From science to heritage: The history of a wood collection

Historical Records of Australian Science

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 43-54

  Dargavel, John ^a   Evans, Philip D ^b,c   Dadswell, Gordon ^d  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

^c AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^d UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84899892050     PISSN: 07273061     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1071/HR14004     Document Type: Review

References (37)

1. Collections Council of Australia, Significance 2. 0: a Guide to Assessing the Significance of Collections (Canberra, 2009);
2. Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1968 (Cwlth).
3. His argumentswere presented in C. E. Lane Poole, 'Forestry Position in Australia', Commonwealth of Australia, Papers Presented to Parliament, 1925, paper 73.
4. For a biography of Lane Poole, see John Dargavel, The Zealous Conservator: a Life of Charles Lane Poole (Crawley, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 2008).
5. C. B. Schedvin, Shaping Science and Industry: a History of Australia's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 1926-49 (Sydney, 1987). The adviser, A. J. Gibson, spent three months in Australia in 1927 and recommended keeping forest products research in CSIR and forestry research in the Forestry Bureau. National Archives of Australia, A9778 F5/3/59, I. H. Boas, 'Tour of England and America and Recommendations for the Organisation of Forest Products Research in Australia', n. d. [1929]. Cummins specialised in ways to preserve wood, and Dadswell in the microanalysis of wood structure, for which he added a short course with Kodak on micro-photography.
6. National Archives of Australia, A9778 F5/3/40, "Research into Structure and Identification of Commercial Woods of Australia"report by C. E. Carter, 1 August 1929. Anon. 'An appeal for wood specimens', Australian Forestry Journal 12(2) (1929), 39.
7. Lane Poole had experience in collecting wood and herbarium samples in Sierra Leone, Western Australia and particularly in Papua and New GuineaJohn Dargavel, 'From exploration to science: Lane Poole's forest surveys of Papua and New Guinea, 1922-1924', Historical Records of Australian Science, 17 (2006), 71-90.
8. Lane Poole's personal antipathy to Carter was so severe that they communicated only by correspondenceJohn Dargavel, The Zealous Conservator, documents Lane Poole's conflicts with Carter and the heads of state forest services.
9. Dadswell and Burnell, p. 13. When the Bureau appointed its own botanist, R. D. Johnston in 1951, he registered about 8,000 specimens in its herbarium. These formed the start of what was to become a great collection, particularly of the eucalypts, in CSIRO's Forest Research Institute and now in its Australian National Herbarium G. Chippendale, 'A Brief History of the Botanical Collections in the Forest Research Institute, Canberra'. Australian Systematic Botany Newsletter 7: 4-5 (1976).
10. Day, M. F. C., in collaboration with H. Hewson, M. Fagg, J. Doran, J. Turnbull, J. Illic, S. Jeffrey, P. Last andA. Graham,T. Chesser and N. Bougher, 'The Biological Collections in CSIRO: a National Heritage?', Historical Records of Australian Science 15 (2004), 1-19.
11. Anon, Australian Forestry Journal 13 (4) (1930).
12. H. E. Dadswell and Maisie Burnell 1932, Identification of the ColouredWoods of the Genus Eucalyptus, pp. 12-14, detail the protocol to ensure that the specimens were botanically authentic and duplicated. It is not clear whether the protocol was fully developed from the start of the national collection.
13. Australian National University Archives, ANUA 137.
14. John Dargavel 2012. 'Contested Forestries, Contested Educations: a Centenary Reflection'. Australian Forestry 75(1) (2012), 16-21.
15. Michael M. Roche and John Dargavel, 'Imperial ethos, Dominions Reality: Forestry Education in New Zealand and Australia', Environment and History 14 (4) (2008), 523-543.
16. Dargavel, The Zealous Conservator, details this and others of Lane Poole's conflicts. Victoria also to pped sending students to train in the Australian Forestry School.
17. Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, Annual Report, 1936, 1937, 1939. The enquiries from 'forest services' were presumably not from Queensland or New SouthWales that had their own collections.
18. The merits of the Australian card sorting system for the identification of wood, which 'had been in use for some two years' was discussed at a meeting of Australian wood anatomists held in the CSIR Division of Forest Products. Those present were M. B. Welch andW. J. Rosling (NSW Forestry Commission), E. J Semmens (Victorian Forests Commission and Principal of the Creswick Forestry School), C. E. Carter (Commonwealth Forestry Bureau and Lecturer in Wood Technology at the Australian Forestry School) and H. E. Dadswell, D. J. Ellis, A. M. Eckersley and H. D. Ingle (all CSIR Forest Products). CSIR Monthly Newsletter no. 92 (September 1939), 4-5.
19. L. T. Carron 'A History of Forestry and Forest Product Research in Australia', Historical Records of Australian cience 5(1) (1980), 7-57.
20. It was located in: the Department of the Interior 1946-1964, the Department of National Development 1964-72, the Department of Primary Industry 1972-4, and the Department of Agriculture 1974-5. Brad Collins, Fields of Discovery: Australia's CSIRO (Crows Nest, NSW, 2002), pp. 253-254 describes the transfer and the cultural differences that entailed.
21. L. T. Carron, 1985, A History of Forestry in Australia (Canberra, 1985)
22. and S. G. Foster, The Making of the Australian National University, 1946-1996 (Canberra, ANU ePress).
23. Heather completed his PhD in 1965. L. T. Carron was also appointed from the staff of the Australian Forestry School and completed his PhD in forest mensuration in 1972. Rudman completed his PhD at University of London in 1955 and joined CSIRO Division of Forest Products where he was as a research officer (1956-60) and then senior research officer (1961-5) in the Timber Preservation Section. He was given a leave of absence in 1965 to take up a Leverhulme Visiting Fellowship at University of Leeds before joining ANU. His research focussed on wooddurability, preservation, cell wall structure and growth-ring analysis. Australian National University Archives ANUA53/2. 1. 8. 4 (1) Department of Forestry, Annual Report 1966;
24. ANUA 53/2. 1. 8. 5 (3) Department of Forestry, Annual Report 1967
25. ANUA 53/2. 1. 8. 6 (3) Department of Forestry, Annual Report 1968;
26. Balodis, Vilnis, 'Division of Forest Products Staff Lists 1928-1971' (Melbourne: CSIRO, 2009, CD. ). Division of Forest Products Staff Lists 1928-1971 2008, (CD) CSIRO, Melbourne.
27. Ilic, Jugo. 'Obituary William Edwin (Ted) Hillis, 6 February 1921-3 February 2008', Australian Forestry, 71(2) (2008), 160.
28. Roger D. Heady, Ross B. Cunningham, Christine F. Donnelly and Philip D. Evans, 'Morphology of warts in the tracheids of cypress pine (Callitris Vent. )', International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal 15 (3) (1994), 265- 281;
29. Roger D. Heady and Philip D. Evans, 'Callitroid (callitrisoid) thickening in Callitris', International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal 21 (3) (2000), 293-319;
30. Roger D. Heady, John G. Banks and Philip D. Evans, 'Wood anatomy of Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis, Araucariaceae)', International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal 23 (4) (2002), 339-357;
31. Roger D. Heady and Philip D. Evans, 'Wood anatomy of Actinostrobus (Cupressaceae)', International Association of Wood Anatomists Journal 26 (1) (2005), 79- 92;
32. Roger D. Heady, Ross B. Cunningham and Philip D. Evans, 'Differences in the ultrastructure of their large warts allow white cypress pine (Callitris glaucophylla ) to be distinguished from black cypress pine (C. endlicheri)', Wood Science and Technology 42 (4) (2008), 313-323.
33. Philip D. Evans, Roger D. Heady and Ross B. Cunningham, 'Identification of yellow stringybark (E. muelleriana ) and silvertop ash ( E. sieberi ) wood is improved by canonical variate analysis of ray anatomy', Australian Forestry 71 (2) (2008), 94-99.
34. Richard E. Williamson, Huntly G. Higgins and Bruce A. Stone. 'Alan Buchanan Wardrop 1921-2003', Historical Records of Australian Science, 18 (2007), 113-136.
35. CraftACT, Rings of History: Contemporary Craft from Historical Timbers [Exhibition catalogue](Canberra: 2001).
36. I. McLaughlin 'Report to personswho once had an interest in the CSIRO wood once in storage at the ANU in Canberra', Unpubl. The IWCS also made about 3,000 samples for its members in Australia and the USA, and sent off-cuts to an archeologist in the University of Queensland. The 11 / 2 to nnes remaining was used as firewood.
37. Roslyn Russell Museum Services, 2011. 'ANU Forestry Wood Collection: Significance Assessment'. Canberra. Mss.