A TASTE OF TEAK27 Many young officers of Papua New Guinea’s Forestry Department, pre-Independence, experienced an introduction to the process of growing plantations of Teak trees. All knew of the fame of Teak as one of, if not the premium timbers of the world. But it was very much a “foreign” entity - not an Australian, or for that matter, PNG thing - truly exotic. However, this was the wet tropics, and Teak was a native of that environment in southern Asia. Also, the former German Administration had established trials prior to 1914. Those few Australian foresters who got to see these post-1945, must have been impressed enough by the species as an investment worth trying. During 1957 a fifty-year-old tree was cut from the Kokopo plantation and sawn into planks at the Kerevat mill. This must have been an attempt to evaluate the potential of the product, and there is no doubt that this was seen to be satisfactory.
Photo 1. A sample taken from one of the boards produced. Photo Credit. Des Harries.
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Personal communication Des Harries 8/9/21/
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