Foresters in Western Australia have forged a link to the sea thanks to a partnership with the WA Museum. The State’s leading history buff reached out to the Forest Products Commission (FPA) recently with a request for a couple of long, straight, strong jarrah poles suitable for masts as part of the Amity restoration. Source: Timberbiz
Senior Forester Todd Brittain and Forester Chris Schiller have been working with the lead Amity shipwright. They were able to nail down the specifications and locate suitable poles in Holyoake near Dwellingup.
“There is some really decent thinning’s bush around Dwellingup,” Mr. Schiller said.
“The area has good rainfall and really good soils so the trees grow pretty tall and straight.”
The poles are now being stored at the Harvey Mill and are being kept under sprinklers to ensure they dry in a controlled way with minimal checking and cracking.
“It will take between 12 to 18 months to dry the poles,” Mr. Brittain said. “Once that has been done, they will be cut to size and carted to Albany where they will be installed.”
The Brig Amity was a convict ship in 1826 that was used to establish the first European settlement on the west coast of Australia. Onboard was the ship’s crew with 23 convicts, 21 soldiers, domestic animals, food crops and building materials.
