I should like to obtain additional evidence as to the durability of River 

 Oak when exposed to the weather. 



The River Oak, it will be noticed, is of a much paler colour than the Bull 

 Oak or Belah, and although it has many uses, yet, owing to the limited supply 

 it is not much used. In fact, landowners who have it growing on their pro- 

 perty fronting the river or creeks object to it being cut down, as it assists to 

 keep the batiks together as well as providing a shade. It is, in my opinion, a 

 much better timber than any of the oaks I have mentioned. (District Forester ( 

 Osborne, Cootamundra.) 



Size. The largest of all Casuarinas. I have seen it probably near 100 

 feet high, and with ;i trunk diameter of (> feet, and perhaps more. 



Habitat. Widely distributed over Xew South Wales along river banks, 

 and in shingle beds. It is found in warm coastal districts, in the cold 

 mountain, districts, <-.//.. Blue Mountains, Orange, and New England, and 

 in the western country beyond Dubbo. It can be readily recognised from 

 the figure, and I ask correspondents to give me specific localities south of 

 the Shoalhaven River, and \vest of Dubbo, Narrandera. and Grenfell. It 

 extends to Queensland, Eentham having received it from the (Jilhert River, 

 but its range in that State requires to be defined. 



Tin- Hirer Oak as a Hank Protector. It is a tree which is readily propa- 

 gated, and it should be faithfully conserved, for besides its value as a stock 

 food in time of drought, it is one of the best trees we have for protecting the 

 friable banks of rivers. The banks had in the course of ages acquired an 

 equilibrium which has been largely destroyed by the white man. He has 

 ruthlessly cut down the River Oaks to obtain more ready access to the river 

 frontage, and to enlarge the area of cultivated land, but the latter aim has 

 often been defeated through the consequent falling in of the banks. Per- 

 haps I may at this place be permitted to make quotations from a paper 

 written by me: 



The paddock is the unit in considering the effects of erosion. Much of the 

 mischief has already been done, but intelligent conservation of existing and 

 future lives lias vast possibilities for good. It ought to be made penal to 

 ringbark up to a certain distance from a watercourse, or to cut down a River 

 Oak on any of the rivers (watercourses*, except under a special license only 

 to be obtained after due enquiry. The reason of the suggestions is because 

 improper ringing or felling affects the riparian owner lower down, and he has 

 quite enough difficulties to contend with which are beyond human control, to 

 be victimised by the ignorant act of his fellow-man higher up the stream. I 

 could give an instance where a man cut down River Oaks to make culverts; 

 the River Oak timber is now perished, and if he had gone but^ a few yards 

 away he could have got almost imperishable ironbark. He has now to repair 

 his culvert, but his River Oaks are gone, his banks are falling away where he 

 removed them, and a larger culvert is now required. la the case of a casual 

 labourer this would have been termed living from hand to mouth. In the 

 present, instance it, is miserable expediency and opportunism unworthy of 

 thinking men. If the results of acts like this would alone affect the doer, we 

 could view the matter with complacency. 



Natural Bank 7'ro/rr/or.s-. Let us observe the interlacing and ramification 

 of the roots of trees in good soil (such as these flats and river banks). It is 

 very extensive, and their mechanical action in arresting washaways is obvious. 

 One can see evidence that the banks of the Upper Hunter streams were much 

 more lined with trees than at present. In many parts of the Hunter and its 

 tributaries one sees large River Oaks (many of them past their prime) leaving 

 no descendants to continue their work of bank preservation. The young seed- 

 lings are palatable to stock, and hence they are eaten out if they have free 

 access to them. This points to the necessary precaution that stock should not 

 have unfettered access to the bed of a stream, as if it were a public highway. 



