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A MESSAGE FROM TRUSTEE HARRY:

Number 81 February 2015

Members of the International Wood Collectors Society are

devoted to advancing information on wood, distributing

information on collecting word, correctly identifying and

naming wood specimens, and using wood in a creative

and sustainable way.

AustralAsian Region Trustee

Harry & Esther Dennis 566 Wodonga-Yackandandah Rd, Staghorn Flat. Vic 3691

Phone: (02) 60208637

E-mail: dennispastoral@bigpond.com

Newsletter Editor

Peter Simpson,

33 Heath Lane, Kureelpa, Q 4560

Phone: (07) 5445 7748 M: 0408150624

E-mail: pgsimp@bigpond.net.au

Australian Membership Secretary

Brian and Lyn Fraser,

361 Salisbury Highway, Parafield Gardens, SA 5107

Phone: (08)8258 3383

E-mail: lynbri2@bigpond.com

State Representatives

Victoria: John Lyons. (03)9899 0063

Queensland: Morris Lake. (07)3844 1246

South Australia: (Acting): Brian & Lynn Fraser

(08)82583383 Tasmania: Vacant

New South Wales: Vacant

Western Australia: Charles and Lalleen Broadbent

(08)9752 2111

(08)9752 2111

New Year’s Greetings to Wood Collectors from Staghorn Flat,

Good news! The application for the international 2016 AGM to

be based at Charleville Qld has been accepted by the IWCS Board of Trustees. The Charleville committee will meet at

Maryvale Station on March 26th & 27th 2015 to commence de-

tailed planning of the dates etc. for this meeting. More details

coming in later editions of Down-under.

Morris & Robin, Peter & Jan and David & Marcia advise that

planning for the 2015 Australasian Conference & AGM on the

Sunshine Coast 5th - 9th October 2015 is well advanced and an

application form is included in this edition of Down-under.

The result of the plebiscite re distribution of Down-under : all

votes received were for distribution by Email or hardcopy. Thus,

if you wish to choose to receive Down-under by Email you may.

A reminder members fees are $65 for 1 year $180 for 3 years

& $275 for 5 years.

A report of the Victorian meeting at Werribee at the home

of Graham & Bronwen Hickman is included in this Down-

under. The meeting was coordinated by Ian McLaughlin in

his normal efficient manner. Thankyou Ian for job well

done. The next Victorian meeting is planned for the week-

end of April 25th - 26th at Balook, South Gippsland with

John Lyons as coordinator. An application form will be sent

soon.

I have had no response to my previous request for trustee

reps for NSW and Tas. so if you are out there and would

like to take on either of these roles, please contact me.

There is a busy calendar ahead for Esther and me as we

are off to Wagga Turnabout the last weekend in Feb and

then on to Turnfest on the Gold Coast in March where we

will promote IWCS with a display stand. We will return

home via Maryvale Station & Charleville.

We have included a new membership application form that

Brian Fraser designed in this edition of Down-under.

Good wood collecting & crafting.

Esther & Harry Dennis

PLEASE NOTE:

IWCS (Australasia) membership fees from 1st Decem-

ber 2014 are

1 year - $65 3 years - $180

5 years - $275

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WEEKEND MEETING AT BALOOK, GIPPSLAND

24 -26 APRIL 2015

This meeting follows a recommendation from Ian McLaughlin

to re-visit the former soldier settler township of Balook on the

Grand Ridge Road in the Strezlecki Ranges in Gippsland. The

community nestles in the Tarra-Bulga National Park featuring

remnant Mountain Ash Forest and fern gullies. The surround-

ing district supports potato and dairy farming, and large tracts of Radiata plantations echoing to the rau-

cous calls of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos. (At least that’s

how I remember it from 30 years ago.)

ACCOMMODATION:

Tarra-Bulga Guest House (03) 5196 6141

1885 Grand Ridge Road, Balook 3971

www.tarra-bulga.com

Packages per couple $278 or single $139 includes two

nights accommodation for Friday and Saturday, breakfasts

on Saturday and Sunday, Dinner on Saturday night, and

complementary use of the lounge room with tea and coffee

facilities throughout the day. (This rate applies to IWCS if

we have at least 12 people staying.) The Guest House has 7 double and 4 single rooms so we could have

up to 18 visitors in our group. If we confirm at least 12 people the Guest House will reserve the entire

venue for our group.

_______________________________________________

PROGRAM:

Friday 24th Arrival in the afternoon or evening. If you require dinner at the Guest House you will need

to book this directly with the owners, Nina Larsen and Torben Block.

Saturday 25th Morning: visit Tarra-Bulga National Park.

Afternoon: formal Meeting, followed by Show & Tell, Swap Session etc (Please bring

specimens for swap or sale. Please also bring any of your own craft items you

would like members to see.)

Evening: Dinner at the Guest House

Sunday 26th Morning: visit (to be arranged) or further socialising

Afternoon: Leave for home

Registration Form

Names: ………………………………...……………………… IWCS #:………………

Address: ………………………… City/Town:………………………. State:… Postcode:….

Accommodation: Double @ $278 Single @ 139 (Circle required option)

For booking purposes, please advise me at 03 9899 0063 or 0425 871 565, or by letter or email, by 23rd

March of your intention to attend. - John Lyons

AROUND THE STATES

VICTORIA

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Proposed Meeting Dates—2015

While the focus and venue for some meetings are yet to be confirmed, the following dates have been allocated. * Sat 11th April - TBC * Sat and Sun 2-3 May - Maleny Wood Expo * Sat 6th June - Proposed launch of Morris Lake’s book . Venue to be confirmed. * Sat 8th August - TBC * Sat 12th September - Preparation for 2015 Australasian Conference and AGM * 5-9th October Australasian Annual Meeting. Forest Glen and area. * Sat 7th November - TBC * Sat 5th December - Christmas meeting.

QUEENSLAND

Book Review: by Keith Towe

The Biggest Estate on Earth. How Aborigines

made Australia Bill Gammage. Allen & Unwin

ISBN 978 1 74331 132 5 Published 2012

This very interesting book provides an insightful account of how Aus-

tralian aborigines managed the country using controlled burning to

promote “parklike” areas to encourage both plant food and animals

for hunting, and the philosophy of their obligations to the land.

Although he has over-emphasised many examples, Gammage has put

forward excellent instances of the differences in our landscape in

1788 and how it has changed over the ensuing years.

This controlled burning action invariably changed the habitat of our

flora. It prevented many smaller plants/trees from becoming estab-

lished, and maintained the “parklike” environment to encourage plants

and animals to certain areas for the benefit of the Aboriginal people.

These ideas are something that I had not previously considered, I

assumed that much open land apart from arid areas, had once been

forested and had been cleared for farming and agricultural purpose. That they had been planned and enacted

by the Aboriginal people is certainly food for thought.

Chapter 1. Gammage sets out to confirm the Fire Management theory.

Chapter 3. The Nature of Australia, I found the most interesting as there are good sections on plants, par-

ticular the wattles, of which 10 new species have recently been found in the Pilbara, and other rare and re-

clusive species, and of some of the peculiarities of our Eucalypts.

This then makes me wonder about the “Greens” policy of no grazing in the high country, a policy that many

believe leads to huge amounts of undergrowth and eventually fierce bushfires rather than the Cool fires

that result from cleared or grazed land. So is the above policy a mistake?

The author has been accorded 8 or 9 awards for this book, and I believe that most IWCS members will en-

joy and reflect on the information he has presented. - Keith Towe

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Get to Know Our IWCS Members: Harry Dennis

Harold Geoffrey Dennis, born 12/4/1942 at Longford, Tasmania. Eldest child with two younger sisters. Immigrat-ed to Bendigo, Victoria in 1952. Joined the Scouting movement and stayed for 25 years, gaining the Queen’s Scout award, and ended as Scout Commissioner. Matriculated from Bendigo High School and went on to gain a pharmacy degree in Melbourne. Returned to Bendi-go to practise pharmacy for next 14 years in which time I met & married Esther. James and our three children Scott, Michelle & Narelle were born during this time. My interest in wood and wood construction commenced during this period as we renovated a 1906 weatherboard and lathe plaster home we had purchased in a sound but neglected state. We moved to Albury-Wodonga to purchase a partnership in 2 Pharmacies where I continued to practise pharmacy for the next 26 years until my retirement in 2001. During this time we lived in suburbia and added a large exten-sion to our brick veneer home, doing all the construction ourselves. As our children continued to grow, we sold this property in 1982 and moved to our present location, first on 20 acres and now with additions, around 450 acres. The house we bought was an original soldier settlement house constructed entirely of local timber: red stringy bark frame; red gum stumps and Murray pine floors, built in late 1950. We spent the next 10 years completely rebuilding and towards the end of the construction I was pushed aside as by now our son Scott had completed a carpentry apprenticeship. Our daughter Michelle is a florist & Narelle a nurse. During these years we bought a further 430 acres and gradually built up a herd of 150 pure bred Angus cows which, with the aid of all family members, we still manage today. Our extended family of three children, their spouses and eight grandchildren all live on various parts of the farm today. During the Albury-Wodonga working period I also had the privilege of being a member of Albury-Hume Rotary Club where, during a 32 year stint (with 100% attendance for 32 years) I held all positions from President down. Esther & I also had the privilege of going on two Rotary Friendship two week exchange visits to England 2004 and Canada in 2008. We enjoyed the return visits to us from England and Canada the following year. Following my retirement I thought I would like to try woodturning after seeing a demo at a local hardware store. After a series of lessons at local TAFE College and 3 lathes later, I was hooked. I soon joined the Albury Wodonga Woodcrafters and Esther followed soon after, having now taken up pyrography. For last seven years I have been secretary of this group and it is in this capacity I was shown a report of the IWCS Australasian meeting at Neerim, 2007.

Esther’s pyrography

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Esther & I spent 2 years (3 days each month) helping Ian McLaughlin to preserve Dadswell collection for presentation to Melbourne University Creswick campus and the remainder for use by IWCS. Our next task together with Victo-rian Trustees, Doug & Heather Malsem, was to run the Australa-sian meeting at Beechworth in 2013. Prior to joining and with no ink-ling that IWCS existed, Doug Mal-sem started a "WeedPot " collec-tion, turning a small vase 60 to 100mm high depending on how much material was available. I was encouraged to follow suit and both our collections take this form. In the last six years I have turned 845 small vases, most of which are Australian species.

Small sample from the ‘Weed Pot’ Collection

Esther & Harry at the Wandering Termites gathering Merimbula 2013

In conjunction with Albury Wodonga Woodcrafters we run a Lucas mill workshop on two Tuesdays each month, milling logs of local indigenous timber and exotics planted by our early settlers. These are mostly of European or Nth American origin. My other interests over the years include

sport (sailing, squash and cricket played till 56 year old);

photography; outback travel; genealogy (I have traced all ancestors trans-

ported as convicts & free settlers of both sides of my direct family and have visited English sites);

cattle breeding and genetic traits; and tree planting (I have planted over 10,000 trees

on various parts of our farm).

Harry working on a platter of Athetrosperma moshatum (southern sassafrass)

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Did You Know ? …. The WORLD’S TALLEST FLOWERING PLANT is in Tasmania.

5km from Forestry Tasmania’s Tahune Air Walk there stands a giant (Eucalyptus regnans) at a height of 101 metres with a diameter of more than 4 metres. It’s the tallest hardwood and the tallest flowering plant in the world nicknamed Centurion by Forestry Tasmania. It was discovered in 2008 by Tasmania Forestry using LiDAR (light detection and ranging). "It is the only known standing hardwood tree in the world to be over 100 metres tall." Forestry Tasmania managing direc-tor Bob Gordon said. “The swamp gum is the only known standing hardwood tree in the world to be over 100 me-tres tall," and that it is “the tallest known tree in Australia. It is the world's tallest eucalyptus tree, the tallest hard-wood tree, and the tallest flowering plant.” Centurion measures 405cm in diameter and its height was measured using laser survey equipment. The previously known Australia's biggest tree, El Grande, was announced by Forestry Tasmania in 2002 and then burnt down a year later in a regeneration burn. Although there were taller trees on Tasmania El Grande, which stood at 79m was thought to be the largest tree in Australia in terms of volume and grew in the Florentine Valley about 100km northwest of Hobart.

Centurion from the forest floor at Geeveston, Tasmania.

Californian redwood trees grow taller than Centurion, but they are softwood trees, and botanists do not classify them as flowering plants. Centurion is alternately known as The Bradman as the height of the tree is close to the test run average of the leg-endary Australian cricketer Donald Bradman. The tree was only recently discovered because it is located in

a secondary forest and survived logging and forest fires by lucky coincidence. Near Centurion grows another giant tree: the 86.5 metre tall Swamp Gum named Triarius.

The Styx River in Tasmania runs through a forest of Eucalyptus regnans, myrtle beech and tree ferns. The mountain ash rise high above the forest.

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The Queensland members of IWCS invite members to the

2015 Australasian Conference and IWCS Australian

Annual General Meeting

5th - 9th October, 2015

Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Meeting tours will highlight the remnant timbers of the Big Scrub which cov-

ered this region, including

Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve which comprises 55 hectares of subtropi-

cal rainforest, overlooking the Glass House Mountains National Land-

scape. A remnant of the rainforests that once covered the Blackall Range is a living museum of

diverse plant and animal life which delight visitors with its tranquillity and beauty.

Visits to galleries of timber artisans

Gympie Woodworks, Forestry and Timber Museum

Recommended Accommodation: Big4 Forest Glen

Park managers have allocated 22 self-contained cabins and 2 en-suite caravan

sites from $381 for 4 nights (cabins)

Conference Cost: $320. Includes: bus, river cruise, meals other than Wed night dinner, venue entry

Proposed Itinerary

Monday 5th October From 2:00 Registration and welcome

6:30 Dinner – Spirit of Tibet restaurant (on site)

Tuesday 6th October Breakfast – Spirit of Tibet restaurant

8:30 Bus departs for Gympie Woodworks, Forestry and Timber Mu-seum

pm Maroochy Botanical Gardens

6:30 Dinner – Spirit of Tibet restaurant

Wednesday 7th October Breakfast – Spirit of Tibet restaurant

AGM

Lunch on site

pm Auction

Late pm Sunset Cruise on Maroochy River

Dinner - Mooloolaba

Thursday 8th October Breakfast – Spirit of Tibet restaurant

8:30 am Bus departs for Maleny hinterland tour and guided tour of Mary Cairncross Park

6:30 Dinner – Spirit of Tibet restaurant

Friday 9th October Breakfast – Spirit of Tibet restaurant

10 am Conference close and Departure

Transfers to Brisbane airport

Electives: Simpsons cut & carry Ladies craft workshop

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Name: _______________________________________________________ IWCS # _________________________ Partner’s Name: _________________________________________________ Other: __________________________ Address: _________________________________________________ City / Town: ________________________________ State: ______________ Postcode: ______________ Country: ____________________ Telephone: __________________ Mobile: ____________________ Email: _______________________________________ Conference registration fee: $320 per person. Register _____ persons at $320 each. Total: ________ (Australian dollars)

Registration fee includes: all meals at conference site, bus tours, museum entrance, Sunset River Cruise, morning and afternoon teas

Exclusions: Wednesday dinner at Mooloolaba, (after river cruise), accommodation at Big4 Forest Glen Accommodation: to be booked directly with Big4 Forest Glen under IWCS: Peter Simpson

www.forestglenresort.com.au 71 Owen Creek Road, Forest Glen QLD 4556 Phone:(07) 5476 6646 Email: info@forestglenresort.com.au

Reservations have been made for 22 self-contained cabins and 2 ensuited caravan sites for Mon 5th to Fri 9th Oct. Please advise of any special dietary needs when registering. Make cheque, money order or bank draft payable to IWCS Direct debit NAB BSB: 084-447 Acc: 52-615-4012 Please show membership number and surname as a reference when using direct debit payment.

Forward registrations by 31st August 2015 to: Peter Simpson 33 Heath Lane, Kureelpa 4560 Ph: 07 5445 7748 Mob: 0408 150 624 Email: pgsimp@bigpond.net.au

Members are asked to bring items for Show & Tell, Swap or Sale and The Auction. All items for inclusion in the Auction must be registered by 31st August, 2015 with Marcia Tommerup. Email mtdg@netspace.net.au

No item will be accepted for auction after 31st August 2015. Example of Auction Registration:

Type Common Name Species Comment Donor

Wood Hill Gum Eucalyptus fasciculosa 100 x 100 x 300 Brian Fraser

Interstate delegates flying into Brisbane can connect with Sunair Airport Transfers to Sunshine Coast by booking with res@sunair.com.au or Ph: (07) 5477 0888

Delegates flying into Maroochydore airport can be met and transferred to the conference site by arrangement with Peter Simpson Mob: 0408 150 624 email: pgsimp@bigpond.net.au

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FORM

Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia 5th - 9th October 2015

2015 IWCS AUSTRALASIAN CONFERENCE and

AUSTRALIAN ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

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