Timber Getting in Western Australia.

you you that captain whoa man neck Oh you you you you when the young state of Western Australia first began stretching its limbs like an awakening giant roads and railways were needed to serve settlers who had pushed out into the hitherto wilderness with the pit sawing of method of timber far behind steam mills were being built to reap wealth from the state's natural timber resources men skilled as both Bushmen and axe men were needed to supply the mills with raw materials others employed either in gangs or as loan cutters spend their days in the bush queuing sleepers to satisfy a hungry rail building program both at home and abroad hand-hewn flourished until about 1939 when the method gave way to mill song sleepers today sleepers are still in demand but the supply is met by modern electric power mills like this one a TR loop Western Australia walking through some gerra bush today one may find rotting tree stumps and billets showing where a cutter once plied his trade most daisies have been burnt or blackened by forest fires to find how the man who cut these sleepers worked and lived in the bush that is turned back the clock 5060 years or more in those days a cutter could be selective in his choice of tree settling for one he thought easy to fall and split while he may appear to cut at random his knowledge and skill help him to scarf the tree in a manner that will cause it to fall later in exactly the spot he requires you you the bark of a gerra tree is very stringy and unless removed can cause a sort of jam in the wood you the unskilled would recoil at the thought of using a crosscut saw like this as a solo effort the lone cutter is a man of great ingenuity and he has devised a method he calls the groper stick to keep the unmanned end of the source we easily in perfect rhythm rhythmic working and breathing over the year at the tuned his system to the point where working seemed effortless the proud tree has been humbled but the victor welcomes a few moments before his next chore today a new camp must be built but first his simple belongings are shifted from the old campsite although unproductive time spent erecting a new camp nearer to the bush he is working out ways time lost walking back and forth to a distant camp living in an age before a ban on the picking of wildflowers he feels that these will add a homely touch to his new camp and besides they would only be destroyed as he cleared away debris to make the campsite his skill with the axe and fallen saplings provide fork sticks and poles for firstly his fireplace and later the frame of his tent a canvas provides one cover bark from the already fallen tree is an ideal natural material with which to build a shelter around the camp galley the wide sheets will give protection from wind and rain nature and his own imagination provide a stand for his washbasin he greets each new day with a campfire it provides warmth when cold hot meals and companionship refreshing wash to start the day and while the breakfast of kangaroo steak sizzles and the Billy boils he makes up his bed a simple one from forked sticks poles and Hessian out here he is his own butcher and Baker his simple bread being a damper made from flour water and salt mixed in placed in a camp oven it will have ample time to cook in the ashes from the breakfast fire washing dirty dishes as a practical measure to help keep away bush flies the blackened Billy has become a symbol of the Australian bush and Outback man would assume venture to work without it as he would without his tools the cutter has left some of his tools along the track and all must be gathered for the next stage while the Billy requires little or no maintenance the tools do he keeps the exes razor sharp with a file or stone the crosscut saw requires a more complicated and skilled approach and for this he uses first day of gauge to check the rake of the saw teeth and later a file to sharpen them if the sword is not cut easily he can only blame himself sometimes difficulty in sawing is caused by log pinching sore and he corrects this by hammering in a steel wedge now rolled into a suitable position he marks out the billet with hammer and wedge and sets about splitting in half but the log is reluctant to yield its inner secrets the outer wood of the billet is cut away with the narrow axe his skill is put to the test as he uses the fraud axe the cutter is left-handed and uses an axe designed for the left-handed man for the right-handed a special handle would be fitted at the opposite head of the broad axe blade a vicious instrument the broad axe could easily slice through a man's boot and foot in order to collect some compensation one cutter was said to have deliberately cut off his toes an insurance investigator found his right foot was injured whereas the left boot had been cut needless to say the victim lost toes insurance and a good pair of boots however only a brave man would cut himself on purpose and painfully hobble miles in search of aid paper fine shavings coming from the axe indicate one side is almost complete dampened chord rubbed into blackened bark is a perfect marker the blackened and rough his hands make no mistake as he measures and marks out for the next stage of the sleeper he has a standard to maintain and both measurements and cutting must be exact today the sleeper Carter will arrive about the sound of the ring of his axe the cutter hear the distant cui the reply will guide to Carter who is approaching along a nearby bush track while a cutter mops the sweat from his brow the dray rumbles nearer the sleeper tipped aside the cutter goes to meet his old friend and the only other human with whom he will have had contact in several weeks the horses have traveled a long way only when they have each been given a nose bag of char four notes will a car to share a billy of tea and some food with a cutter the cutter is anxious to hear news of the world beyond the Jarrah forest in which he lives and works there's no radio in his day and no telephone in his world of bush and wild animals now the welcome break must end for the Carter the receivers both here and at other log sites to be loaded on this occasion he's assisted in the loading by the cutter soon they must go their separate ways the cauda to complete his load and return to the railhead where the sleepers will be checked by an officer of the forestry department give up to the required standard they'll be passed and the cutter can eventually get his payment if not up to standard they will be rejected a cutter with too many rejections can become a bad credit risk for the store where he obtains his simple needs an unknown author speaking of an equally unknown cutter wrote he could tell a'carly gerra from a jar on the wine but he couldn't tell his tucker bill was 20 quid behind the cutter relies on the position of the Sun in the heavens by which to tell the time a quick check reminds him it is time to make his weary way homeward after a long day's toil his back ascent and his step is slow his clevon to find the damper is cooked to perfection in his absence can he spare the time to sample a slice before preparing a simple evening meal soon will come the darkness and where the darkness will come the end of another day and the end of another era the era of the men whose skill provided hundreds of thousands of hand hewn sleepers though the hand hewn sleeper is finished the fame of its undoubted superiority still lives on in Western Australia you

Channel: FontaineGroup

Views: 258,488

Rating: 4.7775931 out of 5

Keywords: Timber, timbergetting, logging, western australia, karri forests, jarrah, forests, bush, australian bush survival

Id: knTYjI66Yzw

Length: 23min 58sec (1438 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 27 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/RustyNumbat]

For those who have been through the peaceful and green forests and farmlands around Pemberton and Manjimup this video has some great sound and footage of how busy it used to be. It's strange to think that where you now just hear the wind through the trees, bird song and maybe the sound of highway traffic you would have heard the clack of axes and whistle of steam two generations ago. Not to mention the sheer age and size of the trees being felled. It's cool enough to stand next to one tree with a 2m girth, let alone seeing this many just being felled and dragged as a regular commodity.

[u/Agent641]

No hardhats? No High-vis vests? No daily toolbox meeting?

I hope they at least got free sunscreen.

[u/Sparhawk97]

The sheer size of these trees always impresses me. I climbed on the the fire watch trees seriously better view than any high rise or skyscraper I've been up cant recommend enough.

[u/[deleted]]

Your Reddit name sounds like a sex position.

[u/Brewjo]

seven weeks alone eating shit food and hand cutting sleepers. Fuck that, I'd HIHO after the first swing. Horse In-Horse Out.