Recent Australian research
to develop dryland durable eucalypt plantations
The Australian Low Rainfall Tree Improvement Group (ALRTIG) was established in 1999 to improve a number of species that are adapted to southern Australia's low rainfall areas (400-750 mm/year) and so provide options
for farm diversification. ALRTIG is a cooperative involving State and Federal organisations including CSIRO and Forests NSW. ALRTIG’s focus is to develop short rotation tree crops for essential oils (fragrances), fibre, energy, carbon credits and to remediate saline lands as well as for
long-rotation timber production. Within this broad programme five dryland durable eucalypts, E. camaldulensis, E. cladocalyx, E. occidentalis and E. sideroxylon/E. tricarpa, as well as Corymbia maculata/ C. citriodora were planted in large scale breeding
trials in 2001 (Harwood et al., 2005).
Australia has a wine industry almost ten times the size of New Zealands. One study by ALRTIG evaluated the potential of 8 yr-old posts of E. cladocalyx and E. occidentalis as naturally durable substitutes for CCA-treated pine posts
(Bush, 2006). Examination for early heartwood formation and durablity was by way of core samples using accelerated testing in CSIRO’s fungal cellar in Melbourne. Results showed that some wild families within E. cladocalyx developed early heartwood while other families had little heartwood.
Furthermore, durability of the heartwood was variable, with some heartwood samples rating up to class 1 while others were less durable. Thereby, they established that these critical traits are very likely to be heritable and that they can be improved within a tree breeding programme. Summary of the ALRTIG durability research.
A significant recent a cross-sector conference Plantation Eucalypts for High Value Timber (Brown and Beadle, 2008) brought together 130 growers, managers, processors, investors, policy makers and researchers to
review their collective work on developing plantation eucalypts to produce high value timber.
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