Which Australian trees yield good timber?

timvn

Hi All

I see a lot of Australians on this forum, so I will make my first post a question about your trees. Here in South Africa many Australian species were introduced and several have become invasive aliens. Recently I bought a chainsaw mill, and local Australian species are easy for me to come by due to a national 'alien' clearing programme. I'm not sure if the common names are the same so I'll give Latin where I can.

I've milled Eucalyptus saligna with mixed success. One tree's timber looked beautiful off the mill but then went crazy, checking and twisting severely within days. The other one stayed beautiful, despite tension in some boards, and I can't wait to use it. I've also seen locally milled Silky oak (Grevillea robusta), which is very appealing and looks workable. Many of these are grown as ornamentals here. Black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) is all too common here but I use it only for firewood. We also have Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), which has high commercial value here.

What other Australian species should I be looking out for? I have my eye on a Beefwood (Casuarina) and in this area I hear there's what we call Australian oak (Eucalyptus obliqua) though I haven't found any yet. I have an Australian oak board a miller once gave me and I'd love to have access to more.

I think the question about Eucalyptuses may be difficult because there are hundreds of species in the genus, few of which will be growing where I am, but I'd be interested in your comments anyway.

Tim