Eucalypts of Narrogin - Art, Science and Story
Stories
Red Morrel: E. longicornis
The Majestic Red Morrel
By Avril Baxter
The sight of the majestic red morrel (Eucalyptus longicornis) growing in the wheatbelt is always something to stop and admire.
These tall open woodlands found in the wheatbelt on lateritic, ironstone ridges or granite profiles along valley floors usually adjacent to saline areas and having very little understorey are a Priority Ecological Community (PEC).
Ecological communities are defined as naturally occurring biological assemblages (plants and/or animals) that occur in a particular type of habitat and in Western Australia some are listed as Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs) ie they are subject to threatening processes and could be destroyed or significantly modified across most of their range. Others are recorded as Priority Ecological Communities (PECs) ie they are rare but currently not considered threatened with extinction and are in need of further survey work before their conservation status can be evaluated.
The red morrel woodlands of the wheatbelt are a Priority 1 ecological community.
In many instances these remnant woodlands are found as a thin strip below a laterite ridge, with the majority of the community being subject to historical clearing for farming. Other threats to the eucalypt woodlands include salinization and waterlogging in the lower landscape, invasion by introduced species, grazing, and altered fire regimes.
Darrel Dent who farms at Cuballing added another dimension to the picture. Darrel had been told that there was a saw mill operating on his property which harvested red morrel and the timber was sent to York and made into felloes by wheelwrights.
Chippendale (1973) lists red morrel as being used by wheelwrights, for general use on pastoral or agricultural properties, as mining timber and firewood. More recently uses include as a craft wood and flute head joints.
The York Residency Museum notes that the first wheelwrights operated in York from 1893.
Many of the harvested red morrels on Darrel’s property had coppiced. As this is an unusual sight, we sent this image to Malcolm French author of Eucalypts of Western Australia’s Wheatbelt. He confirmed that red morrel have lignotubers and can resprout, but had never seen it occur to such a large extent.
If you have a patch of red morrel growing on your property and would like to record it on our TEC database, please give your local Land for Wildlife Officer a call. If possible we would like to record its location, size, species composition and condition.
References: Chippendale G M Eucalypts of the Western Australian goldfields (and adjacent wheatbelt). Australian Government Publishing Service 1973.
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https://library.dbca.wa.gov.au/static/Journals/080341/080341-17.03.pdf
Wandoo: E. wandoo
Changing Times -Wandoo for Tannin
Courtesy Avril Baxter
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Many people are aware that an extract from the bark of Eucalyptus astringens (Brown Mallet) was used to tan leather, but few know that the extract from Eucalyptus wandoo (White Gum) was prized by some as the second best tanning agent to the European Chestnut tree.
Land for Wildlife members, Nicola Harman and Tim Hussey, have a 5 hectare property on the Hotham River at Ranford near Boddington. On this property in 1935, because of a deep permanent pool on the Hotham River, Industrial Extracts Limited established a tannin extraction plant which was to operate for 20 years and employ up to 100 people at a time. The processing plant worked non-stop and consumed up to 300 tonnes of White Gum logs per day. Logs, up to 10 feet in girth and 11 feet 6 inches long, were harvested from the surrounding countryside and fed endwise into a revolving drum like a giant pencil sharpener. Chips were leached in wooden vats, the liquor was then pumped into copper tanks and the excess water evaporated. The extract known as “Mertan” looked like Grass Tree gum.
World War Two created a heavy demand for the product resulting in Industrial Extracts Ltd. being the first company in WA to be declared a man-powered organization, the “Mertan” used for tanning leather for the military. The coarser dried chips of White Gum after the leaching process were used to fuel the boilers and finer residues were used as a dressing when resurfacing tennis courts or paths.60 000 gallons/hour of water was needed to cool the condensers and came from the adjacent Darnminning Pool. Pumps drew the water from 20 feet below the surface and heated water from the plant was pumped on to the surface of the pool where it gradually cooled. Good quality underground water was also available and used in the boilers to produce steam for powering the plant.
In 1957 the plant was in need of upgrading, however the distance to the White Gum resources (now often more than 30 miles away) made the building of a new plant on this site uneconomic. Since then, the plant has been used as a factory for manufacturing pegs, a storage depot and a battery chicken operation.
Tim and Nicola bought the property in 1991 and made it their home . They have planted trees and shrubs every year since then and aim to have a thick tree line all around the edge of the property with shrubs along internal fencelines to encourage birds and other fauna to move between the Hotham River and the adjoining Railway Reserve. They are pleased with their success, the ground is now spongy to walk on and plants are recolonising previous bald spots and road surfaces. The place abounds with frogs, skinks, geckos and birds and whilst Tim and Nicola state that revegetation can never replace the original bush, they are happy to revegetate an area that has had a long industrial history into a Land for Wildlife sanctuary.
Avril Baxter, ‘Changing Times - Wandoo for Tannin’, Western Wildlife, vol.7,no.4, 2003, p.12.23 Western Australian Forests Department, 50 Years of Forestry in Western Australia
Salmon gum
George Brockway, sometimes know as the forgotten conservationist, has been commemorated with the completion of the George Brockway Tree at Yilliminning. He was a voice for conservation and left an idea and a vision, an appreciation of the beauty of the inland bush, and the value of its trees in the recovery of degraded land.
The tree is a magnificent salmon gum, and the area includes a shelter and information stand on George Brockway.
Powder bark wandoo
Lol Gray Lookout Tree
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The Lol Gray Tree fire tower was built in 1930 and used by the Forest Department as a lookout for the early detection of fires. Lol Gray Tree was the first fire lookout tree in Western Australia, setting a precedent that was later followed in the karri and tuart forests. A sturdy powderbark tree on the ridge just south of the overseer’s house was selected, a timber crow’s nest, and a home-made bush ladder were installed.
Read the story here. https://www.forestleaves.blog/post/the-return-of-the-hilltop-forester-lol-gray-tree-revisited