Red cedar

• Tall, deciduous tree.
• Grows up to 40m high.
• Stem is 1–2m diameter; mature trees can be 3m diameter.
• Trunk is often irregular in cross section.
• Older trees are often buttressed far up the trunk.
• Bark is grey or brown, very scaly and rough, and sheds in oblong pieces.

• Found in rainforests along the east coast of Australia.
• Mainly between Ulladulla, in New South Wales, and Gympie, in Queensland.
• Eungella Range west of Mackay and the Atherton Tableland.
• Papua New Guinea.
• Philippines.
• Timber availability is limited.

Colour

• Heartwood is pink to deep red-brown.
• Sapwood is usually yellowish white.

Grain

• Coarse, open and usually straight.
• Occasionally with wavy-interlocked grain that can produce an attractive fiddleback figure (pattern).
• Growth rings are obvious in back-sawn timber.

• Decorative: furniture, plywood, shop and office fixtures, turnery, carving, inlay work, picture frames, lining, moulding, joinery.
• Others: boat building (light), marine plywood, coach and vehicle building; used, previously in sporting goods, aircraft construction (seaplanes), pattern making, templates, blind rollers, venetian blind slats, gunstocks. High-quality colonial and antique furniture made from this species is much prized.

• Density: 450kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 2.2m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: (S7) unseasoned, SD8 seasoned.
• Stress grades: F4, F5, F7 (unseasoned); F4, F5, F7, F8 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: J5 unseasoned, JD5 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 21% MC: 4.1% (tangential), 2.2% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: 0.2% (tangential), not available for radial—tangential value applies to timber reconditioned after seasoning.
• Durability above-ground: Class 2 (life expectancy 15–40 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 2 (life expectancy 5–15 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
• Termite resistance: not resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative but penetration of heartwood is negligible using available commercial processes.
• Seasoning: satisfactorily dries using conventional air and kiln seasoning.
• Hardness: very soft (rated 6 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: dresses and moulds to a smooth finish using sharp blades and cutters; when turned, some surface woolliness can occur; sawdust can irritate your nose and throat.
• Fixing: no difficulty using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: satisfactorily bonds using standard procedures.
• Finishing: readily accepts stain, polish and paint.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: yellowish white to light grey.
• Heartwood: pink to dark red-brown.
• Texture: coarse, vessel lines prominent on back-sawn surfaces.

Wood structure

• Growth rings: often prominent due to its ring porous structure.
• Vessels: medium to large; arranged in short radial multiples that usually decreases in diameter from earlywood to latewood.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): indistinct under a lens but will show some terminal banding.
• Rays: visible without a lens.
• Intercellular canals: visible under a lens in some specimens.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: match-size splinter burns to a full white ash.
• Figure (pattern): prominent on back-sawn surfaces due to the ring porous structure.
• Odour: heartwood has a pleasant and distinctly spicy aroma.

• 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.