Compartment 41

This is a photo of wind damage caused by the gale of 1 August 1975. I will describe this weather event later, but the photo is of Compartment 41.

Compartment 41 was the first planting at Herbert Forest - why it is not called 'Compartment 1, I do not know and in fact there was no Compartment 1, 2,3 or 4 for that matter.

The area is only 8 acres and it was planted over two years; 1948 & 48. The first tree was planted by all who were there but as I wasn't, I can't be sure of all but I know Jack Lawn, Laurie Hore, Gib Green and Bert Moir.

Bert Moir was originally employed as a Rabbiter and had bought a block of land off Reid Road (running up to Mt Misery Road) after the war (WWII). The local Otepopo school kids used to hide from him in those early days because they feared him as he rode his horse to the Herbert Store dressed in his khaki clothes, bushman's hat and legs wrapped in puttees. A rifle in a scabbard. But Bert wouldn't harm a fly ... well, I want to do a bit of a profile on him as he was one of those wonderful characters. In the artillery based at Port Lyttleton (the Heads) he told me they were guarding the port entrance and all incoming craft were supposed to identify themselves. One small fishing boat did not, so the officer, thinking the crew were gutting fish or asleep, ordered Bert to fire a round across her bows. Well he hit the boat midships and sank her! What eventuated was never related to me, but his rendition of a later incident, he thought may have been a punishment.

He was in occupation force in Japan and was ordered to guard a train of a trip for one place to another. He alone was the guard and he became concerned, if a little frightened that the train was gathering too much speed. It seemed to be rocking to & fro with reckless abandon! So he thought he would exercise his authority and order the driver to slow the train down, but he did not understand him, so Bert flourished his rifle, and the driver and fireman put their hands up. This concerned Bert even more because the train seemed to be going faster, and now nobody was controlling it! He decided to lower his weapon. The fireman smiled at him and took from his bag a new bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey. Bert knew very well that it must have been pilfered from the good he was supposed to be guarding, but on the other hand he was partial to a drop - so the three shared the bottle. His fear of the careering train slowly evaporated as the level in the bottle lowered. They arrived safely at their destination and the Americans to whom he delivered the train did not notice that he had been imbibing!

Anyway back to Compartment 41.

Because the area was more or less a demonstation site, and it was accessable to the road (Breakneck Road - then a public road), the silviculture was kept up to standard. Silviculture? Tending of trees to make them as marketable as possible. This basically means pruning and thinning. Pruning to remove lower branches, thus producing clear wood outside the pruning scars. Thinning, like a row of carrots, to make them grow fatter.

In the old days we used to use Orsa saw blades on wooden handles - difficult things to sharpen and thse days jacksaws are used with throw away blades or often loppers are favoured.

Pruning is done in a series of lifts and should be dome only to half tree height, though there has been a school of thought that 1/3 green crown remaining was ok. so in this area the first lift was 0 - 6 feet, later 6 - 12 feet, later again 12 - 18 feet next 18 - 24 feet, and here 24 - 32 feet! No longer carried out because of the cost. You can not use saws on the end of poles for this. A platform was used - climb the 16 foot ladder and fix around the tree the platform; stnad on the platform and pull the ladder up between your legs and sit it in the hooks on the platform; climb the ladder and continue pruning.

Obviously this was a very hard job, and I remember the bonus target of 42 trees per day being set for the 24 - 32 foot lift. A most expensive operation and no longer carried out - where would you get the workers anyway?
The picture is grainy but you get the idea.

Frank Ford carried out the production thinning operation, contracted to McCullum & Co - later to become Fletchers/Placemakers. Every tree in the block had a mark on it - Foresters! And we were required to cut some of the trees ourselves to measure them and test the volume tables. Colin Bartrum and I did this. Franks young brother Adrian also was there making money while he was starting up his tree nursery business - oh yes he will come later because I ended up working for him!

When you prune trees to such a height, they must be thinned appropriately to gain the maximum clear wood outside the pruned stubs. This puts the stand at risk to wind throw. That night of 1 August 1975, I stopped in the moonlight at around 1:00 am to wathch the trees thrashing around, the crowns catching the wind like a sail and the stems bending unnaturally! Snap, the stem would break! I didn't stay too long it was dangerous and returning home would be an adventure in the conditions.

The following 12 months saw me leading a team to salvage as much fallen timber as possible from the damaged crop around the forest, but Compartment 41 was the biggest loss because the trees had snapped, rather than toppling.

I visited the area recently and the third crop is established, but look, the war has not been won over the gorse.