WHARF CONSTRUCTION, SYDNEY IIARBOUR. XXXIII. 
I exhibit some sections cut from piles drawn from what 
used to be called *‘Smith’s Wharf,’’ Miller’s Point, which has 
been replaced by a fine new wharf 1,200 feet long. These 
piles from outside indications when standing appeared to 
be amongst the most damaged of those inthe wharf. The 
sections were taken from the worst looking portions of the 
piles, usually the two or three feet about low water mark. 
In three instances it will be seen that while the sapwood 
had entirely disappeared, having evidently been destroyed 
by Sphaeroma and Limnoria terebans, the timber itself is 
as sound as the day it went into place, only one of the three 
sections shows Teredo holes, and that not more than ten 
small ones, which would not materially weaken the pile. 
The fourth section, which as you see, is completely riddled 
with holes, is not turpentine, and has been classed as iron- 
bark. It may be added that about 80% of the old turpentine 
piles which were recently drawn from Smith’s Wharf after 
a service varying up to 30 years, have been used over again 
for various purposes, such as sleepers for cargo shed floors, 
repairs to old wharves, etc. I may remark that the water 
in the vicinity of Miller’s Point is in the line of the tidal 
current, and has always. been comparatively free from 
sewage matter, so that pollution of the water can have 
exercised very little influence in preserving the piles from 
marine borers. 
Touching upon more modern experience, I recently 
demolished a jetty in Woolloomooloo Bay, which had been 
standing 20 years. The piles were of unsheathed turpentine 
and proved to be so sound, that I used them again in 
additions to other wharves, such as Jones Brothers’ coal 
wharf, Gillespie’s wharf, etc. These piles showed only a 
few Teredo holes in the sapwood, and a little erosion at 
and below low water mark due toSphaeroma. The water 
of Woolloomooloo Bay is of course out of the tidal current, 
3—July 18, 1906. 
