The Timber Getters

Made by The National Film Board 1952. Directed by Bern Gandy. In post-war Australia, the milling of our nation's prized hardwood timbers was a rapidly growing industry. Mechanisation introduced economies in the handling, but the skill and stamina of the axe-men were still indispensable in timber-getting. This short film looks at the work of the men living in bush sawmill camps.

[@neilheyward2599]

Thanks for the wonderful history shown in this video. Imagine my surprise when the old Willy's jeep drives past at 8:40 there's my dad "mick" heyward sitting in the back almost being thrown out. His mate peter hopkinson in the passenger seat. Dad went on to become 2nd forester in that same forest at bellangry. He has passed now but peter is still kicking.🌳🇦🇺🌳

[@davidewhite69]

Timber was a huge industry for my town. All the internal timber of the Sydney opera House came from around here and was processed by one business in town to be fitted at the Opera House with no cutting, but it was accidently done up side down, but due to symetry it was just a matter of flipping it and sanding, and most people never knew, but that's another story

[@fasx56]

This movie out of the 1950s is a look back at the timber industry and how trees were harvested sixty years ago is so valuable. It preserves on film how difficult logging was then compared to now, It has always been dangerous and has claimed the lives of thousands of men and injured many more. The difficulty of the work back then would wear out men's bodies by the time they turned fifty. Chain saws and much more efficient heavy logging equipment made the industry more humane by the 1960s but it is still some of the most dangerous work a man can get into.

[@DiscoFang]

Still just as hard and dangerous. Knowledge and experience has made some aspects safer but all the machines have done is increase the output per man.

[@trackdusty]

@@DiscoFang Not as hard or dangerous except perhaps because the skill level is less. Mostly the disgusting clear felling today too. Not much skill in that.

[@ishure8849]

G'day NSFA Films, thanks for that glimpse into our past my grandfather Arther Ure Was a forest commissioner at that time in Healesville .he believed in selective logging and replanting he was an unsung hero during the 39 fires saving many people as he had a government car and the knowledge of bushfires at Taggerty he picked up six mill workers walking towards hell and he was fleeing it . He convinced them to get in and they drove back to the mill and spent the night in the mill pond they all survived but were smoke blind for a week and suffered lung damage . Timber is a renewable resource I started planting trees in 1991 I've been in landcare since then I have a Lucas mill and only cut blow down non habitat trees, the timber is sold for various uses and the carbon stored . Thanks once again for for a look back into the lives of heroes that are all gone now .

[@standardaussie]

Need any hands sir?

[@brumbybailey6599]

Wow, this is a beaut bit of history recorded. I was lucky enough to grow up around Belangry and Bril Bril. It's first rate country which is by no means spoiled; you can still see the wonderfully huge old stumps with their notches, but there's lovely timber all around. What ruins the land is the pine plantations. They are the scourge of the Snowys which is where I'm from now. I have many years ahead of me to rehabilitate an old logged pine patch.

[@edgarbleikur1929]

Along with the other scourge of the snowy's? Your namesake...

[@rkots2962]

The best forgotten documentary of a brave strong & hardworking men of this century...

[@notyou1877]

That's what I call "Hard Work"!

[@stephenwilliams4801]

Not You destroying your country, Sad

[@joeyphaahla]

@@stephenwilliams4801 no they’re not they’re only takin’ what they need!

[@dodgygoose3054]

Just crazy, understandable for the time period but... We understand so much more now, and for us to still log forest of 200 odd plus years trees for a quick buck, which cant be replaced for another 200 plus years is insane.

[@katejudson8907]

Absolutely. It was blind greed.

[@mattbehindthewheel6901]

hard times create strong men; strong men create good times; good times create weak men; weak men create hard times...

[@btron1234]

Hard times ahead unfortunatly.

[@user-rr9gh5ko1c]

And both kind of men bring death and destruction to nature!

[@mattbehindthewheel6901]

@@user-rr9gh5ko1c but one makes sure that life comes back to it for the future...

[@user-rr9gh5ko1c]

@@mattbehindthewheel6901 : what life are you talking about ?

[@nigelhodges7173]

Genius, thank you for your insight, or not!

[@timothysullivan4130]

AMAZING, these men are REAL TOUGH MEN!!! Felling these MONSTERS is serious business. MUCH RESPECT to them ALL👏👏👏☝️☝️☝️☝️

[@hayekfriedman9078]

Another great upload, NSF. All those glorious trees. Hard to watch! Great, strong, salt-of-the-Earth Aussie men.

[@nzsaltflatsracer8054]

This is a really cool piece of Aussie history. 6:32 is a 48 Bedford PC Ute & 6:38 a 50 Chevy Ute, both body's by Holden.

[@samt5663]

Thanks.

[@user-ow1rt9hs9v]

Hello there being a ex logger myself and generations of us I really enjoy this and I still loves the bush today so thank you keep the memories alive keeping up I thoroughly enjoyed Ray🎉❤

[@winsor68]

My ancestors immigrated from Scotland to what was to become Queensland in the mid 1800s and were timbergetters at what became a Southport and at Speerwah which is today Kuranda.

[@lj3571]

Fantastic footage, how grateful are we to these hard working men 🙏thankyou.

[@kevintyler7932]

3:58, yells timber walks off doesn't even phase two other dudes, just keep sawing away like a giant tree isn't falling next to them lol boss status

[@basilguts1786]

Kevin Tyler ,yeah I noticed that. They didn’t bat an eyelid,just kept working. All proper men here,no place for poseurs or shirkers.💪💪

[@lucasgregory6375]

Those pine plantations have since taken over a lot of the beautiful hardwood forests we once had. Kinda sad in a way

[@edgarbleikur1929]

A lot easier to manage and realistically farming took over the native forest and soft wood plantations have reclaimed that barren farmland so not all bad...

[@khanpoultryinformation2567]

Lovely really I love it.... Ancient times are se good than the time we are spending now

[@applesucks2633]

Undoubtedly the toughest men on the planet at that time!

[@loggerslife5821]

Lumberjacks still are haha 😜 proud to be one

[@glintwing]

Ye cuz being a miner is a p*ss in the park...

[@trackdusty]

@@glintwing 'Miners' today aren't what they were when they swung picks. Now 'miner' means anything.

[@glintwing]

@@trackdusty what.... A miner still goes to work in a cramped, dark, dusty and dangerous mine... Its just that they use heavy machinery for better productivity.....

[@trackdusty]

@@glintwing It's mostly open cut today, so there's not much cramping. "OH&S" too, which hardly existed. My grandfather was a hard ground miner and as a kid I grew up in a coal mining town where all the mines were dangerous underground mines. There is no real comparison with today's mining which is virtually all open cut. Even women can work in them today.

[@royske123]

brilliant, absolutely good work men

[@zzebowa]

The chain saw must have been a godsend!

[@jejh600]

AlexLordAlcyone and some say it’s useful in the Woods

[@lawbird5803]

Imagine if these men could see what their country has become today...

[@mysuperblog]

?

[@lawbird5803]

@@mysuperblog huh?

[@adam8822]

What the best country in the world to live ?

[@banmadabon]

Until their house will burn to the ground they'll not undestand...

[@adam8822]

@@banmadabon Ah I see I wasn't sure 👍

[@jbelme1]

It has the warm feel of a 1950’s Disney movie.

[@GraniteValleyDave]

Always enjoy this video. Sure looks like hard work. The old trees are monstrous. On my parents property in southern NSW we have old eucalypt trees around 100ft tall. Can't comprehend what a thump trees twice the height would make when they come crashing down.

[@barronbarron6784]

I wonder if 80% of Australia is desert in very little isn't aren't you guys supposed to put a cap on deforestation what if you guys run out of forest

[@danielgorzel7222]

7:41 ''3 hours of climbing,chopping and sawing.It's a man's work,alright.''

[@matthewfox3760]

Oh how life changes over time Have we really progressed as society or are we losing ourselves in the busyness

[@pangolinusscolopendralum6822]

Nobody invited the english to settle here. This land belongs to the ancients aborigines !

[@randlerichardson5826]

Great video I like these old videos a lot

[@prichards5113]

Magnificent men, and women, in a hard time!

[@26TptCoy]

Hard to imagine the size of some of these trees cut down. If you look in the forests west of Wyong you can still find remnants of the stumps from some cut down, and they were massive trees. Martinsville cemetery, near Cooranbong, is full of tree fellers, most killed by accident. The men would live up in the forest in small bark huts while they worked there, The logs dragged by bullock , later by dozer. I guess people giving thumbs down have no understanding of life in the past, of the people creating prosperity. There was no understanding of environmental damage back then in a time when we needed to give our returned soldiers an occupation and regrow the country.

[@sdoylie]

how did that guy climb that tree with the size of nuts he must have been packin'?

[@joeyphaahla]

1:08 that snake has been to the gym look at it go! 💪🏻💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏿

[@mybluebelly]

Those are some bigass trees for sure. I`d quite fancy climbing them ;-)

[@francescopignanelli1851]

Bellissimo video 👊👊

[@robertjacobs3878]

You know What I like to hear that the forestry is strict by assigning which tree to cut and the seed tree to stay the forest won't die love to hear that

[@edgarbleikur1929]

Don't buy the propaganda in this film bud!! Clear fell logging existed then and very much is the norm in Australia now!

[@rustyduktape]

I feel like we'd show this videos to aliens and they'd be like wow you guys are pretty great, and then we'd be like yeah well then it got a little out of hand... all jokes aside, what a great movie! thanks for sharing, would be a great life to live.

[@Bigmau88]

definition of hardwork

[@hafeezullah2874]

گزرے ہوئے پچھلے وقتوں زمانے کے لوگ کتنے محنتی ہوتے تھے لیکن اب توبالکل بھی انسان تھک ہار جاتے ہیں👌👌👌✌✌✌👍👍👍

[@reomarcilo4648]

Awesome👍👍👍

[@bullsnutsoz]

The backbone of civilisation; farmers and loggers, my grandpa was both.

[@chrismarzec9213]

Been a Michigan logger for 39 yrs. the trade has been ruined. It’s against the law to log in Macomb Co.the govt has stolen the ground n timber.the communist want to control everything.dont worry Canada will screw you on every plank

[@redwater4778]

Yes but we are no longer needed . The country is built . The capitalist have stepped in and taken over the economies.

[@kyoteybear9439]

say what , you need to respect the old timers, as they never sucked cock, or take it up the arse like in your own fantasies. ( new generational ungrateful wankers is what you lot are)

[@Chalz108]

@@kyoteybear9439 sounds like you need to work thru some issues bud... you in the closet?

[@kenetickups6146]

bullsnutsoz The backbone of civilization is order and progress

[@mishham6388]

My uncle and his family before him live in dorrigo and used to run the block teams before there were machines and dozers to do the work ....hark yakka that's for sure

[@silviofontana3666]

my father worked the forest of Omeo in the 50's, my mother often sticked up axe wounds with cotton and needle.

[@geraldofabianoartes3074]

Simplesmente incrível. Como evoluiu a tecnologia em nosso mundo. Um grande abraço Brasil

[@chantichanti9841]

Respected I was searching this Thanks for giving this May I god bless you Thanking you, Sravan

[@koltonkinlicheene2297]

5:03 Damn, that would've been me back in the day 😂 pipe packed with some fine herb tho

[@vilja1]

You'll ruin a good briar that way the resin fills the pores and will eventually cause it to crack. Plus it will never smoke cool again with the resin in it ( tounge bite sucks) . Leave that to a good ole corncob ain't nothin wrong with a corncob hell out of all the briars I got they still keep up in quality and flavor .

[@koltonkinlicheene2297]

@@vilja1 then I shall make 7 of them haha

[@manasranjanmohanty8181]

I love this place but now😭

[@philthycat1408]

Koala, "Its bad enough choppin' me tree down mate but keep yer sweaty bullocks to yerself".

[@willjctm1763]

I like how the two who fell the 🌲 run away and two still sawing just carry on cutting.

[@lumberjaxe8910]

The tree falling, had dominate branches(weight) on the far side, and obviously with no widow makers, or hang ups in the canopy resulting in a safe fell, and if there was any Indiscrepancy in the heart of the timber or V cut or back cut, a caution would of been sounded. Being exhausted, and on a quota basis, they all working together to maximize Harvest. Shearers also were damn hard Workers, and still are.Never pick on a Shearer in a Pub.

[@Keggsy567]

Hard yakka to hard for the men of today really appreciated watching thanks.

[@mendonesiac]

These old videos are great. Seeing that tree hit the ground and all the limbs just fly off, dang, it's a lot easier than logging fir or redwood. (Edit: except for all the poisonous snakes!)

[@edgarbleikur1929]

How is it a lot easier???

[@mendonesiac]

@@edgarbleikur1929 because limbing takes time and can be dangerous

[@edgarbleikur1929]

@@mendonesiac you still need to limb up eucalyptus, a hell of a lot harder when those huge eucalyptus limbs are all twisted and splintered and under tension and compression forces with 60 ton or more of log attached to them! Soft woods a breeze by comparison!

[@ChannelOne-1]

Gotta love these guys wearing Zero eye, ear, hand protection

[@7o177]

fuck mate, what are you the whs officer?

[@DiscoFang]

What's wrong with yer skin? Keeps everything inside in and everything else out.

[@mendonesiac]

A bit of wombat fur in the ears is all you need.

[@klaasj7808]

But they still worked very safe, see 8:24 keeping his hand high with the saw so it wont get smashed in his face.

[@axelmilan4292]

When a 1-200 foot tall tree comes down, if you're in the way it won't matter whether you're wearing safety glasses or not.

[@schnurrbert]

4:09 the tree completely disintegrated after hitting the ground lol

[@jamesstanton6795]

9:22 my man was eating saw dust and not even a flintch

[@travisthechimp7857]

I thought that at first but I think it was actually the water used for cooling the saw blade.

[@dennisthemenace57]

Great men building a great Nation, it's shameful how weak our Country has become in just 70 years

[@trackdusty]

Too true, Dennis. Is that name fair dinkum?

[@user-teabager]

That was great thank u

[@The13point1]

Lol the sound effects department must have been on a tight budget

[@iansing5278]

Strong legs on the climber/topper...

[@mriwayanofficial69]

Amazing story 👌👌👌👍👍👍

[@emersondeoliveirasantos5394]

Moro no país no estado q forte e a madeira estado do Acre Rio Branco pais Brasil com toda a tecnologia d hoje em dia ainda e muito trabalhoso transporta madeira.Parabéns a esses guerreiros...

[@vitorsantosalves8259]

Eh transporte e o mais complicado. Aí usa bastante 1113 1317

[@michaelkearney5562]

7:30 to 8:27 Yes, you need nerve and skill for that work!

[@the_real_bin_chicken]

3:01 that bloke looks like he was in a blue at the pub the night before 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@MrAustruck]

and thats what happened to our old growth forests ..

[@aubreyaub]

Wilsons Dowwnfall area, Queensland, New South Wales border. Dad and Uncle John, loading logs, having lunch. John. Geezus I'm sick of these bloody Vegemite sandwiches. Dad. get your Missus to make you something different. John. I can't, I make 'em myself. Next day, bloody Vegemite sandwiches again. Both gone now, but never forgotten. Love 'em, Hey!

[@NFSAFilms]

That's a great story and thanks for sharing it with us.

[@hayekfriedman9078]

@Brandon lee I have a dining room table made from one of the earliest Marris felled in Margaret River at the beginning of the colony. It was on my farm, felled and then never used. Found it in a copse of trees that has never been cleared.

[@bromoID]

Amazing Bromo

[@bye92]

Back when logging was a lot slower and less invasive! I wish I got to work Ali g side these men

[@darelyyum.4683]

Nature will cry ohhhh

[@karate4348]

I spoke with my friend Sam McKlusky who was an old man still living up around Cairns in the 1990's. His dad was a woodcutter in the Daintree rainforests. He grew up living in the Daintree in the 1910-'s - 20's, mainly with his mum and many First Nation Aboriginal people who still lived in the rainforests up there. His mum lived with him a baby, alone in a hut in the forest while his dad went off to work. He'd be gone for weeks on end. When his mum got lonely and sad, she couldn't breastfeed him. The aboriginal women came to help her and fed him from their own breasts... and so Sam grew very clever and strong, often running around naked in the forest with his mates, the aboriginal kids. He learnt a lot. By the time he started primary school in Cooktown, he knew a lot about the bush that most white kids didn't. He recalled how a nun at the school once killed a goanna running through the school yard. She said the goanna was the devil.!? Sam thought this was utter nonsense. Unlike this film his dad and his mates mainly worked alone in the bush. Sam's dad told him how he and his mates would get very lonely. Sam's dad told him how he got so lonely, they would cry at the sound of a barking dog. A barking dog meant another white man was approaching. He'd have the company of his "mate'. Sam also told me about the time he sat talking with an old man, an aboriginal elder (who must have been born mid 1800's) who told him the story of the first time he ever white men cut down a FOOD tree. These trees produced so much food for so many thousands of people over so many thousands of years that this old man could not comprehend why these white people were cutting down all this food. He was in shock. Sam grew up wild in the bush and wrote beautifully, had a heart of gold and a wisdom beyond most other white men I have ever known. I was very lucky to have known him. My dad loved trees and timber. I learnt from him to be careful how many we cut. Now I live in the rainforest. I am very careful to protect the trees, the incredible wildlives who live in them, and the stories of happier healthier humans who lived here so long ago they still remember when their families stood on the cliffs of eastern australia which are now hundreds of metres out at sea. The men were not peaceful, quiet and healthy. The mothers were not happy and the children struggled. This film is as much a tricky nonsense as ever the clear felling of trees ever was. Men were not men enough usually to stand up to their dads and see what was really going on. So much desperation kept their real broad appreciation of life under the axe. These men were strong, but this film does not show the ones who were strong and brave enough to learn from a culture and the locals who learnt about these trees over 50,000 years!

[@toddburgess6792]

Spends the days lopping off the tops of 250' trees, @10:16 almost breaks his leg walking in the grass with his kids.

[@kaynefryday1251]

Yeah I seen him do that. He must have had a pint of scotch on the way home.

[@omtatsatification]

yes. They are really the " heroes" of Australia

[@antoniocarlosdesalesopolis3665]

Aí sim era Brutal demais !!!!!

[@geovanisasilva9119]

Hummm brutal, brutal é apelido, visse o cara com o pescoço esposto aos Cabo de aço kkkkk kkk estoura um Cabo daquele a cabeça voa longe kkkk.

[@CONCERTMANchicago]

Damn good idea with those inserted planks getting one higher up the stem.

[@ladleo2989]

Those inserted planks are actually called springboards.

[@miguelramirez2602]

Yo aun tengo ese trosador dw mi tatara abuelo 😁

[@blake.henderson]

surreal

[@gloooopo]

How the men back then would scoff at the premier league football 'men' now.

[@tru816indo]

Yeah cause soccer is for communists and pussies. Real men play American football

[@fasteddie9201]

Such a shame to see giants fall that stood for hundreds of years and housed hundreds of animals in their lifetime.

[@MrBao1983]

Khi không có con người hiện đại xuất hiện, những vùng đất xa xôi chỉ có vài bộ lạc nhỏ , và những khu rừng lớn cùng với hệ động thực vật phong phú. Khi người hiện đại đến họ đã tàn phá tất cả những thứ đó.

[@iansing5278]

Never worked in the sawmills, know a few men that have, and some who still do...

[@PeterWalkerHP16c]

Lefty Hollis, stumpy Mumford, One eyed Slater, two toes Coombs ...

[@iansing5278]

🙌 - 👍 - 🙏...

[@iansing5278]

And men like Purdy Palmer and Pat Corrigan, bullock men. Purdy being the last teamster to draw logs into Bungwahl mill 1965?

[@duckncover182]

Dang Australia in 1950 was like America in 1900

[@bloroxcleach3439]

True

[@kennyg1358]

With tractors and trucks?

[@bh8671]

duckncover182 it’s in the middle of nowhere. So they didn’t have much. Or were you too stupid to listen to what they said.

[@lalthazovakhawlhring2985]

Means50yrs elder

[@oldgoblin6976]

This is just a logging camp life.

[@DOMOZORROORROZOMOD]

It's cruel to me,? Men that love nature, paid to harvest, grows family, forest grows, family grows, fast and healthy. But the forest family has only grown , not increased in number? Mercy, for are minds in times like these?

[@JoeBob79569]

I was cutting some big branches from a tree in the garden today, and I ran away like a little girl once I heard the first crack. I don't feel quite so bad about it now after watching these guys doing the same.. Granted the monsters they're cutting are a little bigger, but I don't care.

[@sushantgolay1347]

Men of steel heart...

[@ffsForgerFortySeven.9154]

careful "periscope films" has been going around adding timestamps and water marks to video's like these ...then they claim them

[@danielpereirasoares9207]

Esses tinham coragem e vontado

[@linkwokeup]

Spare a thought for the Aborigines, who would have known some of these trees, and their role in the landscape. Thanks for the vid.

[@edgarbleikur1929]

Would've known all these trees, the film is misleading at best "For ages only the wild creatures of the bushland moved among the huge trees", amazing there's no corrected narrative...

[@penzancegunner857]

Zzzz.zzzzzz.zzzzz.zzzz

[@penzancegunner857]

Why dont you go and help the abs that are left... Should make your life worthwhile...

[@scottleft3672]

Earth belongs to us all, selective misanthropy be fucked....read Mitchell and see how much they "reveared' those trees...lol...they would burn them as soon as look at them, they likely never went near these, ...but greenie conservation causes huge fires that DO..

[@huggybare9]

Jog on Mitch. Bet you've never even met a real aboriginal

[@spokojnyczowiek8331]

Look at the sky. There's no chemtrials !

[@NathanChisholm041]

Because there's no jets!

[@filipecardozo]

and still people wonder why societ is a machist place.

[@NereSaah_]

2:05 💪🏼

[@nefertaricobra8753]

75 years ago

[@prichards5113]

At 8:30 balls of titanium!.

[@basshumbler5886]

It's weird seeing tractors and dozers and hand saws and axes

[@oldgoblin6976]

Observe the difference between the tree cutting men, and the teaching man.

[@davenwatts8173]

Safety first boys

[@user-zs9ht6dp1j]

Даа было время.

[@samt5663]

6:32 Does anyone know the year make model of the pickup?

[@oscarbrown1356]

looks like a 40's bedford pc ute

[@adam8822]

These blokes having a go or what? :-)

[@Clyntonsshed]

Pitty someone never told them in tassie about clear felling.....

[@rotam8680]

pity someone didnt tell your dad about condoms

[@brianwalmsley447]

Old school

[@williambeck1858]

7:56 if I’m not mistaken but that is a big old joints in his mouth lol 😂

[@NFSAFilms]

Trees

[@williambeck1858]

NFSA Films wot he smoked tree yeah 😂

[@claymack1109]

I do believe you're right

[@catcollision8371]

Just look at all those hard working feminists cutting trees.. ohh.. never mind..

[@pangolinusscolopendralum6822]

Nobody invited the english to settle here. This land belongs to the ancients aborigines !

[@DriverNganjuk]

Luar biasa.

[@marcusweller4072]

Who is watching this now

[@lordsod69]

Me

[@frankiejimenez3579]

No yesterday.

[@Chalz108]

Not me

[@rikichannel9418]

Salam dari indonesia