26th February 2012, 03:32 PM

In some areas young cedar does carry good colour. I guess this must be due to soil type or minerals. In my 40year involvement with RC in northern NSW I have found most logs under 900mm lacking in colour.

**Hardenfast** · 10th March 2012, 02:07 PM

You're probably right about the demise of my Cedar saplings, Bob. I'm sure it has as much to do with horses nibbling at them, drought and general neglect as the dreaded tip-moth.

Anyway, it's interesting to note that more and more large-section Australian Cedar seems to be available these days. There are always plenty of nice wide slabs at the Sydney WWW show and the prices are compartively reasonable when compared to other species.

I'm still interested to receive some limb off-cuts etc and would be happy to pay for costs to get them down to the Gosford-Sydney area. Any ideas on how to arrange?

I also had a quick look at your Facebook site and was fascinated by your plantings and historical record keeping of the property's fauna. Nice place - how big?

Wayne

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