Forest Commission Operations
The Forest Commission of Victoria (FCV) was set up in 1918 to manage and run the state’s forest estate. It took over most of the functions of the former Forests Department. Prior to the existence of a specific government department of forests, the management of forests was under the control of other departments such as the Lands Department.
Forest Operations
The Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) holds some record books created by the Rushworth office of the FCV which give an indication of the sort of works being carried out in the 1930s and ‘40s.1 Some of this work was done by dedicated FCV staff, while other tasks were contracted out or given to casual labourers. Depending on the prevailing economic climate, work was sometimes given to the unemployed. During wartime, internees and prisoners of war were used as many of the regular forest workers had enlisted to serve overseas.
Work included 1st and 2nd stage thinning of parts of the forest, coppicing and coppice “knocking”, burning off, ringbarking, mistletoe removal, felling trees, grubbing stumps and grading in the forest as well as grading roads and tracks, “waste top disposal”, maintenance of buildings and manning the lookout and firefighting during the fire season.
As can be seen from the above list of activities, there was still a strong emphasis on forest thinning in the 1930s and ‘40s. Some trees were removed, and when there was coppice regrowth, teams would go through the forest “coppice knocking” i.e. bashing any new growth on stumps with the back of an axe head.
FCV Management
The first senior officer during the FCV era was Louis Bertram. Bertram was born in Bendigo but spent most of his youth at Costerfield where he became a miner. Coming to Rushworth around 1890, he continued to work in that occupation before becoming a worker in the Rushworth forest.
According to his obituary, he was “highly skilled in this work being recognised as one of the most efficient sleeper hewers in the Commonwealth. To such a state of perfection did he obtain in this work that some sleepers hewn by him were sent to England for the Wembley Exhibition and the late Mr Bertram was justifiably proud of this fact.”2
Eventually, he joined the Forestry Department (later the FCV) and worked his way up to managing the Rushworth office. Louis was a long-time supporter of the annual Wood Day, which raised funds for the Mooroopna Hospital. Each year, he would produce a walking stick from local timber and provide it to committee to auction off. “These were excellent pieces of work and were greatly admired and showed great skill on the part of the manufacturer.”2
He married Isabel McLeod at Costerfield in 1889. They had three boys, two of whom served in World War 11, Louis Jnr in the RAAF in Australia and Ted, who served overseas with the army in the Middle East and SW Papua New Guinea. After retirement in 1930, Louis lived in Murchison Road with his second wife, Florence (Leeman) until his death in 1941. He is buried in the Rushworth cemetery.
Other Foresters
Forest Officer in charge at Rushworth from 1930-8 was Percy Robert Sims. Sims was an Englishman who came to Australia in 1912 and was in his early 30s when he came to Rushworth. On his departure, he went to Dunnolly, from where he enlisted for service on the home front in the Second World War.
At the end of Sims’ term of office in Rushworth, he was replaced by the experienced Nicholas James Power, who held the position until the late 1940s. By that time, Power had already been a public servant for three decades, mostly with the former Forests Department and then the FCV. He came to Rushworth from Tallangatta in the north-east of Victoria. He had previously worked at Tarnagulla, so he was familiar with box-ironbark forests.
A girl, Mary Anne, was born to his second wife in Rushworth in 1940. He was a keen bowler and regularly appeared in teams for the Rushworth Bowls Club.
Other chief forest officers up to 1967 included Reg Talbot, Stan Butler (who had served in WW2 in the 3rd Forestry Company), Cyril V Wylie, Herb Caldwell and Charles R Fleming.
References: 1 PROV, File Nos 14891/P0001/02; 2 Rushworth Chronicle 27.6.1941; 3 Forster, Harley, Waranga 1865-1965 p 86; Sundry websites – DVA, NAA, Ancestry
