Kerruish, C.M. (Bill) (1934 - )

Summary

Bill Kerruish had a long career with the CSIRO, during which he focused on harvesting and other methodologies to increase the productivity of Australian native forests. With The Young Eucalypt Program, Bill Kerruish and CSIRO forest scientist Bill Rawlins explored new operational technologies to increase productivity of fast-growing native forests, working with both Victorian and Tasmanian forest services and their industry associations. After he retired from the CSIRO, Bill Kerruish continued his involvement with the collaborative CSIRO and Industry Forest Technology Program.

Details

Bill Kerruish worked in a West Australian Forests Department's forest assessment crew before commencing study at the University of Western Australia and the Australian Forestry School in Canberra. He commenced work in 1962 with the Logging Research Unit in the Forest and Timber Bureau, Canberra, focussing on mechanising pine thinning operations. In 1972 he spent a year with the Swedish Logging Research Institute studying mechanised harvesting. In 1975 CSIRO incorporated the research activities of the Forest and Timber Bureau into the Division of Forest Research and Bill assumed leadership of a revitalised Harvesting Research Group. In 1986 he and CSIRO forest economist Bill Rawlins put together a major cooperative research and development project, The Young Eucalypt Program, involving the Victorian and Tasmanian forest services and the industry associations in those two states, to explore new operational technologies to increase the productivity of the faster growing native forests. The research, which focussed on thinning, harvesting and utilising young regrowth eucalypts, underpinned industry development in those fields over the next 20 years. On retirement from CSIRO in 1997, Bill Kerruish continued to run the collaborative CSIRO/Industry Forest Technology Program, and manufactured and marketed stem injection equipment for thinning regrowth.

Chronology

1957 - 1961

Education - Diploma of Forestry, Canberra

1963

Education - Bachelor of Science (Forestry), University of Western Australia

1972

Award - Commonwealth Postgraduate Study Award, Sweden

1976 - 1983

Career position - Program manager, Harvesting Research Group, CSIRO Division of Forest Products

1986 - 1991

Career position - Program director, The Young Eucalypt Program

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

Book Sections

• Kerruish, C.M., 'Chapter 11: Harvesting' in Eucalypts for Wood Production, Hillis, W.E. and Brown, A.G., eds (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978). Details
• Rawlins, W.H.M, Kerruish, C.M, and Incoll, W.D., 'Young, even-aged eucalypts.' in Research for Forest Management, Landsberg, J.J. and Parsons, W.), eds (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1985), pp. 243-248. Details

Conference Papers

• Kerruish, C.M, McCormack, R.J.; and Kile, G.A., 'Forest Operations and the Management of Eucalypt Regrowth.', in IUFRO World Congress 1995, Tampere, Finland. Interdivisional session paper (IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations), 1995).. Details

Edited Books

• C.M. Kerruish, W.H.M. Rawlins ed., The Young eucalypt report: some management options for Australia's regrowth forests. (East Melbourne: CSIRO, 1991), 272 pp. Details

Resources

• 'Kerruish, C.M., by Bill Kerruish and Peter Fagg', The Study of Australian Eucalypts: Forestry, with Fagg, P.C. et al., eScholarship Research Centre, 16 December 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/forestry.html. Details
• 'Kerruish, C.M. (19340227-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1540497. Details