49 
Used for waggon-rails, shafts, poles, and other work connected with carriage-building. (F. R. 
Marriott, Mudgee.) 
Used by wheelwrights for spokes and naves of wheels. (General Report, Sydney Exh., 1879.) 
Mr. Allen Ransome tested samples of this timber sent from New South Wales 
to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. Erom the specimen submitted spokes were 
turned, casks made, and boards planed. “ In all cases it proved an easy wood to 
work.” 
Eurtlier inquiry should be made in regard to the durability of this timber, in 
view of the somewhat contradictory nature of the following statements. 
The trunk is sawn into good timber, and it is also used for posts and rails. It is, amongst other 
purposes, recommended for shafts. It is hard and, when seasoned, difficult to cut, but burns well, even 
when fresh. (Mueller.) 
The wood is of superior equality, light, tough, and elastic ; is used for swingle-trees of buggies, 
ploughs, ifec., but will not endure under ground. (Howitt.) 
. . . . the rough-barked variety ( E. Sieberiana) is not a durab'e timber. (A, W. Howitt,) 
Mountain Ash (E. Sieberiana). This timber, though suitable for wheelwright work, being tough 
and clear in grain, will not stand exposure to the weather in our bridges; it opens badly and should not be 
used, (J. V. de Coque, reporting on Upper Murray timbers.) 
The following is evidence as to the durability underground of the timber. 
The timber used in the Long Tunrtel Mine (a damp mine), Walhalla, Gippsland, consists chiefly of 
E. Sieberiana, E. capitellata, E. obliqua, E. amygdalina, and E. viminalis. The first of these, E. Sieberiana, 
is by far the best; it lasts many years. (Tisdall, Proc. R.S. Victoria, 1887, p. 43.) 
Ironbark (Tasmania). This timber grows principally on the north-east coast of Tasmania, and is equal 
in quality to the Ironbark* found on the Australian continent, and does not grow so tall or so large as the 
Gum, but has a small heart, and is very durable in or out of the ground. It makes splendid piles or 
medium-sized timber. The principal place for shipment would be from George’s Bay, this being the most 
central place for it. (John Bradley.) 
It is used in Tasmania for sleepers, amongst other uses. 
Mr. R. A. Crawford, Moona Plains, Walcha, N.S.W., wrote to me in 1896 :— 
Eucalyptus Sieberiana. —The best all-round timber in this district; of course it varies according to 
locality. I have seen the timber on the ranges on the west side of the creek last more than twice the time 
of timber from the other, same species and split the same season. I know an old building roofed with 
shingles of this wood, still in use; it was built early in the fifties. It is, of course, getting leaky, but at 
35 years old or more the roof was quite sound; the slabs might yet go into a new building; rafters also 
sound. The fence of a paddock erected about 1855 or ’56 being badly damaged by fire last winter was 
taken down, and most of the rails were again used with fresh posts. This and capitellata both very lasting 
woods; best we have for posts'except corymbosa. 
Habitat.— Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales. It occurs in the 
Snowy Mountains (near the Victorian border) up to an elevation of 4-5,000 feet, and 
thence northward along the ranges, west at least as far as Mudgee. On the Snowy 
Mountains it is interesting to observe that E. Sieberiana is always found on slopes 
with a southern aspect. 
The species loves high, rocky, stony mountain ranges on poor barren ground, 
and never takes to grassy localities. 
This is undoubtedly exaggerated. 
