Huon pine wild river adventures and the search for a golden timber | Explore Aus | ABC Australia

Huon pine is a unique and valuable timber that grows only in the rain forests of south west Tasmania. Four generations of the Morrison family have worked with the timber. Three Morrison brothers even rowed a wooden boat up the Franklin River in the 1940s, looking for pine. In that era the timber was revered as one of the world’s best for boat and ship-building.
The cutting of live Huon pine ceased in the 1970s, an acknowledgement that the species was too unique and slow-growing for ongoing harvest. Many specimens live for over 1000 years. But the Morrison family’s search for the valuable timber continues today via the salvaging of craft-quality timber that regularly washes out of the wild rivers and becomes stranded on the banks of the massive Macquarie Harbour.
Brendon Morrison has one of two licenses to scour the shores of the Harbour, loading drift logs and burls into his custom-made punt with on-board crane. His 75 year-old father, Snowy, is retired but still loves showing tourists the family mill on the Strahan water-front.
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Video produced by Rick Eaves ABC Northern Tasmania.
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[@ceebs648]

Great video. Thanks. It’s a beautiful wood.

[@island66]

I have some I'm using on a boat, it's a beautiful wood

[@caseydixon8714]

Almost as good as new zealand kauri

[@uggali]

Is this the best timber in the world for building boats and canoes? I want to grow some trees for future generations to carve and build canoes from and my site is a swamp

[@ripme6616]

What percentage of old Growth huon is left

[@starwins5934]

Difficult to understand your slang. Please add subtitle. Would be helpful to understand better for non native English speakers

[@johnruciak]

I’m the fourth generation here in the mill. I started working here in about 2003 the vertical frame saw, which is behind me is dated to be about 120 years of age and we do a demonstration with it every day. Well it is the world's best timber really, Huon pine. There's no other timber like it. One of the world's best boat building timbers, so easy to work. It only grows on the southwest coast of Tasmania. So all the craftwood that we have in our yard and our logs that are on the saw here, we salvage ourselves from the mouth of the Gordon River. We've got a 8 metre by 4 metre aluminium punt with a 1 ton crane in it. Go from Strahan about 18 miles and we work our way around into Kelly Basin. Sometimes we come across our old logs flooded out of the river that were felled by my grandfather and his two brothers. You can tell that by the little brand on the end of the log, so that's a bit special when you come across something like that. When the old fellows rowed from here to Gordon River, and they find a nice patch of Huon Pine and selective log it, boat building timber only. Into the river with block and tackles. And the logs flood down the Gordon river ro be sorted out by the brand and they'd raft them up into a long raft and towed them back to Strahan which will take 20 hours plus. They stopped selective logging of the Huon in the mid 70s. So there's only two salvage permits for Macquarie Harbour. I’m 75 years of age now and I worked in the river in the 60s and 70s. In Dad’s day, they went up in the punt you see, then they stayed there for about three months. My father and his two brothers Reg and Ron, they went up into the Franklin in the 40s and first time anyone had been up there I think. So 22 mile down the harbor itself and another 20 mile up up to Gordon River and then they got to go through the Franklin, it’s a long way, carrying their punt most places. Couple of greasy skids and haul it up over the rapids. If you got hurt or anything no one would know about it you know. When they first went into the Maxwell dad sent messages home with a homing pidgeon. 5th generations already on the job here. Yeah mate, yeah, he’ll be rowing his punt up the river before long.

[@minutemangangplank8599]

I just want some clarity, are these people logging and cutting down trees, or working with naturally fallen tree's. I can not support any form of unsustainable logging.

[@abcaustralia]

They salvage logs from the river, none of them are cut down. Some were cut down decades earlier, before the logging ended, and resurfaced at the river mouth only recently. The video explains it.

[@minutemangangplank8599]

@@abcaustralia I thought so, I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for the reply.

[@uggali]

@@minutemangangplank8599at least to cut down native trees you need to grow a native forest. Most wood is grown in monoculture plantations of a non native species, that is virtually a desert and degrades the earth and water