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Post Consultation tour to Coffs Harbour
from PNGAF MAG ISSUE # 9 B-5B4D3 Dr John Davidson Accompaniment "RAINBOW EUCALYPT MAN" Part 7 of 8 parts
by rbmccarthy
The proceedings of the 1977 Consultation were published by the CSIRO, Canberra in three volumes in 1978.143
Post Consultation tour to Coffs Harbour
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I joined the post Consultation tour to Coffs Harbour 27 March to 3 April 1977. On show was the North Coast Silvicultural Research Centre of the Forest Commission of NSW (FCNSW) and its breeding programme for E. grandis.
About 12,000 ha of E. grandis plantations had been established by Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) in the 1960s and 1970s primarily on areas of cleared farmland in the Coffs Harbour and surrounding areas. APM sold their estate to the FCNSW in 1975, when the company decided not to proceed with a pulp mill at Coffs Harbour.
The growth rates of these stands were the result of genetic and silvicultural inputs at the time.144Lack of a market back then meant thinning was delayed or not carried out at all and yield at about 10m3/ha/yr was well below potential.
The FCNSW efforts back then using improved silviculture, genetic improvement and planting on better sites had led to significantly higher growth rates, in some places over 30 m3/ha/yr. At the time of our visit Peter Burgess of the FCNSW was leading the FCNSW genetic programme for E. grandis at Coffs Harbour, some aspects of which are illustrated here.145
143 Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, Canberra, Australia, 21-26 March 1977. Documents - Volumes 1-3 [1978]. Published by the Forestry Department, FAO, Rome and CSIRO, Canberra. (My E. deglupta case study paper FO-FTB-77-6/6 is at pp 1187 – 1203.) 144 Professor Lindsay Pryor back then was engaged as a consultant by APM and the FCNSW programme was under the supervision of Mr. A G Floyd. 145 See also Burgess I P 1974 Vegetative propagation of Eucalyptus grandis. New Zealand Journal of Forest Science 4(2):181-184.
Post Consultation tour 1977. Top left: Patches of E. grandis plantations on former cleared farmland in an area dominated by banana plantations near Coffs Harbour, NSW. Top right: A larger block on FCNSW land. Middle left: A “plus tree” of E. grandis selected for the breeding programme. Middle right: Peter Burgess, North Coast Silvicultural Research Centre, FCNSW, Coffs Harbour, with a tray of E. grandis seedlings ready for pricking out. Left: Progeny trial of E. grandis near Coffs Harbour.
