I Perfumed Pineries Environmental history of Australia's Callitris forests ^^Itflit^X-f' " '1 WML M '/y'^ii. -%., " •K 1?9 ^'^?^ ^^'^1 1 «l# edited Ly John Qargavel, Di%ile Hart and B>rei»ii a LifebiI S 1: Perfumed Pineries Perfumed Pineries Environmental nistory or Australia's Callitris forests y / / .j'Vy / /> ' /J z^'- s-^" ^f,> edited by Jonn Dargavel, Diane Hart and Brenaa LinDis Published by Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University in association with Australian Forest Histoty Society Inc. and Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University The publishing program of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies is designed to present the results of the Centre's research and the proceedings of conferences and workshops. Views expressed in CRES publications are the views of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Centre or any associated institution. Director: Prof. R.J. Wasson Executive OfFicer: Valda Semets Publications: McComas Taylor © in this colleaion, CRES 2001 © in the papers, the authors 2001 ISBN 086740 524 4 This book is copyright. Aparr from any fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Aa, no part may be reproduced by any process without permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. All CRES publicarions are available from: Publications Seaion Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Tel. 02 6125 4277 Fax 02 6125 0757 Email: [email protected] URL: cres.anu.edu.au Cover design: Fiona Edge, DesignEdge, Dickson, ACT, from images of the wood o{ Callitrisglaucophylla; illustrations of Callitris species in J.H. Maiden, Forest flora ofNetu South Wales, 1917, and a photograph of 'Callitris arerwsa ACunn., Bmnswick Heads, N.E. New South Wales' reproduced from R.T. Baker and H.G. Smith, A research on the pines of Australia, 1910, p. 161. Printed by Instant Colour Press Pty Ltd, Belconnen, ACT. Contents List of Authors vii Preface rx 1 Palynology of the perfiimed pineries of arid South Australia 1 fon 'Lulj 2 Callitris and the botanists 9 Sybil fack 3 A history of the wood anatomy of Callitris 20 Roger Heady 4 Dendrochronology of Australian cypress pines 30 fohn Banks and Ian Pulsford 5 A new technique in dendroecology using Callitris 39 Mathew Searson and Stuart Pearson 6 Identifying a white pine-ironbark community from phytoliths 48 Diane M. Hart 7 Assessing changes in cypress pine forests from old stumps 56 Ian latnt, David Parker and Wayne Robinson 8 Stump count analysis of the pre-European Pilliga forests 63 David Paull 9 Soil, vegetation and landform in Pilliga East State Forest 71 Geoff Huffiphreys, Eli^iabeth Norris, Paul Hesse, Diane Hart, Peter Mitchell, Peter Walsh and Russell Field 10 Pilliga landscapes, Quaternary environment and geomorphology 79 Paul Hesse and Geoff Humphreys 11. Litterfall and decomposition in a white pine-ironbark community 88 Diane M. Hart 12 Koala populations in the Pilliga forests 93 Rod Kavanagh and Eli^iabeth Barrott 13 Floristic patterns in the Pilliga 104 Doug Binns and Doug Beckers 14 The Trontier': Callitris intratropica and landscape change 111 David Bowman 15 Perfumed pine and the pioneers 117 Bob McKillop 16 Recent disturbances to Callitris forests in Southern Queensland 125 Mark Harris and David hamb 17 Management plans for cypress forests 136 John Dargavel and Margaret Koivald 18 Calculating sustained yields in New South Wales 150 cypress forests, 1915 to\951 Andrea^Deane 19 A vanishing presence: Queensland forest heritage 159 David Cameron 20 Disturbance history mapping in New South Wales 167 Pauline Curby, Michael O'Neill, Rhondda O'Neill and Patrick Tap 21 Regulating Callitris populations: a tale of two pineries 173 James C. Noble 22 Thtvjntingoi A Million Wild Acres 184 Tom Griffiths 23 Perfiimed pines: the exploited and the exploiter I95 Eric Rolls Glossary 202 Autk ors John Banks Department of Forestry, The Australian National University, Canberra Elizabeth Barrott School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney Doug Beckers National Parks and Wildlife Service, Dubbo, NSW Doug Binns State Forests of New South Wales, Coffs Harbour, NSW David Bowman Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife Management, Northern Territory University, Darwin David Cameron Forest Management, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Brisbane Pauline Curby Crontdla, NSW John Daigavel Department of Forestry and Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra Andrew Deane State Forests of New South Wales, Bathurst, NSW Russell Field Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney Diane M. Hart Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney Mark Harris Department of Botany, University of Queensland, Brisbane Roger Heady Department of Forestry and Electron Microscope Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra Vll Paul Hesse Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney Geoff Humphreys Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney Rod Kavanagh, Forest Research Division, State Forests of New South Wales, Beecroft, NSW Margaret Kowald Forest Management, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Brisbane. Brenda Libbis Mt Waverley, Victoria David Lamb Department of Botany, University of Queensland, Brisbane Jon Luly School of Tropical Environment Studies and Geography, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland Ian Lunt The Johnstone Centre for Social and Biophysical Research, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW Bob McKillop Castlecrag, NSW Peter Mitchell Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney James C. Noble Sustainable Ecosystems, CSIRO, Canberra Elizabeth Norris Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney Michael O'Neill Northern NSW Forestry Services, Casino, NSW Rhondda O'Neill Northern NSW Forestry Services, Casino, NSW David Parker The Johnstone Centre for Social and Biophysical Research, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW David Paull School of Biological Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, NSW Stuart Pearson School of Geoscience, University of Newcastle, NSW Ian Pulsford National Parks and Wildlife Service, Queanbeyan, NSW Wayne Robinson The Johnstone Centre for Social and Biophysical Research, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW Eric Rolls North Haven, NSW Mathew Searson School of Geoscience, University of Newcasde, NSW Patrick Tap State Forests of New South Wales, Dubbo, NSW Peter Walsh Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney Vlll '•.' H4 ^4I» Pref The perfiimed pineries have survived heat, aridity and cold in Australia for at least a million years. They range from semi-arid scrublands to tropical woodlands. The first people named the trees: munlarru, marung, marinhi, pimba or binba, gurraay, jinchilla, karapaarr and puratharr, kulilypuru or kuli, kamtirrikani, and more, each particular to people and place. European settiers called them pine: Oyster Bay, Port Macquarie, Murray River, white, black and several more. Botanists placed them in a genus they first called Frenela. Now it is Callitris with fifteen species spread across Australia and two in New Caledonia. They yield termite-resistant timber for houses, fences, poles or mines. They produce blue and green oils for aromatherapy and a resin whose collection, we think, once prompted the famous forester, Harold Swain, to call them the 'perfiimed pineries' of our tide. Their greatest forest is the Pilliga of New South Wales—A Million Wild Acres to the many readers of Eric Rolls' evocative history. The perspectives on their history are as diverse as their names. Authors, botanists, ecologists, geographers, many other scientists, foresters, historians, landowners and managers all have different truths to tell, and different ways of telling them. In November 2000 they were brought together for the first time in a conference in Coonabarabran, New South Wales. It was convened and supported jointiy by the Australian Forest History Society, Inc.; the IX The Perfumed Pineries Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, the Environmental History- Project of the Research School of Social Studies anci the Department oi Forestry of the Australian National University; and the Department "f Physical Geography of Macquarie University. This volume is the wntten outcome. It starts a new, comprehensive and collaborative phase in the study of Australia's Callitris forests. Publications in the first phase collated botanical and utilitarian informa­ tion. They were produced in Sydney during the 1910s by Baker and Smith from the Technical Museum, and by Maiden from the Royal Botanic Gardens. At the same time, Swain was starting systematic timber assessment surveys and Jensen was examining 'The agricultural prospects and soils of the Pilliga Scrub'. He descnbeci the Pilliga as a 'region unexplored by geolo­ gists and other men of science, a terra incognita to all but a few stockmen . In publishing his study of the Pilliga in 1981, Rolls started a new phase that enlarged the scope of Australian forest history. For many of us, reading It brought about a desire to explore the forest physically and scientifically for ourselves. Since then, studies of Callitris have flourished in present and historical ecology, heritage studies, physical geography, forestry and much else. They have extended into regions far remote from the Pilliga. They continually raise new questions, challenge