Timber Milling

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Wonder how they sourced so much timber for building truck bodies ?

By making good fortune out of bad. There was a series of articles in the magazine Light Railways dealing with the sawmills of the Victorian ranges (it's funny how various interests and researchers overlap!).

In 1939, widespread bushfires which came to known as the Black Friday Bushfire burnt out large areas of the state. Although it devastated a huge area of forestry, it created ideal conditions for harvesting timber over the next 3 years. In the years 1939-42, Victorian Forests Commission harvested more timber than the 20 years prior or 20 years following. Stands of dead trees were felled wholesale to retrieve the timber before it rotted, free from the entanglements of branches and forest trash, and unencumbered by sustainability requirements, as the forests were decimated. This happily co-incided with a spike in demand for timber for war work, for ammunition packaging, vehicle manufacture, small shipping, etc.