The Timbergetters
No history of Warrimoo in the 1920’s would be complete
without reference to the main industry carried out on the northern side during
this time, “Timbergetting” or “Logging”.[1]
The area covered by logging activities ran from the rear of Cross Street Sun Valley
and Singles Ridge Road
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| The magnificent 'Mountain Blue Gum' (Eucalyptus Deanei)--a feature of any bushwalk on the northern side of Warrimoo, and the principal target of early Loggers such as the Baxter Brothers |
Trees most prized were the ‘Mountain Blue Gum’ (Eucalyptus
Deanei—so named after the Railways Engineer who designed much of the Blue Mountains railroad, including the Newnes tunnels,
Henry Deane); the ‘Cabbage Gum’ (Eucalyptus Amplifolia), and the turpentine
(Syncarpia Glomulifera), a row of which now grows on the Great Western Highway
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| 'Mountain Blue Gum' from a distance. You can see why they were so prized for telegraph and electricity poles. They occupy a special part of the Blue Mountains Significant Tree Register |
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| Henry Deane (1847-1924)--the tree was named after him in 1904, when he was Engineer-in-Chief of construction for the NSW Railways, and a keen amateur botanist |
At the turn of the century government institutions required
such timber for products like railway sleepers and telegraph/electricity poles.
Thus evolved the enterprises of two timbergetting families, the Goddard and
Baxter brothers, the latter of whom lived on Singles Ridge Road
The Loggers cut trails down into the valleys and hauled logs
out by bullock teams. Bruce Cameron provides some details:
‘At one stage the
Baxters used a light rail system to remove logs to a ridge-top saw mill driven
by a boiler, near Rickard Road Singles Ridge Road Sun Valley Nursery, near the highway.
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| The Goddards and Baxters used boilers such as this to provide the steam power for saw mills set in the bush at Warrimoo, Sun Valley and elsewhere |
When the Baxters were
cutting timber they tapped into all the principle stands around Long Angle
Gully. The main product was used for power poles. When the Mountains were first
hooked up to the electricity grid, the Baxters supplied poles to the Blue Mountains Council. Other timber was cut primarily
for firewood consumption.
The local market was
supplemented with orders from other areas. Poles were cut and then loaded onto
steam trains for transport to the required location.
 |
| This scene at Faulconbridge station gives us a clue as to similar sites at Warrimoo, where loggers loaded timber for various destinations up and down the Mountains. Log freight was one of the primary reasons why the siding at Karabar was reopened early in the 20th century and continued beyond the Second World War (note all the telegraph poles in the picture) |
The Baxters often
camped overnight in make-shift timber camps. Signs of crude bush huts and
relics can still be found in the bush near Sun Valley .
Old trucks, machinery and watertanks are rusty reminders of the days when the
valleys echoed with the sound of the logger’s axe. Numerous slot marks where loggers
could place cutting boards in tree trunks can also still be seen. An old
dug-out saw-pit is located on private property not far from Long Angle Gully.
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| This picture reveals the combined usage of both Bullock and 'Blitz' power to haul logs up to the mill and/or station at the top of the ridge |
In later years the
Baxters used an ex-army ‘Blitz’ four wheel drive to assist the bullock teams remove
logs from the gullies around Long Angle. In the Depression they would save
petrol tokens so the Blitz could be used to remove timber. Both the bullocks
and the Blitz would tow a large log trailer or ‘jinker’. In the disastrous
fires of 1936 the trailer was destroyed by fire near Yellowrock Road Singles Ridge Road Angle Gully
Road
The Baxters were fine
axemen and often entered woodchops at shows and competitions. They also cut
timber near Glenbrook Creek and along Blue Gum Swamp
For the most part, today, the impact of the logging industry
on Warrimoo is largely obscured by the intensive forest growth of the past two
decades. It is hard to envisage the thin bush landscape that prevailed at that
end of Warrimoo during the 1920’s and 30’s.
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| Awesomely beautiful Mountain Blue Gum stand on the Sun Valley/Fitzgerald's Creek Walk on the northern side of Warrimoo--a walk well worth doing! |
If, however, you are game to do the ‘Sun Valley Trail’
either from the Rosenthal Lane entry (Sun Valley) or the Warrimoo Oval side—if
you are game to enough to endure the cacophony of birdcalls along the route,
and you keep your eyes peeled, you just may come across some of those
evidential remnants and relics of that bygone era.
