page_title: Forests Commission Victoria
section_title: Victorian timbers
hierarchical_section_title: Forests Commission Victoria / 1920s - Formative years / Victorian timbers
caption_attribution_description: English: Victorian Timber Display - Greater Britain timber exhibition. circa 1890
context_page_description: The Forests Commission Victoria was the main government authority responsible for management and protection of State forests in Victoria, Australia between 1918 and 1983.
  The Commission was responsible for ″forest policy, prevention and suppression of bushfires, issuing leases and licences, planting and thinning of forests, the development of plantations, reforestation, nurseries, forestry education, the development of commercial timber harvesting and marketing of produce, building and maintaining forest roads, provision of recreation facilities, protection of water, soils and wildlife, forest research and making recommendations on the acquisition or alienation of land for forest purposes″.
  The Forests Commission had a long and proud history of innovation and of managing Victoria's State forests but in November 1983 lost its discrete identity when it was merged into the newly formed Victorian Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands along with the Crown Lands and Survey Department, National Park Service, Soil Conservation Authority and Fisheries and Wildlife Service.
context_section_description: Early foresters, sawmillers and timber merchants recognised the unique qualities of Victorian hardwood timbers and the Government was keen to promote them to the world market. Research into native timbers began sometime after Federation in 1901 and progressed with the publication of Richard Thomas Bakers's important work "Hardwoods of Australia and their Economics" in 1919.
  Two of the Principals from the Victorian School of Forestry, first Charles Edward Carter in the 1920s, followed by Alan Eddy in the 1950s did foundation research into the properties of timber. Herbert Eric Dadswell worked with both Carter and Eddy at the Forest Products Division of the CSIRO at Highett in Melbourne from 1929 until 1964. He tested thousands of timber samples and his authoritative descriptions of Australian hardwoods included engineering properties such as strength, hardness, appearance, suitably for joinery, resistance to termites, durability and so on. The huge Dadswell wood collection now resides with the CSIRO and contains over 45,000 samples representing 10,000 species while a subset are kept in the Forestry School museum at Creswick.
  Some eucalypts, particularly mountain ash, were very prone to suffer from collapse in the seasoning (drying) process and work focused on steam reconditioning. This problem created some initial reluctance from Victorian sawmillers to invest in timber seasoning so an experimental workshop and kilns were established by the Commission at the Newport Seasoning Works from 1911 until it closed in 1956 under controversial circumstances. By far the greatest proportion of dressed timber for internal work, joinery and furniture was imported in the 1920s mainly from America and Scandinavia. The Commission sought to improve the position of native hardwoods in the market and put the Victorian industry on a sound footing. The pioneering work at Newport together with the CSIRO bore fruit and by 1931 it was estimated that 80% of flooring laid down in Melbourne was kiln-dried Mountain Ash milled from the State's forests. Some of the finished timber from Newport was shipped to London to feature as flooring in Australia's High Commission building.
  But despite these efforts, as late as the 1960s there was still some resistance from architects, builders, joiners and home owners to Australian hardwoods so the Commission constructed a timber display pavilion at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds in 1966. This initiative led to the establishment of the Timber Promotions Council (TPC) in 1969 in partnership with Victorian Sawmillers Association and timber merchants. The TPC undertook research and development, marketing and training into the use of Victorian timber. It also offered an advisory service to builders, architects and the public.  A levy was generated from sawlog sales to fund the TPC until it was revoked in 2005. The Victorian Association of Forest Industries (VAFI) in now the peak industry body.
caption: Victorian Timber Display - Great Britain exhibition. circa 1890. Source: State Library of Victoria.
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