BLUE GUMS & WOOD CHIPS

BUNYIP 1998 - THE SWAMP AT THE END OF THE TRACK

BACK TO SCHOOL

BUNYIP 2005 - THE SWAMP PADDOCK

 

BLUE GUMS and WOOD CHIPS

Our first introduction to commercial tree growing was done for us by Timbercorp Pty Ltd. This was tax effective way of growing "Blue Gums" for pulp in 12 years time. We visited the commercial tree lots near Hamilton (Vic.) and enjoyed chatting to the forestry consultant. We were amazed how quickly they grew. We had our own, rather temporary, forest !

Libby and I had been "Hobby farmers" for 15 years by that time and bred cattle on about 140 Acres at Bunyip in West Gippsland in Victoria. At times being a farmer and a doctor was dangerous with castrating, dehorning, tagging ( the animals ) and then back to earning a living on Monday with my patients. Trees seemed safer! and possibly even profitable.

Return to the top of the page

BUNYIP 1998 - THE SWAMP AT THE END OF THE TRACK

At that time we had a 20 Acre paddock that was a horrible black swamp that grew only weeds. No grass grew there and the tractor got bogged even in summer! So we did a bit of landscape planning. We killed the weeds and drained the bog into two large dams and a stream. Each dam had an Island for the birds. We added Super and Potash and the grass grew back and the cattle loved it. So did the Kangaroos. This was to become our first tree plantation. In September 2000 we planted 5000 trees. We had embarked on Farm Forestry. We had obtained a lot of expert advice from forestry consultants Clinton Tepper and Peter Devonshire and we had joined the Gippsland Agroforestry Network. We got help and advice from lots of people.
 
I then went back to school in 2001. I participated in a Melbourne Uni course on Farm forestry part time. What follows is my report at that time.

Return to the top of the page

"BACK TO SCHOOL”

23^rd May 2001

Mr. Chris Rankin

Senior Lecturer

Forestry Department

McMillan Campus

WARRAGUL VIC 3820

Dear Chris,

 Re: Timber Plantations in Rural Landscapes Project

I have attached herewith an outline of the project and the background reasoning that led us into farm forestry.

We own approximately 43 hectares of rural off the Princes Highway at Bunyip in West Gippsland. After over a years preparation we planted approximately 5000 native trees in sept 2000.  These were mostly C. maculata  (Spotted gums) 1440 of them as a specially designed "Seed Orchard". We also planted about 200 each of various other species as "species trials". This year (2001) will be spent weeding, pruning and assessing the first stage of the project.  - As I write it is "weed control" -  hard work!!

The next part of the project is to plan for early spring 2002 when we will plant new ‘C. maculata’ provenance trials on another four-hectare paddock on the property. We also plan to establish the first

"Blackwood seed orchard" in Australia!!

I hope you don’t find the following information too lengthy. It basically sets out the reasons why a complete novice non-forester would embark on quite a major tree-growing project on private rural land for future commercial purposes.

Kind regards

JOHN GOY

TREE GROWING IN RURAL LANDSCAPES

DIPLOMA IN NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT/MODULES

VBE 495 & 498

PROJECT OUTLINE AND DESCRIPTION (At May 2001)

BACKGROUND

• I am a medical specialist and my wife is a nurse.We have lived on 30 acres of rural land at Harkaway near Melbourne for the last 20 years.  Prior to this we were basically city slickers.  Over the 15 years we had bought a further 100 acres (43 hectares) of grazing land just north of the Princes Highway at Bunyip in West Gippsland. we had been breeding South Devon cattle for their" low cholesterol beef".  As a gastroenterologist I thought I would be doing the world a favour by creating enjoyable meat that was safe to eat (particularly with a couple of glasses of red wine for the circulation).

Over the years we thoroughly enjoyed my weekends and built up quite a sizable herd of pure South Devon cattle. We found the farm work and cattle work generally enjoyable and relaxing until I was nearly killed by a tame and friendly bull in the cattle yards. 

Getting squeezed up against the metal cattle crush by a tonne of high quality low cholesterol beef can crystallise one’s thoughts.   I realised that feeding the world on a global basis would always be based on the plant kingdom. Meat was an enjoyable but luxurious and dangerous form of nutrition.

Everyone had been saying the world needs more plants, in particular more big trees. The idea seemed attractive. Trees grow at a sedate and safe pace and are unlikely to cause injuries to the grower – or not intentionally.  

Whist not a ‘greenie’ or a ‘brownie’ we had a healthy respect for the environment and enjoyed the rural life.  We had at last become persuaded by the weight of evidence that rapidly rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was a genuine man-made phenomenon.  It was probably going to cause global warming and other dangerous activities even within the next two generations. Only we humans getting together could stop it. Encouraging the plant kingdom, particularly big trees, was the best way to reverse things. I like plants. they look attractive, particularly their sexual organs (the flowers) and to wander amongst all this oxygen creating carbon dioxide soaking greenery seemed a very natural and important thing to want to do.

However, this 100 acre farm block was our superannuation.  It had to be commercially viable.  I thought of various types of plants to grow commercially on this property. It had a good rainfall, at least 800mm per year, and plenty of dam water irrigation.  I thought of growing vegetables, fruit (particularly grapes) nuts, herbs and spices , medicines and even truffles.

All these things seemed a bit fiddley and demanding to grow and would probably involve me in the same sort of hassles that I had with calving problems in the middle of the night.  I still had my main job to do which also involved getting up at night. I wanted my commercial move into the plant kingdom to be, above all things, enjoyable.

Growing certain nuts and exotic truffles on oak trees could be quite a good little earner in Victoria or Tasmania. For the individual, however, it would be fiddley and probably costly in the infrastructure – you need “experts”.

I love trees.  Tree growing seems a nice sedate civilised activity as well as having the potential for commercial gain as superannuation.

I was aware of commercial tax effective schemes growing Pine plantations and Blue gums.  In my experience these schemes seemed to make money for the middle men and the investor was lucky to break even.  These tax driven scemes may also tend to produce a glut of monoculture all hitting the market at the same time and basically used for low grade products not value added in Australia. A bit like the banana republic!!

Trees have always been used for shelter for man and animals.  As the billions of people in countries to our North grow and develop, they will demand good food, health and good housing.  Australia, as part of Asia, is in the ideal position to provide environmentally friendly building materials in the form of good quality milled timber instead of just CHIPS!!

Even for the future local market timber may need to replace concrete, steel or plastic in an environmentally friendly and surprisingly ‘back to nature’ cost effective manner.  

Australia is lucky to have relatively cheap land and the ability to grow Eucalypts as our natural source of building materials.  Whilst our own native Gum trees are grown in other countries, we are still in a marvellous position to conduct the research and develop the genetics to create the best possible seed for good straight timber.  Furthermore, hopefully, we can mill ‘smart’ timber and value add it in this country for sale overseas as well as to our own markets.  At present we spend more than 2 billion dollars per annum on imports of timber and timber products!!

Sure our non-native pine trees are popular.  Pine is durable, lightweight timber that is easy to work but generally weak (unless laminated) for load bearing. The Australian Gum tree is the ideal tree for strength and it looks so nice and natural in the Australian landscape.

The ‘Spotted gum’ (currently called C. maculata) is mainly a native of Southern New South Wales sneaking into Eastern Victoria.  It is a naturally straight and attractive tree with little lateral branching and grows well in plantation.  It is resistant to drought and perhaps, with global warming, we will see even less rainfall in future in Gippsland. At present the ‘Spotted gum’ grows well in Gippsland and is low maintenance in farm plantations - they "self prune".

THE PLAN

Land in Gippsland is relatively expensive and mostly privately owned.  Some land owners may wish to turn to commercial timber production but they will need to concentrate on high quality timber to justify the value of their land and their own time input. Trees such as the Spotted gum and perhaps Blackwoods could be ideal trees to grow in small private plantations in Gippsland. 

Blackwoods (‘A. melanoxylon’) are rather slow growing and require more rainfall and shelter. Nevertheless, they can grow well if nursed by larger trees such as the Spotted gums.  Furthermore, they fix nitrogen in their roots and this can help the growth of the surrounding gum trees. On small acreages (such as our property) it should be quite possible to grow both species as high quality, well maintained and much loved trees. They may form shelter belts as well which will help the pastures and the livestock.

The Blackwood serves a slightly different purpose. It’s timber is denser and produces the most beautiful grained furniture.  Despite the development of plastic (by burning fossil fuels) It seems likely that people will still turn to timber for natural beauty in their homes.

It is no longer necessary to wait for 30 years to profit from quality tree growing for timber purposes.  The land owner may sell living trees on his property once they are established after ten years or so. The new tree owner rents the paddock and buys the trees. This provides a flexible form or hobby farming with steady superannuation income.

THE  SEED ORCHARDS (Year 2000)

In our own situation we hope to earn an income from producing high quality, genetically improved TREE SEED. We plan to establish  SEED ORCHARDS of Spotted gums,  Blackwoods,  Yellow Stringybarks, Southern mahogany, Silvertop ash and maybe other suitable native species for farm forestry in Gippsland.  These will be naturally cross pollinated in a specially designed seed orchard configuration.  Later we may try controlled artificial pollination and cloning.

We have chosen these species after many discussions with the experts and with the timber mill owners.The objective will be to grow top quality native trees from the best seed for a valuable end product.

We planted about 5000 trees at Bunyip in winter 2000 (with about 97% survival) and an average growth rate of about two metres per year.These trees have been thinned out to leave the best 20% of this number.About half our trees are for seed production and half for future sawlogs.  - As at year 2002 we have planted another 5000.Read on...

 

TRIALS AND ERRORS

In a smaller way we  experimented with E occidentalis, ‘Grevilia robusta’, Salmon gum, ‘E. argophloia’, Sugar gums, Silver wattles, Coastal greybox , Hybrid clones and various other native species at Bunyip farm.I will give more details of our triumphs and blunders further on...

THANKYOU - We have had a lot of help from many people more experienced than us. Farm Trees have been a great source of pleasure and we have made many new friends.The Australian Forest growers association ( www.afg.asn.au ) and the Gippsland agroforestry network are great starting points for farmers thinking of growing trees for future profit.

THE FUTURE - We are well into collecting the best possible seed to start our year 2006 seed orchards. Watch this space... Keep in touch - John and Libby Goy.

1. REPORT NUMBER 2

TREE GROWING IN RURAL LANDSCAPES

Diploma in Natural Resource Management

Modules VBE 495 & 498

2. SITE SELECTION AND DESCRIPTION

• 2.1 Location - BUNYIP - WEST GIPPSLAND VIC. AUS.
• - 3kms North of the Princess Highway.  Cardinia Shire.
• · Port Phillip CALP (near the border with Gippsland Calp)
• 2.2 Topography - Foothills of the Victorian alps gently undulating north and south facing  - 0- 15% slope
• · Average altitude 100 – 200m. amsl.
• 2.3 Soil Type - 4 – 5cms dark loam top soil, 6 – 30cms sandy clay loam, Below 30cm. sandy clay.
• 2.4 Mean Annual Rainfall - 900mm. pa.
• 2.5 Frost Frequency - Average number of frost days (<0°C)
•     May (1) June (3),  July (2), august(2)
• Sept.(1)
• 2.6 Weeds - Mainly grasses but bracken, sorrel, gorse and black berry have required herbicidal treatment.
• 2.7 Browsing Animals - Rabbits have been successfully poisoned. Hares, wallabies and wombats are rarely seen and not a big problem. We still graze beef cattle and calves and fencing is satisfactory providing the humans shut the gate.  The main problem is of large numbers of large kangaroos causing trampling and breakage of small trees. These normally live in the State forests but come to our lush pastures when the Government feed runs out.
• Cockatoos might be a problem in the future. Caterpillars have been easily dealt with secateurs and a heavy boot.
• 2.8 Indigenous Trees - E.obliqua, E.cypellocarpa, E.radiata, E.viminalis A.melanoxylon, A.dealbata, E.cephalocarpa – trees up to 25m high.
• 2.9 Timber Harvesting Access - Property 3km from Princes Freeway.  A short road and driveway C class road good condition.
• 2.10 Soil Test - Pivotest 19/01/96 showed acidity pH 5.36, available phosphorus at 8mgs/kg soil and potassium low at 97.2mg/kg. This has been corrected with three years of fertiliser (super/potash).
• 2.11 Drainage - Excellent drainage in top parts of sloping paddock but very poor and wet in the gully.  Drainage has been improved by spoon drains.
• 3. PLANNING
• 3.1 Cardinia Shire Council - Letter of Approval 8/9/99.  Having granted this, they then replied and said no approval was required and then refunded my $79. I have all this in writing together with a recent communication from their Planning Department (Wendy Abbot on 10/10/01).  The Code of Forest Practice and ‘Guidelines for Establishing and Managing Timber Plantations’ 17/3/99 must be followed.  NB. Now a forestry plantation notice on the title is essential.
• 3.2 Forestry consultants – In the very beginning (early 1998) I asked a private consultant to assess the property. After that, and mindful of the possibility of Government financial assistance, I had visits from Mr. Clinton Tepper (Gippsland Farm Plantations) and Mr. Mark Lee (Port Phillip CALP) – a free service!
• All agreed that the site was suitable for my objectives. I had a good time picking their brains and I formed good friendships.  I decided not to go ahead with the Government subsidy plan.
• 3.3 Commercial Forestry - As a tax effective investment in 1998 I bought a limited number of tree lots (“Blue Gums”) through Timbercorp, I also bought shares in the management company Timbercorp Pty Ltd. I had the opportunity to learn about forestry both from the point of view of the being an investor/tree lot owner and also from the annual company reports to Timbercorp shareholders (who made money out of the investors).
• I had two visits to the Portland, Hamilton and “Green Triangle” areas of Victoria over two years to watch my trees grow and, more importantly, learn from  the Timbercorp Forestry Consultants. They advised me on nutrient supplements, harvesting techniques, weed control and pest control on a large commercial scale.
• Apart from taxation benefits, I doubt if there is much money to be made for the small investor in Blue Gums. I did sell my Timbercorp shares at a profit however. This experience emphasised to me the importance of growing high quality, “Smart Timber” rather than Blue Gums for chips. This particularly applies to Gippsland where rural land values are high.
• 3.4 Research and Possible income – My objective was to establish a high quality seed orchard, for income in the medium (7-12 year) term.
• This interest started at Treefest ’99 in Leongatha where I met Roger Arnold from the CSIRO Tree Seed Centre, ACT. I subsequently visited him and Chris Harwood in Canberra and spent a day with them visiting seed orchards.  They agreed with my proposal to trial C.maculata and A.melanoxylon – as seed orchards and for long term investment for sawlogs of high value.
• I visited two established seed orchards at different stages. The vital part of planning for a seed orchard is selection of the parent trees.  I propagated seed from 48 different selected (by CSIRO) maculata “mother trees” from various parts of southern NSW and Eastern Vic. The seedlings were meticulously planted in  5 tree family plots in 6 separate replicates.
• Chris Harwood randomized the pattern within the replicates to maximise the opportunity for natural cross pollination.
• 3.5 Other Sources Of Information And Advice – Gippsland Farm Plantations, Gippsland Agroforestry Network, Otway Agroforestry Network, Port Phillip Agroforestry Network, Australian Forest Growers, various websites and publications, DSE Notes and Kits. 
• Code of Forest Practice revised November 1996 - DSE, “Guidelines for Establishing & Managing Timber Plantations” 17/3/99, (DSE & Regional Plantation Committee).
• Perhaps the most useful and enjoyable advice has come from various field days and meetings of the Gippsland Agroforestry Network. I would particularly thank locally Peter Devonshire, Clinton Tepper, Frank Hirst, Rowan Reid, Des Stackpole, Peter Perry and David Friend.  AND A BIG THANKYOU TO ALL THE WORKERS.
• 3.6 Saw Mill Visits – Visited Roger Clarke (Planthard) at Morwell.  S.M. Collins (Vic) at Bairnsdale, Radcon P/L at Yarram, Alan Morris (Lamitech) at Bairnsdale. They supported my plan to grow high quality “Spotted Gums” and “Blackwoods” in plantation for sawlogs.  The timbermills visited in Gippsland would all take both these species and pay $60 to $80 per cubic metre at the mill door for A grade logs with small end diameter of 250- 450mm (year 2000).
• 3.7 Tree Species Selection – Why Select “Spotted gums” and “Blackwoods”?
• If you drive along the Princes Highway through Gippsland you pass many beautiful straight “Spotted Gum” trees along the main road. These were presumably planted at the time of the road construction.  The seeds would have come from NSW. In the wetter areas of Gippsland you will also see a large numbers of beautiful native “Blackwoods”, usually in the forests in gullies and sheltered by other surrounding eucalypts. It is obvious that both species grow well in Gippsland.  They are both known to produce good high quality saw logs. On the down side “Spotted Gums” and “Blackwoods” are slow growing and maybe frost sensitive.
• Both types of tree have been shown to grow in plantations and the value of the end product would justify the value of the farming land in Gippsland.  There is a market for high quality saw logs such as these for building materials, floorboards, veneers and furniture. Amazingly Australia still imports two billion dollars worth of wood and wood products per annum!
• Using “Spotted Gums” as a nurse crop for “Blackwoods” has the added advantage that the nitrogen fixation (by the roots of the, “Blackwoods”) can be utilised by the sheltering gum trees.
• To be on the safe side, I also planted other native trees on a trial basis in case the “Spotted Gums” and “Blackwoods” failed. 
• 3.8 Establishment Costs(Year 1999)
• (a) Additional Fencing – For cattle and young calves – 6 strand barbed wire, pine posts at 4m intervals plus droppers – cost $5/metre.  Gates are extra.
• Actual Amount Spent     $500 approx.
• (b) Herbicides – including machinery and labour
• @ $300/hectare actual cost     $1200 approx.
• (c) Soil cultivation – Ripping, rotary hoeing and mounding
• @ $750/hectare, actual costs     $3000 approx.
• (c) Seed (from CSIRO) for “Spotted Gums” and “Blackwoods”
• - actual costs:  $1300 approx.
• (d) Propagation – (including forestry pots) @ $0.90/tree  $5400
•   Including delivery costs
• (d) Stakes, pegs, marker tags for seed orchard   $500 approx.
• (e) Tree planting - 6 workers @ $15/hr for 10hrs   $600
• (MOST WORKERS DID IT FOR
• THE LOVE OF IT AND THE BBQ AFTERWARDS).
• NB: Work on the seed orchard was slow and meticulous. 
• 48 x 5 tree family plots in six replicates requires some discipline but we got it exactly right.
• (f) Fertiliser – None applied in year one.
• (g) Pest Control – Rabbit bait     $150
• Total expenditure for /seed orchard
• and plantation establishment (4 hectares)  $12000 approx.
• 6 Cautionary Note: - The actual costs were about double those figures quoted by Gippsland Farm Plantations in their publication dated 17/8/99.
• 3.9 Capital Costs
• Note that capital expenditure included the purchase of a most enjoyable ATV four wheel drive bike and a trailer with a 200lt tank and spray equipment. Costing about $10000 new!
• An ATV is essential on any farm. It is great fun, lasts forever and hopefully it will reduce the costs of future herbicidal spraying.
• The ATV has since been sold as the tractor does most of the work now.

3.10 Other Costs

• A forestry consultant quoted $770 per annum as an ongoing consultancy. Lease of land in Gippsland on a long term basis would be expensive with land costing at least $5000/hectare. A lease at $200/hectare/year would be cheap. This would represent only a 4% return per annum.
• 3.11 Income
• Improved capital value (possibly rated and taxed!) may be an “income” once the trees are more than ten years old. The plantation trees could be sold in the ground and the paddock leased out.  Carbon credits may be saleable in the future. A lot of priceless physical and mental satisfaction will have been obtained and the farm will be a more attractive place. 

4. GROUND PREPARATION – “Get expert advice at least a year before you do anything”

Timetable

September 1999 - Order the seed from a reputable source selected to grow suitable trees of good form for high quality sawlogs.Then pick a good propagator to grow the seedlings.       Allow ONE YEAR  - at least!!

• · Book earthworks contractors (NB: D7 bulldozer drivers with metre long " winged keel"  rippers are hard to find and pin down!).
• · Confirm all permits and council requirements have been met.
• · Stakeout the site from the aerial plan, estimate the number of trees.
• · Continue cattle grazing on the paddock.
• October 1999 - Kill spring weeds with knockdown herbicides – “Round Up” 5 litres/hectare.
• · Do this yourself (?) with a 200 litre tank on the ATV ( now I contract this out to the experts with bigger equipment)
• · Need 1 litre of “Round Up”/200 litre tank plus wetting agent. Pump delivers 4 litres/minute and the ATV was driven at the slowest possible speed (1km/hour on a wind-free day). WEED CONTROL!! - read the "Triumphs and blunders" section...
• · Spot spraying with brush off via backpacks.
• November 1999 - About 50 different packets of seeds arrive!  Close liaison with the nursery is required.We left it far too late!!
• December 1999 - Propagation  of seeds at the nursery. Prick out into forestry pots.

January 2000 - Receive e-mail progress photos from the nursery.

• February 2000 - Deep ripping.  Note that your friendly bulldozer driver with his one metre long tyne may have “shot through”! These little jobs are not worth  it!!  Rotary hoeing and mounding maybe needed and is relativelly cheap. Pest control must be completed in February/March.
• June 2000 - Out go the cattle – don’t forget to shut the gate!
• Herbicides – “Round Up” again 5 litres/hectare with a residual herbicide – Simazine 10 litre/hectare (with wetting agent).
• - Layout pegs and numbers, replicates.
• August 2000 - Final weed control.  Again “Round Up” and Simazine.  This is where the ATV comes into it’s own. The ground was wet and boggy and the tractor got bogged!!
• September 2000 - About 6000 little trees arrive in about 120 polystyrene boxes.
• Keep them watered, sheltered and clearly labelled.
• 5. PLANTING
• September 2000 – It was cold, frosty, windy and miserable. The seedlings were put in a sheltered area and watered and the big day was deferred to October 8^th 2000. Five of our helpers had previous experience in tree planting from work with Landcare/Greencorps.   The weather forecast was for warm rainy weather – ideal for planting.  No frosts on the horizon.
• The whole job (5200 trees) was successfully completed with many volunteers and family members over a couple of days. We had three Hamilton tree planters and a long string line planting trees at 2 metre intervals with the rip lines being 3.5 metres apart. 
• The seed orchard was planted accurately. The numbered code was kept in the safe and e-mailed to CSIRO.

6. POST CARE

• For the first two nights after planting I slept in a little caravan on site with a spotlight and rifle. In fact no kangaroos turned up!  We had not used any pest repellents such as blood and bone.  The kangaroos did not turn up until about February 2001 when the feed up in the hills had dried out. When the they did come, meetings were held with the DSE on site.  Political discussions ensued regarding the relative merits or brownies versus greenies and the valuable use of kangaroo meat for pet food obtained discretely in the evenings. 
• 6.1 Tree Survival – Survival at one month was amazingly good. We replaced only about 50 to 100 trees (out of 5000).   The weather remained warm, wet and wonderful. Despite all our Simazine the weeds were luxurious in places. Presumably the residual spray had just washed away.
• Once the little trees were planted it was very difficult to spray again and we had to do hand weeding. Great exercise and, fortunately, free labour! We also made small plastic cones (witches hats) to help us with some spraying around the little trees. WEED CONTROL, WEED CONTROL ,WEED CONTROL!!
• 6.2 Wind – The prevailing wind is from the South West. A number of trees in the soft mounded soils leant away from the wind, leaving a hole on the windward side of the root bolus. After very severe winds, some trees had to be staked upright. 
• Other trees gradually straightened themselves up.  A few trees died from wind damage and kangaroo trampling. Still overall we had about 95% survival at 12 months.
• 6.3 Pruning – Rather prolific basal branching required base pruning to enable adequate weed control with herbicides. This was done throughout the plantation.  Form pruning was not done in the seed orchard but was done was done at 12 months elsewhere.
• Pruning is most enjoyable at this young and tender age where one decides the fate of the final tree – all done without too much reaching or bending.

7. PROGRESS REPORT – at 12 months (Oct 2001)

• 7.1 “Spotted Gums” (C.maculata) - average height 2 metres and 95% survival. Some families have established very good natural form. Some staked and damaged by kangaroos. No frost or insect damage.
• 7.2 “Blackwoods” (A.melanoxylon) – Naturally good form, 95% survival, average height 1.2 metres. Some trees stunted and damaged by wind and kangaroos. No frost or insect damage.
• 8. OTHER SPECIES TRIALS – Progress at October 2001

About 200 of each of the following species were also planted in October 2000:

• 8.1 E.muellerana (“Yellow Stringy Bark”) – Average height 1.2 metres variable, some stunted by poor drainage and poor weed control. Not as good as the “Spotted Gums”. - Note- they did very well later.
• 8.2 E.occidenalis – Windswept +++ but now straightening up by themselves. Average height 1.2 metres, form is improving. Good survival (95%). a failure i think...
• 8.3 Grevilia robusta – Poor. Average height 800mm because of broken trees – right in the path of the kangaroos, otherwise healthy.
• 8.4 E.argophloia – Very poor form and growth – to be replaced by more “Yellow Stringy Barks”.
• 8.5 E.salmonophloia – Very poor form and growth – to be replaced by “Yellow Stringy Barks”.
• 8.6 E.cladocalyx -“Sugar Gums” (only 50). Little bushes, poor form – worth keeping. Average height 1 metre. See "Blunders"
• 8.7 A.dealbata - “Silver wattles”  (only 50). Average height 1 metre may plant more in the swampy areas. Rather poor form.

9. FUTURE PROJECTS

• Preparations for next year (2002) are well underway.  We plan to plant a “Blackwood” Seed Orchard in the middle of a sheltering plantation of the latest and best of the CSIRO C.maculata stock.  I also have some seed from the “Mottle Range” Victorian natural stand of “Spotted Gums” (near Orbost, Victoria).
• I have selected my “Blackwood” seeds mainly from CSIRO and the Tasmanian Seed Centre.  The paddock has been ripped (early) and weed control is underway. This will be the first “Blackwood” seed orchard in  Australia.

10. CONCLUSION (2001 report)

• This report gives facts but has not included any of our personal experiences.  I have excluded some unscientific but fascinating and often hilarious occurrences on the way up the learning curve of agroforestry.  Suffice it to say that I have met some kind, knowledgeable and humorous folk in the agroforestry business and owe many of them a debt of kindness and thanks for their advice and encouragement.
• JOHN GOY
• NOVEMBER 2001

 

 

BUNYIP 2005 - THE SWAMP PADDOCK

• Return to the top of the page