CSIR/O Division of Forest Products (mark I) (1928 - 1971)

Summary

The CSIR/O Division of Forest Products was established in 1928, part of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) which became the CSIRO in 1949. In 1971 the Division was broken up, becoming part of both the Division of Building Research and the Division of Applied Chemistry.

The Division of Forest Products was transferred to form part of the Division of Forestry and Forest Products at the end of 1987. The remainder combined with the Division of Energy Technology (Vic) to
form the Division of Construction and Engineering which commenced
operations from 1 January 1988.

Details

From "CSIRO research for Australia" (1962) pdf page 35:
"The Division of Forest Products was founded in 1928, under the leadership of the late Mr. Isaac Boas. At that time, Australia was paying enormous sums for imported timber, while the potential value of her own native timbers remained unrecognized.

The Division's research was directed from the beginning toward more effective use of timber resources, by reducing waste in forest, mill and factory; by reducing losses from decay and insect attack; and by improving for timber and pulp the quality of wood in the growing forest by the study of wood properties associated with tree breeding and siJvicultural treatment.

Even before the Division was founded, Australian scientists had shown that Australian eucalypt timbers could be used in pulp and paper making. The Division has from the outset supported its applied work with more basic research, and in the early days more fundamental investigations into the problems of paper making were started in collaboration with the pulp and paper manufacturing companies.

In 1936, when the Division moved to its present building in South Melbourne, it had become organized into sections of wood chemistry, timber seasoning, timber preservation, timber physics, timber mechanics, wood structure and timber utilization. Later, a plywood investigations section was established.

On the retirement of Mr. Boas in 1944, Mr. S. A. Clarke became Chief. He in turn retired in 1960 and was succeeded by the present Chief, Dr. H. E. Dadswell.

The Division's work has already made a great impact on the Australian timber industry. Large-scale manufacture of good quality kiln-dried hardwood has followed improved kiln design arising from its research. Many of the problems incurred in using local hardwoods instead of imported softwoods for building have been solved. The work of the timber preservation section has enabled the life of such things as telegraph poles and railway sleepers to be greatly extendedthe Postmaster General's Department alone estimates its savings from this work at £2,000,000 per year. Improved plywood, new information on timber engineering design, efficient use of short lengths of timberall these are further examples of industrial applications born of the Division's applied research.

The Division functions as an information centre for all matters affecting wood use, handling some 12,000 enquiries in a year. An increasing amount of the Division's work is being sponsored by industry, which is at the present time contributing twenty-five thousand pounds a year for research."

Related entries

Timeline

 1928 - 1971 CSIR/O Division of Forest Products (mark I)
       1966 - 1974 CSIRO Division of Applied Chemistry
       1971 - 1987 CSIRO Division of Building Research [II]
             1974 - 1987? CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology
             1974 - 1988 CSIRO Division of Applied Organic Chemistry
             1988 CSIRO Division of Construction and Engineering
                   1988 - 1990 CSIRO Division of Forestry and Forest Products (mark I)
                   1988 - 1997 CSIRO Division of Chemicals and Polymers
                   1988 - 2002 CSIRO Division of Building, Construction and Engineering
                         1990 - 1995 CSIRO Division of Forest Products (mark II)
                         1991 - 1995 CSIRO Division of Forestry
                         1997 - 2005 CSIRO Division of Molecular Science
                               1990 - 1995 CSIRO Division of Forest Products (mark II)
                               1995 - 2007 CSIRO Division of Forestry and Forest Products (mark II)
                               1995 - 2007 CSIRO Division of Forestry and Forest Products (mark II)
                               2005 - CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies
                                     2004 - 2007 ENSIS
                                           2007 - 2008 CSIRO Division of Forestry Biosciences

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• CSIRO, CSIRO research for Australia: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Canberra: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation, 1962), 64 pp, https://www.eoas.info/bib-pdf/ASBS15940.pdf. Details
• Schedvin, C.B; Trace, K., Historical Directory of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, 1926-1976 (Canberra: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/csiro_historical_directory_1926_1976.pdf. Details

Journal Articles

• Dargavel, John; Evans, Philip D.; and Dadswell, Gordon, 'From Science to Heritage: the History of a Wood Collection', Historical Records of Australian Science, 25 (1) (2014), 43-54, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR14004. Details

Resources

• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-458255. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Primary description of agency CA 3387; CSIRO, Division of Forest Products. Registration of entity: 30 September 1987', in RecordSearch, National Archives of Australia, 2000, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?Number=CA%203387. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_c.html. Details
• Williamson, Richard E.; Higgins, Huntly G.; and Stone, Bruce A., 'Alan Buchanan Wardrop 1921-2003', Historical Records of Australian Science, 18 (1) (2007), 113-136, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR07002. Details