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We were subsequently informed that Rogers’ punt, at Laurieton, which was built about eleven 
years, and has the bottom cleaned sometimes once or twice a year, was riddled with cobra. The bottom 
was not painted. Wc did not see this punt. 
There is any quantity of turpentine in the Laurieton district, but it is rarely cut, as it dulls the saws. 
Mr. Cain, timber merchant, of Wauchope, Hastings River, writes to Mr. Forester Brown :—“There 
are two kinds of turpentine—one grows in the brushes and has a very long stringy bark and very red 
timber, and the other grows out on the clear, and has a very thin scaly bark, and the timber is very dark 
inside. I cannot tell you, for certain, which is the timber that the cobra riddles. I have been asked the 
question by-, but I think it is the turpentine that grows on the clear that the cobra will eat, but I 
am not certain.” 
At Port Macquarie we made careful inquiries at Hibbard <t Son’s Mill, in company with Mr. 
Forester Brown, and Mr. Hibbard, jun., spared no pains to give us information. 
Here the punts for up-river work are made of 2J-inch turpentine planking, covered with tar and 
felt. Below this a sheath of 1-inch turpentine planking is placed to take off chafing, and to avoid the 
cost of coppering The inch planking is stripped off about every seven years. 
The punts go into fresh water, but remain there a few hours at the most. The inch planking is 
cleaned from barnacles about every two years. 
The punt slip at Hibbard’s wharf consists of red turpentine and has been down fifteen years. It 
has gone below high-water mark. Between high and low water it is practically intact. It is partly 
covered with tallow-wood, which has been eaten away to about the same extent as the turpentine. Mr. 
Hibbard is of opinion that turpentine is undoubtedly the most cobra-resistant timber we have. 
Rudders for droghers are made by Mi-. Hibbard out of turpentine, showing that people have a 
leaning towards the timber. 
It is all red turpentine at Port Macquarie; black turpentine is never used. A timber-getter here 
(Mr. Kilmorey, senior) says that “the turpentine, cut from swampy or moist land, is very soft to cut, has 
a thin bark, resin runs out like native honey, and that bees do not swarm to it when felled like they do to 
that which grows in the forest.” 
The fender piles of Greenhills Wharf, West Kempsey, are eaten off between high and low water. 
They are of squared turpentine. The other piles are of ironbark, coppered. This wharf marks our 
northernmost limit, this trip. 
The Government jetty at Goff’s Harbour was stated to have been over twelve months building, and 
before it was finished, the turpentine piles first driven were stated to have been attacked by cobra. 
Mr. G. Harriott says “ that the ‘ Byron Bay ’ wharf piles, of forest turpentine, were riddled with 
cobra in a few years, and adds, that turpentine growing in the brushes smell stronger (when cut into) of 
turpentine than the other.” As regards the turpentine piles at Byron Bay, we attach a copy of a letter 
written by Mr. C. W. Darlev, late Engineer-in-Chief for Harbours and Rivers, to the Forest Department, 
and forwarded for our information. It not only shows that Mr. Harriott’s statement must be considerably 
modified, but gives additional information of a valuable character. 
“Two pieces of pile, recently taken from the Byron Bay jetty-—one cut at low water and the other 
at 5 feet below low water—show how well turpentine will resist the Teredo navalis (cobra) in sea water. 
The pile from which the specimens were taken was driven about eight years ago. From them it can be 
clearly seen that while the Teredo attack, and to a great extent destroy, the sap-wood, they fail to touch 
the red heart-wood. They also show that the Teredo are not nearly so active a little distance below low 
water as they are at low water. Experiences teaches me that it is only in pure salt water that the worm 
avoids the heart-wood of turpentine, for in rivers where fresh water is in excess of the salt water the 
Teredo will penetrate the same wood rapidly. It is a question, however, whether the worm is really the 
same, and steps are now being taken (October, 1894) to test this question.” 
V.—The Bark of Turpentine. 
It has been stated that cobra never goes through the bark, or rather the bark, plus the layer of 
oleo-resin, which is reputed to be the great protector of the timber against cobra. Mr. Laurie, of Laurieton, 
