Forest yarns
It is hard to understate the amount of timber that was used for firewood in the early days, before people had access to electricity and gas. Almost every house had a wood stove in the kitchen, as well as fireplaces in other parts of the house. Many workplaces required timber for boilers, traction engines and a host of other types of steam-powered equipment.
Early in 1904, the McIvor Times provided an estimate of the amount of firewood used in Bendigo in the previous year - 1903. The overall total was astonishing - just under 420,000 tons. Much of this (46%) was used for domestic and hotel purposes, while (38%) was used to provide fuel for the mining industry. The balance was used in other industries, such as the pyrites works, the electric company, potteries, foundries, breweries, brick kilns and flour mills.1
Rail transport
While the use of firewood in the Waranga area was much less than this, it still represented a large amount of wood coming out of the Rushworth forest. However, what really made the supply of firewood a major industry for the local area was the completion of the railway line to Rushworth in 1890, with the later extension to Colbinabbin and Girgarre in the early 20th century. This meant firewood could be transported easily to try to satisfy the insatiable demand for firewood in Melbourne.
In the southern part of the Rushworth-Heathcote forest, private railways were established by a company to get timber from the forest down to the stations at Tooborac and Heathcote, from where it could be further processed and sent north to Bendigo or south to Melbourne. The McIvor Timber and Firewood Co played a major role in this large-scale industry.
It is unclear why this sort of infrastructure was not developed in the northern part of the forest. Instead, timber was transported into Rushworth station by horse drawn vehicles, and later traction engines and trucks. The businesses operating on the Rushworth end of the forest were small scale: there was nothing comparable in size to the McIvor Timber and Firewood Co to the south.
Railway siding
Because the firewood industry was so important to Rushworth, in 1899 a siding was approved at the station to facilitate the establishment of more sawmills.2 Prior to that, there had only been one or two mills at the station until 1898, when Peter Venturini set up alongside the existing mills of Henry Campbell and William Skate.3
The number of mills at Rushworth station varied from time to time, with most sources quoting between five and seven after the turn of the century. During the five years from 1900-1904, the following millers paid rates at various times to the Railway Department – Skate, Campbell and Venturini, as already mentioned above, and William Bockholt, Alexander McRobert, P P Casey, E W Curtis and Henry Ferris.3 In 1902, the Bendigo Advertiser reported that there were six woodmills at the station, each employing 5-6 hands.4 With plenty of people working out in the forest to supply the mills as well, it is clear how important the industry was to the town economically.
Along the tracks
As well as the sawmills at Rushworth station, mills were set up at other stations along the line. Most notably, the Hammond Bros ran their business through Waranga station and Hammond’s Siding, and the Curtis’ mill operated for many years at Erwen station (the area now known as Moora). There will be more details on some of these mills in later stories.
In 1929, the Weekly Times reported that “the firewood trade provides employment for a number of men in the Colbinabbin district, and two plants are operating at the station. Cornella is the source of supply, there being large areas of grey box in that locality.”5 At the time, land in the area was being cleared to make way for farming. It was common practice to ringbark trees across large areas to be used for cropping and grazing. At the time, there was little understanding of the long-term environmental effects of the clearing.
References: 1 McIvor Times 14/4/1904; 2 Victorian Heritage inventory no H7924-0100; 3 With thanks to Samantha Cerchi, summary from Waranga rate books 1891-1904; 4 Bendigo Advertiser 22/2/1902; 5 Weekly Times 9/2/1929
Forest nature note
We usually think of wattles flowering in springtime, but one of the local wattles is flowering now. It is the spreading wattle (Acacia genistifolia), which has creamy coloured flowers. It may be flowering a little earlier than usual this year because of the dry conditions. The shrub is very prickly. In gardens it can grow to three metres but in the Rushworth forest it is generally smaller than that. It can flower right through to October.
