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  • From: "Felicity Wright" <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Acacia mearnsii/dealbata report
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 09:58:40 +0930

Fantastic information Darren. Thanks for sharing it.
Just a query, we're having difficulty imagining anywhere in the Otway Ranges having less than 550 mm. Is it particular rainshadow? We have friends living near Johanna beach and their rainfall is significantly higher than ours (Lower Eyre Peninsula 480 - 500 mm). Not much hope of growing either of those species to any size here - have put some A. melanoxlyn (sp?) in but results are desultory. There are a couple of places on the Peninsula where the A. mel. has naturalised and grows but it's in the greener, lusher hills.
cheers
flick wright (nick elliott's partner)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 12:05 AM
Subject: [permaculture] Acacia mearnsii/dealbata report

Hello People,

Following is a copy of a letter I recently sent to the http://www.permaculture.org.au forum that may be of interest to permaculture people who grow acacia’s for forestry and other purposes – especially Acacia mearnsii (late black wattle – the black wattle used by Masanobu Fukuoka) and its close relative Acacia dealbata (silver wattle).

 

I have just spent the last couple of weeks form and lift (clearwood) pruning about 7000-8000 5 year old Acacia dealbata (Snug Tasmania provenance) and mearnsii's (Bodalla New South Wales provenance) at a client's Otways Ranges property (South Eastern Australia – very poor tertiary gravels @< 550mm rainfall). I used a Husqvarna pole saw and associated pruning paraphenalia to do the job – it was great for the neck!!

 

I wondered if anyone had any experiences with these species or similar in temperate conditions.

 

The next stage is thinning as competition effects are the next issue to deal with. These remarkable species are interrow planted on a keyline layout with Corymbia maculata, Eucalyptus cladocalyx and Euc. camaldulensis. and range in heights from 6-12 metres with diameters at breast height (DOB = officially 1300mm - unofficially varies between humans!) between 75-250mm. Higher density stands of 2m spacing between trees generate more early thinnings as competition effects come earlier. >From a 1000 tree stand at this spacing we got about 2 m3 of thinnings suitable for firewood. The rest of the trees are at 3m spacings and yielded significantly less. If you are considering growing a woodlot with firewood as a residual product of silviculture this is worth taking notice of.

 

All of the trees are planted on Yeomans plow ripped and mounded ground preparation (on a keyline layout) with no chemical weed control used ever. In response native species have colonised the site in abundance, with the planted trees forming only a small proportion of the total species on site. I devised years ago to only mulch mow every second row leaving the spare row for the native regrowth and as a site for the deposition of prunings. The yield of this material from the last pruning session was considerable and is sure to encourage a range of ecological processes (Fukuoka en masse!) There are three large contour earth banks in the plantation that act as swales in effect. The resulting growth of trees immediately above and below these banks is remarkable - particularly with the Acacia's. Surprisingly the other species of the planting have not responded as well as the acacia's to this situation. We will have our first seed harvest this year as well which we will be using in other plantings on this and other farms next year.

Again if anyone else has any silvicultural tales - particularly with wattles please drop a line or two. I’ve put photos up on our web site of the this recent sojourn into the triffids – http://www.permaculture.biz/trees
 

Cheers,

 

Yours and Growing,

 

Darren J. Doherty

Applied Diploma of Permaculture Design, (Education, Site Design, System Establishment & Implementation) Permaculture Institute (1995)

Permaculture Design Certificate, Permaculture Institute (1993, 1995, 2001)

Whole Farm Planning Certificate (Train the Trainer), University of Melbourne (1995)

principal consultant permaculture.biz

 

 

 


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