120 
light, very tough when dry; excellent for many purposes requiring lightness and 
strength; stated by some to he not durable if exposed to the weather. 
One of the most endurable oaks, is suitable for bullock-yokes, bandies, tfec.—(District Forester 
Rotton, Nowra.) 
I should like to obtain additional evidence as to the durability of River Oak 
when exposed to the weather. 
The River Oak, it will be noticed, is of a much paler colour than the Bull Oak or Belah, and 
although it has many uses, yet, owing to the limited supply it is not much used. In fact, landowners who 
have it growing on their property fronting the river or creeks object to it being cut down, as it assists to 
keep the banks together as well as providing a shade. It is, in my opinion, a much better timber than 
any of the oaks I have mentioned.—(District Forester Osborne, Cootamundra.) 
Size. —The largest of all Casuarinas. I have seen it probably nearly a 
hundred feet high, and with a trunk diameter of six feet, and perhaps more. 
Habitat. —Widely distributed over New South Wales along river banks, and 
in shingle beds. It is found in the warm coastal districts, in the cold mountain 
districts, e.g., Blue Mountains, Orange, and New England, and in the western 
country beyond Dubbo. It can be readily recognised from the figure, and I ask 
correspondents to give me specific localities south of the Shoalhaven River, and west 
of Dubbo, Narrandera, and Grenfell. It extends to Queensland, Bentham having 
received it from the Gilbert River, but its range in that State requires to be defined. 
The River Oak as a hank protector .—It is a tree which is readily propagated, 
and which should be faithfully conserved, for besides its value as a stock food in 
time of drought it is one of the best trees we have for protecting the friable banks of 
rivers. The banks had in the course of ages acquired an equilibrium which has 
been largely destroyed by the white man. He has ruthlessly cut down the River 
Oaks to obtain more ready access to the river frontage, and to enlarge the area of 
cultivated land, but the latter aim has often been defeated through the consequent 
falling in of the banks. Perhaps I may at this place be permitted to make 
quotations from a recent paper written by me * 
The paddock is the unit in considering the effects of erosion. Much of the mischief has already 
been done, but intelligent conservation of existing and future trees has vast possibilities for good. It 
ought to be made penal to ringbark up to a certain distance from a watercourse, or to cut down a River 
Oak on any of the rivers (watercourses), except under a special license only to be obtained after due 
enquiry. The reason of the suggestions is because improper ringing or felling affects the riparian owner 
lower down, and he has quite enough difficulties to contend with which are beyond human control, to be 
victimised by the ignorant act of his fellow-man higher up the stream. I could give an instance where a 
man cut down River Oaks to make culverts ; the River Oak timber is now perished, and if he had gone but 
a few yards away he could have got almost imperishable ironbark. He has now to repair his culvert, but his 
River Oaks are gone, his banks are falling away where he removed them, and a larger culvert is now required. 
In the case of a casual labourer this would have been termed living from hand to mouth. In the present 
instance it is miserable expediency and opportunism unworthy of thinking men. If the results of acts like 
this would alone affect the doer, we could view the matter with complacency. 
Natural Bank Protectors .f—Let us observe the interlacing and ramification of the roots of trees in 
good soil (such as these flats and river banks). It is very extensive, and their mechanical action in 
* The Mitigation of Floods in the Hunter River. Proc. Roy. Soc., 1902, p. 113. 
+ Op. cit., p. 118. 
