Forest Yarns No 4
Stories from the Rushworth Forest

Small Industry
Timber harvesting and the gold mining industry dominated the Rushworth forest during the second half of the 19th century. However, smaller industries including wattle bark cutting, eucalyptus oil distilling, beekeeping and charcoal production evolved during this time. People often worked in these industries as an adjunct to their gold mining activities, providing an alternative source of income in dry or down times.
It is almost impossible to determine the extent of these industries in the Rushworth forest. We do know that by the time of the first world war, there was no record of wattle bark being legally harvested in the forest. Charcoal was still being produced, but production declined fairly sharply after the war and petered out before the second world war.1 This may have been because people had growing access to alternative sources of power such as electricity, which came to Rushworth in 1914, and briquettes which were first produced in the 1890s.
Wattle Bark
Very soon after the colonisation of Australia began, it became apparent that wattle bark had a high tannin content. The industry developed in Victoria from the mid-1860s. An inquiry into the industry in 18782 suggested that with wattles in the Waranga area, there was a 34% “tan extractive.” The tannin was used in the process of tanning leather, which happened in factories in the larger cities and towns, as well as being exported, primarily to the UK.
Wattle bark was easy to collect. There was a seemingly endless supply and all you really needed was an axe, a knife and some means of transporting the raw product. In the Waranga area the golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha), which was perhaps the most common wattle in the forest at the time, was one of the main targets for the bark cutters.
The problem was that the collection of the bark usually killed the tree. Indiscriminate cutting of wattle bark in Victorian forests began to be raised as an issue in the 1870s, as exports of wattle bark increased sevenfold from 1870-76. Eventually this resulted in the government inquiry mentioned above. The government was keen to ensure that a continuous supply of wattle bark could be made available to the tanning industry.
Amongst other things, the inquiry recommended that bark cutters on Crown Land had to be licensed and could not cut bark from trees of less than certain diameter. In the case of the golden wattle, this was 4 inches (10 cm) at a height of 2 feet (61 cm) above the ground.
A case reached the Rushworth court in 1904 in which John Hird from Redcastle was found guilty of stripping bark along Cornella Creek. He carted it to the Waranga station (between Rushworth and Murchison) for transporting to Melbourne by train. Hird was fined five pounds and ordered to pay costs of a similar amount. However, convictions of this nature appear to have been quite rare.
Charcoal Production
Another forest industry that could be conducted on a small scale was the production of charcoal. There were plenty of blacksmiths working in the area who needed a regular supply of charcoal. Cyanide works used in gold extraction, like the former one on the western side of the Rushworth-Nagambie Road at Whroo, used charcoal as a filter. There were also other mining industry applications for charcoal.
Quoting a Parks Victoria reference from 2006, one researcher stated that “the remnants of several charcoal burning pits adjacent to cleared areas and dams in the Rushworth forest dating from the 1890s can still be found.”3 A fallen log would be put in a pit and covered with turf, leaving it open at one end, where a fire would be started. Once it was burning steadily, the remaining section would be covered until the entire log was reduced to charcoal. When the fire was out, the turf would be removed, and the charcoal bagged up for transport. Dirty work.
The process is a little reminiscent of more recent times, where “controlled” burns are not extinguished properly, and old, dry stumps of coppiced trees continue to burn underground. On occasion, this has unfortunately resulted in many trees falling down days after the prescribed burn, adding to the fuel load on the forest floor.
References
1 Public Records Office of Victoria, State Forests Output Books (Rushworth 1916-29 and 1929-42); 2 Government Printer, Melbourne, 1878 Wattle Bark Report of the Board of Inquiry p 17; 3 Lawrence, Ruth and Bellette, Marc, Gold, Timber, War and Parks: A History of the Rushworth Forest in Central Victoria (CSIRO Publishing 2010)