2. 'Preface. 



SKVKRAL factors were instrumental in bringing about the writing of this publication, and not the least 

 important of these is a desire to produce amongst Australians a higher appreciation of their own native 

 timbers in this one particular branch of Technology, viz., cabinet work and its allied trades. Another 

 was that some of these beautiful woods, owing to the rapid advance of the settler, are in jeopardy of being 

 exterminated altogether, and that by bringing these in this form before the commercial world, it is hoped 

 the various Forestry Departments of the Commonwealth may be moved to set apart reserves for their 

 reafforestation before it is too late. 



To the students of our Technical Colleges it will supply a desideratum by giving a new field of work 

 from which to reproduce the graining of Australian woods instead of the old world's timbers copied now 

 for generations. 



As it is, I often look at these timbers and wonder if they will not shortly become as dead as the Dodo, 

 but still I hope their conservation is now near at hand. As far as I am aware, no previously published work 

 is devoted entirely to the subject, nor have coloured illustrations of our timbers been attempted before. 



That our cabinet-makers might be moved to take a greater interest in such a valuable national asset, 

 by utilising in a greater measure in the future than has been the custom in the past, also played no small part 

 in its preparation. 



At any rate, its publication will, I hope, serve at least as another historical record of the varied and 

 valuable resources of Australia's wonderful forests. 



R.T.B. 

 1912. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 



To the following officers of the Museum my thanks are due for assistance rendered in the 

 preparation of this work : Messrs. C. Still, D. Cannon, and L. G. Irby. 



