Browse > Home / News / Mount Gambier’s secret forest

Mount Gambier’s secret forest

Posted on November 19, 2009, 7:07am and updated on November 19, 2009 at 3:47 pm

Rob Hanssen
A forestry consultant hopes a picturesque site beside Mount Gambier Airport that sowed the seeds of bluegum plantation growth across the South East will become a unique tourism, education and research site for the broader region.

Robert Hanssen (pictured)has been involved in developing the former CSIRO site, which was sold to a private buyer after the facility closed in 2007.

During his work in the area, he was stunned by the beauty and importance of a trial site at the property, where 36 eucalypt varieties were planted in 1979 for study purposes in carefully planned plots with seeds collected from across Australia.

The four hectare area features 45 metre tall bluegums, kauri and mountain ash from the Victorian highlands, along with an endangered species only growing in two New South Wales parks and Eucalyptus Grandis — one E. grandis specimen has been found to be the tallest tree in Africa.

“It is amazing — you feel like you are in the Otways or somewhere like that,” said Robert Hanssen of Arbour Dynamics Technical Forestry Services.

“There is nothing like it of this size and diversity in the Green Triangle — there might be something similar in Australia, maybe somewhere like Gippsland.”

Results from research at the site were published in a 1982 scientific paper, showing bluegums were the best performing species of the planted varieties.

“The report showed bluegums were growing well and had good pulping qualities — 20 years on we now have bluegums across the region,” he said, explaining he believed the site was pivotal in development of the region.

“We’re one of the last countries to catch on to eucalypts for plantations — even though they are native to Australia and have been grown overseas for 80 years or more,” he said.

Mr Hanssen said Spain and Portugal combined had a larger eucalypt plantation estate than Australia, despite being small countries, and Brazil, India and China were the biggest growers of eucalypts, largely for chipping.

He said Grant District Council had indicated its support for cleaning up of the site and he hoped interpretive signs and access tracks could be developed with hopes of contributions from higher levels of government.

Mr Hanssen said the site could be vital for education and environmental projects, particularly field work for Mount Gambier’s Southern Cross University Bachelor of Forestry Science students, along with other tertiary institutions, schools and community and industry groups with an interest in plantations.

“With the cost of living away for students so high, forestry does offer a local option and great career and this site could be a huge asset for that,” he said.

“It would have many uses, including field trips for plant identification with mature trees, instead of images on a computer screen.”

He said that while many people only saw the more visible side of forestry, such as machinery operators and tree planters, it was a broad field.

“Forestry offers a great career with many different aspects, from computer modelling of estates to fire and general managements, along with research,” he said.

Tags: , ,  

Comments

Posting of new comments is currently disabled.