Blackdown stringybark

• Bulky, tall tree.
• Grows to 45m high and 2m stem diameter.
• Grey-brown bark is fibrous and ‘stringy’ but more compact than true stringybarks.

• Confined to the Blackdown Tableland area of Central Queensland, 150 km west-south-west of Rockhampton.

Colour

• Heartwood is brownish
• Sapwood is paler.

Grain

• Grain slightly interlocked.

Engineering

• Mining timbers.
• Cross-arms.

Construction

• General building construction.
• Unseasoned framing.
• Cladding.

• Density: 995kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.0m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: (S3) unseasoned, (SD3) seasoned.
• Stress grades: F8, F11, F14, F17 (unseasoned), F14, F17, F22, F27 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded hardwood for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: J1 unseasoned, JD1 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: not available.
• Unit shrinkage: not available.
• Durability above-ground: Class 1 (life expectancy more than 40 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 2 (life expectancy 15–25 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: sapwood is not susceptible to lyctine borer attack.
• Termite resistance: resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative.
• Seasoning: relatively easy to dry.
• Hardness: very hard (rated 1 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: relatively easy to work.
• Fixing: no difficulties using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: satisfactorily bonds using standard procedures.
• Finishing: readily accepts paint, stain and polish.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: pale brown, usually distinct.
• Heartwood: brown to yellow-brown.
• Texture: medium and even.

Wood structure

• Vessels: small to medium, mostly solitary, some diagonal chains, tyloses.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): sparse.
• Rays: fine, visible with a lens.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: match-size splinter burns to charcoal.

• Boland, DJ, Brooker, MIH, Chippendale, GM, Hall, N, Hyland, BPM, Johnston, RD, Kleinig, DA and Turner, JD 2006, Forest trees of Australia, 5th ed., CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
• Bootle, K 2005, Wood in Australia: Types, properties and uses, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
• Ilic, J 1991, CSIRO atlas of hardwoods, Crawford House Press, Bathurst, Australia.
• Queensland Government, DAF 2018, Construction timbers in Queensland: properties and specifications for satisfactory performance of construction timbers in Queensland. Class 1 and Class 10 buildings, Books 1 & 2, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Brisbane.
• Standards Australia, 2000, AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes, Standards Australia International, Strathfield, NSW.