Herbert Illichmann has provided some bits and pieces about a gentleman called Harry Fisher. Unfortunately, information about Harry is scant, but there are references to him in Kim McDermott’s excellent book Last of the Wildcats and the memoirs of Herbert’s father-in-law, Lindsay Wilson. There are also a couple of newspaper articles about Harry, but because …
While researching for my book “Fires, Farms and Forests”, I came across quite a few caterpillar references in the correspondence of the Chief Agents of the Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL Co.). The caterpillars were killing off improved pastures planted after clearing or logging and scrubbing operations. The caterpillar problem was not unique to the …
Because the forestry profession is far from simple and the work highly variable, I have tried to describe what a forester does by outlining the development of the profession in Australia. In Part 1, I outlined the broad principles of forestry and the development of the forestry profession up until WWII. For this second part …
I grew up in a sawmill town on the edge of the buttongrass plain Beside a railway track in the town of Bulgobac Where the locos stop for water from the water tank It also fed the sawmill and the town of Bulgobac Gravel roads were twenty miles away and people very few With mountains …
Living on the buttongrass plain – a history of Bulgobac Read More »
This month is a guest blog from Morris “Mort” Bloom. Some of my most memorable days in the bush were marking road lines with Mort. My role was to source timber mostly from private property for the logging contractors under my supervision. Some were easily accessible across grass paddocks in the summer. However, the wet …
“Think of forests of WA and you picture the green south-west; think of Kalgoorlie and you conjure thoughts of gold, not trees. But the green and gold are inseparable. The trees that kept the hearts of the mines pumping were cut from native woodlands miles from the goldfields and hauled along specially constructed bush railways”. Cliff Winfield …
This blog has involved many hours researching historical deeds and has taken a long time to put together. It has been challenging to access information while travelling full-time, well away from Tasmania. I have called upon others to assist me in completing this story. Thank you to Brian Rollins for his patience and kindly sharing …
