Spotted gum and ironbark : an environmental history of the South Coast New South Wales forest industry

Abstract

The importance of technology as the contacting surface between humanity and the environment, the technology environment junction, has been increasingly recognised in recent years by environmental history and history of technology scholars. This thesis has applied the lens of the environment technology junction to the history of the relationship between the forest industries of the south coast of New South Wales and their environment. My study has documented ongoing innovations in logging, sawmilling and transport technology and practice and demonstrated how ongoing changes in technology have intensified the impact of the forest industry on the forest environment over the past two hundred years. I have used the archival resources of the Mitchell Library, the New South Wales State Archives, and the Noel Butlin Archives at the Australian National University, as well as the digitised regional newspaper resources of Trove at the National Library, and original company records. Four case studies at the heart of this thesis examine different aspects of the industry, across different periods of the past two hundred years, to draw out differences in industry practices and technologies. They range from the cedar trade of the early 1800s, powered by human and animal muscle, wind and tide, to the introduction of exponential shifts in logging, sawmilling and transport technology in the second half of the twentieth century. Analysis of forest practices in the south coast forest environment through the environment technology junction lens has demonstrated how changes in technology have led to current harvesting practices that are unsustainable for future supplies of timber, and for the flora and fauna of the forest environment.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English