Foremost amongst such timbers is perhaps the " Red Cedar," Ceilrcla 7'oonct, which has extended its 

 range south from the Malay Peninsula into Queensland and New South Wales. Taken all in all, it is 

 considered the best all-round timber in Australia, and is still in great demand forcounters and internal wood- 

 work decoration, although in recent years, for furniture making it has gone out of fashion. It was probably 

 the very first timber to which cabinet-makers' attention was seriously drawn at the inception of the trade in 

 the early days of the Colony. The first mention of it in the Historical Records is by Collins, vol. i.p. 412, 

 who states that the master of the ship " Fancy," Captain Dell, took to England logs of cedar from the 

 Hawkesbury River in 1795. From then onwards other similarly beautiful timbers were brought to 

 light, as the coastal brush districts north and south of Port Jackson were opened up. Then followed 

 settlement in other States, and so new decorative timbers came to be known, and to these have been added 

 from time to time a few from the interior ; but it must be admitted that the typical Australian Flora of 

 those parts is rather wanting in ornamental woods at least, produces only a limited number. 



It is well known that we possess such beautiful woods like Blackwood, Maples (O., Tas., and 

 N.S.W.), Silky Oak, Walnut, Red Bean, Jarrah, and many others, which are all first-class timbers for this 

 particular industry. 



At the present time the fashion is " Oak," and so large quantities of Japanese " Oak " (sic) are being 

 used in the furniture trade as a rival to English Oak, which it resembles in figure, but is consider- 

 ably lighter in weight and more open in texture. Although Australia has no true Oak of the Ouercus 

 family, yet it may be mentioned en passant, that there is here an extensive supply of so-called native Oaks 

 in our Casuarinas, which extend over a great part of the Continent. With the exception of " Belah " these 

 trees have a figure quite like the English Oaks, and are of equal hardness, but show a slight variation of 

 colour through the different species, ranging from a true Oak colour to a deep red, or almost black. There 

 seems no reason why these Australian Oaks should not command a premier position as an ornamental, 

 decorative, and furniture timber, as they possess all the desiderata such as supply, relative cheapness, 

 and capability of sustaining a high polish, combined with a beauty in figure. 



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