AUSTRALIAN FORESTS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 181, 2 May 1925, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN FORESTS

DISQUIETING FIGURES IMPORTANCE OF INDUSTRY OVERLOOKED EXPERT’S DISCLOSURES By Telegj vfh. —Press Association CoPYuiony Sydney, May 1. A comprehensive repprt (submitted by Air. C. Lake I’oole, Forestry Adviser to the Commonwealth Alinister of Horae and Territories, Senator Pearce, states that Australia is importing 42.18 per cent, of its timber requirements, a figure which, in view of the youth of Australia and the relative small population, is l very disquieting. The position is rendered still more alarming when the nature' of the imports and local productions is examined. Air. I’oole asserts that the importance of the 'industry is quite overlooked in the Commonwealth. The only State with an apparent surplus of timber is West Australia', which in 1923-24 exported 133,500,000 superficial feet, of which about one-third went to other States and the balance overseas, but West Australia is cutting out her jarrah and kauri forests six times as fast as they were growing. Were she to cut it out according to forestry rules, that is, to cut only the increment of the forests, the State would have no timber to export. While the area of the forests in the Commonwealth is set out in the Year Books as 69,054,000 acres, proceeds Air. Poole, the foresters’ estimates of true forest land, place it at 24,500,000 acres. Instead, however, of producing 12,000 million superficial feet, forests are producing only 587| million feet. The inadequacy of the hardwood forests is due to the gross overcutting that has taken place in the past, and to the very paltry efforts the States have made to restore their forests, and .so to manage them as to get the maximum yield per acre. The conditions of the Australian forest heritage of 24,500,000 acres is that it is mainly covered with a bad growth of uneven, aged timber, which has grown up more or less haphazardly after the sawmillers had picked the best out. Their increment has been cancelled by loss through fire and other causes. The area actually dedicated as forest is only 10,502,634 acres. Only in two States, New South Wales and Victoria, are the financial resources at the disposal of the forestry authorities in any way commensurate with the work to be carried out. There is also a lack of trained foresters. —Press Assn.