100 THE TIMBER OF TASMANIA. — BLUE GUM. 



the availability of this Tasmanian timber for works of this kind will be 

 apparent. 



The timber for this order was felled in Lady's Bay, in the river Derwent. 

 On the same spot a dozen orders might be executed of similar magnitude. 

 Nor is this a solitarj^ instance. Large tracts of the island, and those border- 

 ing on, or in the immediate vicinity of, navigable water courses, are thickly 

 timbered with this hard and almost imperishable wood. Small portions of 

 it have from time to time been sent to England, but not in sufficient quan- 

 tities to attract the attention of European contractors ; and its value in rail- 

 way construction, and other uses in which great durability is required, has 

 thus never been otherwise than locally tested. We are glad to know that 

 100 tons of railway sleepers, made of the blue gum of Tasmania, have been 

 shipped on board the "Cissy" for London. We trust this fact will be made 

 widely known in England, and on behalf of the colony we invite an inspec- 

 tion of this sample of Tasmanian produce. We believe that this island 

 possesses all the requisites for a far greater timber trade than has yet been 

 developed. We have, indeed, for years supplied Australia with most of the 

 wood employed in building and cabinet work. But we claim, at all events, 

 a share of that great traffic which the extension of railways and other 

 works of magnitude, both in Europe and in India, is creating. And to 

 obtain this we only need that the true character of the article we are 

 capable of supplying should be generally known. 



We trust to be able shortly to report the adoption of some active official 

 steps with a view to the introduction of the hard woods of Tasmania into 

 the English market. Some difficulties stand in the way of our immediately 

 realising all the advantages that ought to accrue to us from our possession 

 of this invaluable article of export. The first of these is that the real pro- 

 perties of our timber are very imperfectly known to the engineers and 

 contractors of the mother country. That our blue gum attains an average 

 elevation and size greater than any other tree in the world ; that planks of 

 this wood have been cut, measuring the enormous length of 160 feet, by a 

 breadth of 20 inches, and 6 inches in thickness — of such magnitude, in fact, 

 that it was found impracticable to find ships capacious enough to carry 

 them to the Exhibitions of 1851 (London) and 1855 (Paris) ; that this tree 

 attains, at its full growth, a height of from 250 to 350 feet, and a circum- 

 ference varying from 80 to 100 feet at four feet from the ground, and that, 

 in regular forest ground, it rarely gives off its principal limb under 100 feet, 

 whilst there is not unfrequently a stem clear of any branch for 200 feet and 

 upwards ; that its specific gravity is far in excess of that of teak, British 

 oak, or even saul ; that it has been proved by experiments, instituted to 

 test its breaking weight, to be superior in point of strength and elasticity to 

 all other known timbers — are facts well known in practical and scientific 

 circles in this island, but which have never yet been brought with sufficient 

 prominence before the engineering world. Its length and dimensions, its 

 power of resisting pressure, and its durability, are all greater than can be 

 obtained from any other timber in the world. Locally it is employed in 



