Page:A primer of forestry, with illustrations of the principal forest trees of Western Australia.djvu/52

46 3.—TUART (Euc. gomphocephala).

A tree attaining a height up to 100 feet, with a bole 35 to 45 feet, and a diameter seven to eight feet.

The bark is of a greyish-white colour and is smoothly crinkled. There are only two trees with which it can be confused, these being the Flooded Gum (Euc. rudis) and the coastal White Gum (Euc. decipiens). The difference from the former is that the bark of the Tuart is persistent, while that of the Flooded Gum peels off from the topmost branches. The coastal White Gum has a rougher bark which usually peels off from the upper branches, but is thicker than that of the Tuart, and more flaky.

The fruits or "nuts" of the Tuart are very distinctive. They are bell-shaped, over half an inch in length, and half an inch in diameter at the top, which is quite flat. The stalk on which the fruits are arranged is broad and wedge-shaped.

The timber is hard and dense with an interlocked grain; its colour is yellow. It vies with wandoo in strength and toughness. The timber is used for wheelwright work, especially for the large naves required for the 9ft. wheels of the timber whims. Its main use, along with wandoo, is for railway wagon and truck construction. The Chief Mechanical Engineer in Western Australia, Mr. E. S. Hume, has reduced the maintenance of his trucks from £3 7s. 6d. to 10s. per year per truck by substituting for steel tuart and wandoo in the under carriages. Like that of wandoo, the cutting of tuart, except for departmental purposes, is forbidden, and its export prohibited.

It is confined to the limestone formation, and on this formation it stretches in scattered lines from Lake Pinjar southward along the coast as far as Sabina River, some three miles east of Busselton. Curiously enough it is not to be found anywhere else in the State, although limestone occurs all round the coast line. The best tuart is to be found between Sabina River and Capel, and it is doubtful whether it will be possible to reserve more than 5,000 acres of first-class tuart country. Between Sabina River and Capel River the distance is about 12 miles.