Working in the Forest:
wattlebark, eucalyptus oil, charcoal amd forest camps.
Introduction
Wattlebark
Wattlebark was used
as a leather preservative and tanning agent and is one of Victoria's oldest
forest products. As early as the 1810s, sealers supplemented their income
by gathering wattlebark and transporting it to Britain with their seal
cargo. Later, Victorian farmers in forested districts sold wattlebark
to boost their income in quiet times.
Wattlebark collectors stripped
bark from the trunks of golden, black or silver wattles. They ground or
chopped the bark in a mill then soaked it. The liquid was then used to
tan leather. Stripping bark usually killed the trees and wattlebarking
left many forests devastated.
Eucalyptus Oil
Eucalyptus oil was another forest product which provided extra cash
for early Victorian settlers. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, small 'cottage' distilleries operated in the Mallee, Wimmera,
Central Victoria and West Gippsland. Many women worked distilleries on
farms or in sawmill settlements using leaves from trees felled for timber
or clearing. Eucalyptus oil was used in pharmaceuticals, confectionery
and paint.
The Forests Commission distillery
near Bendigo operated for nearly twenty five years after 1926. The most
well known Victorian eucalyptus distiller was Joseph Bosisto who introduced
the industry to the Wimmera in 1882, producing 'Emu' brand oil. The industry
declined during the 1950s and Spain and Portugal  now
dominate the commercial production of eucalyptus oil. A private eucalyptus
distillery is still operating in the Whipstick forest near Bendigo.
Charcoal
Blacksmiths of the nineteenth century
were avid users of charcoal to heat metal. Victorian forests provided a
living for numerous small scale charcoal burners. Charcoal kilns were usually
simple constructions; shallow earthen pits covered with turf and clay or
cylindrical metal kilns made from old drums or boilers. As horses became
less popular and mechanisation made blacksmiths redundant, charcoal production
also declined.
The charcoal industry revived
during the Second World War. Wartime petrol rationing encouraged the use
of charcoal as a source of 'producer gas', a substitute fuel for cars
and trucks. By 1941, the Forests Commission operated charcoal kilns in
many forest locations including Heywood, Dunolly, Ballarat, Yarram, Benalla
and Cohuna. At Mt Cole, the Commission worked six kilns, with the workers
camping in the forest nearby. By mid 1942 the Commission had 221 kilns
producing 1000 tons of charcoal a month. When petrol rationing ceased
at the end of the war the charcoal industry collapsed.
Forest camps
During the 1930s and 1940s, camps were established in the forest
to productively employ prisoners of war, unemployed men and war internees.
These men worked in an environment which was thought to be healthy and
improving, performing forestry tasks such as cutting firewood, building
roads, bridges and dugouts and clearing firebreaks. Prisoner of war  forest
camps were often established in secret locations to avoid public anxiety
about security.
The best known unemployed workers
camp was the Noojee Boys Camp, operating between 1933 and 1939. The Forests
Commission trained unemployed boys aged between sixteen and twenty in
forest management work. Many of these boys were later employed in the
Commission's forest gangs.
Additional
Resources
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