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Timber. Timber dark in colour, hard, tough, and close-grained, used for 
tool handles, cogs of wheels, &c. It is generally sound to the centre. It is very difficult 
to season, but when dry it is of singular closeness and toughness. (Sir W. Macarthur). 
It is apparently well adapted for all machinery purposes. (Jurors' Reports, London 
International Exhibition, 1862.) 
Many years ago I heard that it was highly prized by carpenters, who have had 
mallets of it in almost daily use, lasting from eighteen months to two years (Moruya 
district). Mr. Forester Brown told me that Mr. Wynter, of Taree, used to value it 
for screws of handscrews, sheaves of blocks, and clean turnery. Mr. G. L. Hill, of 
Bungay, Wingham, tells me that it is highly valued for axe-handles on the Bulga. 
Mr. G. W. Green, of Bobin, wrote to the press from Wingham in July, 1914, as 
follows : 
Having for three years been experimenting with a timber (called by the local bushmen " Mountain 
Water Gum") in various ways, particularly in its steaming properties, and also bending properties, and 
having used all timbers on the market that will steam and bend well for over forty years, I emphatically 
state that the timber that grows on the Bulga called " Mountain Water Gum," on account of its 
wonderful qualities of lightness, strength, and ease with which it springs straight, if bent, without steaming, 
or keeps any shape desired if steamed and bent, is a better timber than the American hickory, ash, or elm. 
(I have called it aeroplane wood, being a member of the New South Wales Aerial League ever since it 
started, and therefore knowing a little about aeroplanes.) I assert it is as light as ash, as tough as elm, 
and as strong as hickory (all of these being largely imported into the Commonwealth for bending purposes), 
or any other timber that I have used for boat-building, carriage-building, &c. It makes the best possible 
handles of all kinds, especially axe-handles. 
It varies from very pale pink to a rich reddish colour, and a shaving displays remarkable toughness . 
Size. As a rule it is a small or medium-sized tree, but growing in streams is 
against its development. Many years ago I recorded trees of it 2 feet 6 inches in 
diameter on the banks of the Bellinger, and there were some fine trees on the Dorrigo 
(Beilsdown and other creeks). 
Mr. G. L. Hill, of Bungay, Wingham, Manning River, says : 
On account of the floods you never see a tree of any size on a straight trunk, but on the Bulga 
it grows through the scrub and I have seen trees with a fair trunk, and I measured one with a girth of 
16 feet three feet from the ground. I do not think there is enough of it to become of much value, and 
what there is there will soon be destroyed. 
Habitat. It extends from Gippsland, Victoria, to south Queensland. It is 
found in or on the banks of watercourses. 
The National Herbarium, Sydney, has specimens from the following localities : 
VICTORIA. 
Nowa Nowa (H. B. Williamson); Wingan River, East Gippsland (C. Walter); 
Orbost, Snowy River (E. E. Pescott, J. Rowe). 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
Monga or Sugar Loaf, near Braidwood (J. L. Boorman); found all over the 
district, from the summit of the mountain to its base, being 3 feet high on the summit 
and 20-30 feet at the base, Clyde Mountain, near Nelligen ( J. L. Boorman) ; top of the 
Pigeon House, near Milton, the only specimen seen (R. H. Cambage) ; Barbers' Creek 
(H. J. Rumsey); Cambewarra Mountain (Miss J. Close); Cataract Dam (J.H.M.); 
North Clifton (J.H.M.). 
