The Gum Tree

M McKinty

The Australian Forest League

Frustrated at the lack of progress in forestry and broader forest conservation, several foresters and scientists in 1912 formed The Australian Forest League.  The inaugural President was notable botanist Professor Alfred James Ewart from Melbourne University who also oversaw the curriculum at the Victorian School of Forestry.  The League became an Australia-wide organisation with branches in most States and stayed active for the next 34 years. 

During the First World War the League received valued support from Governor-General Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson over political interference in forest management, securing adequate funding, reducing waste, expanding softwood plantations and in addressing growing international concern at impending timber shortages.

The President of the League in 1922, W. Russell Grimwade, provided an overview of its activities in the Empire Forestry Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (March 1922), a publication of the Commonwealth Forestry Association. 

The Victorian branch of The Australian Forest League’s magazine The Gum Tree was subtitled “A Journal Devoted to the Conservation Propagation and Utilisation of Australian Trees”.  Two issues are reproduced here:

The Gum Tree Vol. 11 No. 50, June 1929, which “Reveals the disastrous opposition that exists between the Forests and the Lands Departments”.

 
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The Gum Tree Vol. 12 No. 54, June 1930, which sets out the areas that the Forests Commission believes should become part of the ‘Forest Area’.

 
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The back cover of both issues of The Gum Tree list all the Forest Officers in Victoria.

The Gum Tree became the official organ of the Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs and the League of Tree Lovers. 

 

 

Saving the Forests

Mal McKinty

Malcolm graduated from the VSF in 1965 and achieved a Master of Environmental Science in 1992.

His postings with the Forests Commission have been in hardwood forest management in Nowa Nowa (briefly), Bendoc, Lal Lal (briefly) and Orbost; then as Assistant District Forester at Toolangi and Mansfield. From late 1978 to 1994 he was a Senior Research Officer with the Land Conservation Council and towards the end of that period took secondments with the Land Protection Division and the Forest Environment Section. From 1994 to 1998 he was Senior Planner with Forest Management Planning. Early retirement allowed him to take a two-year position (under the auspices of Australian Volunteers International) at the Bulolo University College (Forestry School) in Papua New Guinea as the Senior Technical Instructor for fire protection and forest management. Back in Victoria in 2000 he undertook contract work for a few years writing policy and reports and editing material for various Government agencies; and land-use studies for a private company. And he owns a Subaru Forester.

Mal McKinty

Malcolm graduated from the VSF in 1965 and achieved a Master of Environmental Science in 1992.

His postings with the Forests Commission have been in hardwood forest management in Nowa Nowa (briefly), Bendoc, Lal Lal (briefly) and Orbost; then as Assistant District Forester at Toolangi and Mansfield. From late 1978 to 1994 he was a Senior Research Officer with the Land Conservation Council and towards the end of that period took secondments with the Land Protection Division and the Forest Environment Section. From 1994 to 1998 he was Senior Planner with Forest Management Planning. Early retirement allowed him to take a two-year position (under the auspices of Australian Volunteers International) at the Bulolo University College (Forestry School) in Papua New Guinea as the Senior Technical Instructor for fire protection and forest management. Back in Victoria in 2000 he undertook contract work for a few years writing policy and reports and editing material for various Government agencies; and land-use studies for a private company. And he owns a Subaru Forester.