Coolabah
trees can be found near just about any waterway on the Highlands as long as
the area floods at some time. They grow to around 20 metres tall with trunks
to around 1 metre diameter with a flaky, box like bark persisting to the
larger branches. The timber is used for railway sleepers and occasionally
for fencing.
Coolabah burls are popular with woodturners but there are 2 distinct types of burl to
watch out for. The most common around the Highlands is the 'resin burl' as
pictured at right and was used to make the platter and box pictured below.
The grain in resin burls generally follows the alignment of the main trunk
and has resin veins through it that facilitate rot.
The better burl to chase is the 'Birdseye burl'. It's grain runs very
tightly in every direction and is usually solid right through. They can be
identified by the compact, knobbly bark as pictured here on a specimen in
the Aramac region.
Got a pleasant surprise recently when a mate dropped these burls off for
me - best birdseye Coolibah burls I have seen from our region but he's keeping the location he found
them a secret!
One of the bowls I turned from them is pictured below . . .
A nice little log salvaged from a re-cleared cropping paddock near
Capella. The entire log has fiddleback figure right through it.
Coolabah
timber is hard and heavy and tends to crack readily while drying. The
timber, like most eucalypts, is short grained and dusty to work with but it
sands OK and takes a finish well. The items pictured were all made from a
locally harvested resin burl and finished with Danish Oil.
