250 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and of recommending measures for dealing with the foi'ests of 

 that State, while New South Wales and Queensland are consider- 

 ing proposals having similar objects in view. The way, therefore, 

 is being prepared for concerted action on the part of the Federal 

 Government, by co-ordinating, as far as may be possible, the 

 efforts that are being made by the various States of the Common- 

 wealth, and by advising the adoption of measures which, while 

 applicable to the separate States, shall be suitable to the country 

 at large. 



The Forest Areas of Australia. 



The magnitude and importance of the interests involved may 

 be judged by the fact that the forest ax-eas of Australia comprise 

 107,037,000 acres of marketable timber, or nearly half the areas 

 of the forest lands of Europe, excluding Russia. Of this area 

 Queensland possesses 40 million acres, New South Wales 20 

 million, Victoria 12 million, South Australia 4 million, Western 

 Australia 20 million, and Tasmania 11 million acres. To this 

 should be added a considerable area in Queensland (over 100 

 million acres) and in Western Australia (over 70 million acres) 

 covered with inferior timber, which has a local value for building 

 and for general purposes. 



Many, if not most, of the important forests of Australia are 

 fairly accessible from the sea, as the best grown and most 

 valuable timbers are mainly coastal. This especially applies to 

 the belts of jarrah and karri in Western Australia, which occupy 

 clearly- marked and distinct areas on the hill ranges of the south- 

 west, which skirt the coast for some hundreds of miles; and also 

 to Tasmania, whose forests of blue gum and stringy bark grow 

 down to the shores of that forest-clad island. In Victoria the 

 southern forests, which correspond very largely to those of 

 Tasmania, are not far from the sea, while in the northern part of 

 the State, where the timber is akin to that of New South Wales 

 and Queensland, considerable areas border on the river Murray. 

 The sub-alpine regions of Victoria, however, where some of the 

 finest timber of that State is found, are at present practically 

 inaccessible. In New South Wales and Queensland a number of 

 the largest and most valuable belts of forest land lie between the 

 dividing range and the sea; but in both these States there are 

 large areas too far from the coast to render them serviceable as 

 immediate sources of supply. 



