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Wood Property Report on Camphor Laurel
(Cinnamomum camphora) continued...
2.1. Selected Tests A list of possible wood property based tests was discussed and negotiated between Mr J. Macgregor-Skinner and Mr R McGavin (QFRI). A final list containing ten (10) tests was agreed to, these being as follows:
Field collection was undertaken on 20th July 2000 at Mr Alan Quick's property, Cudgen Road at Stotts Creek, NSW. Mr S. Roberts (QFRI Timber Technician) and Mr A. Cause (QFRI Technical Assistant) collected the required samples with the assistance of Mr J. O'Brien, Plantation Foreman from State Forests of New South Wales. A 500mm long billet was removed from 30 trees which had been felled on 7th July 2000, and was taken from approximately 500mm above ground line. These were marked with a reference number and end-sealed to reduce any drying and associated degrade. A log diameter was also recorded at approximately 1m from the base of each log. In a couple of instances where defects (branch etc) impeded measurements at the 1m zone, a measurement was taken as close as practical. The measurements can be viewed in Table 1. The field collection involved removing fifteen (15) billets from trees that were understood to have been treated on the 18th March 2000 with a systemic herbicide (glyphosate injected into chainsaw incisions around the base of tree) as well as fifteen (15) billets from non-treated trees. The samples sourced from herbicide treated billets have an 'x' following the reference number. The chemical treatment would not be expected to impact on any results (except maybe lyctid susceptibility) but for the purpose of the analysis, some tests compared the two treatments. It was only necessary to perform tests from 25 billets, however some tests used additional samples sourced from billets that were collected as reserves in case of unexpected defects.
2.3. Sample Preparation The billets were transported to QFRI's Salisbury Research Centre. All required laboratory test pieces were cut from billets using a combination of saws. Samples needing to be seasoned were dried utilising a controlled conditioning chamber. Test samples that were required to be machined were processed through a combination of surface planers and thicknessers. 2.4. Laboratory Testing All laboratory testing was done in accordance with QFRI procedures and relevant Australian Standards. Seasoned and un-seasoned strength testing and hardness testing was performed in QFRI's Mechanical Testing Laboratory which is a National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) registered facility. Densities, shrinkages and heartwood-sapwood proportion work was carried out in QFRI's Wood Quality Improvement Laboratory. Lyctid testing was performed using QFRI's lyctid culture containing Lyctus discidens. 2.5. Species Confirmation A heartwood section sourced from a representative sample of test billets was removed to confirm species identification. This was done by comparing the macroscopic cell structure of the suspected camphor laurel samples against botanically authenticated reference samples held within QFRI's wood collection. The samples were confirmed as being camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora).
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