I worked for the Dept of Main Roads in Sydney back in the early 60's and was a Bridge Maintenance worker, Part of my job was to trim down very large logs into what was called Headstocks and measured 14" x 14" logs. I used axes, crosscut saws and Broad Axe's and finished them with an Adze. I was very lucky not like our friend in the film by slicing through the top of my boot with the Broad Axe, it only cut my sock and just scraped my toes, had it been a bit deeper I would have lost the lot. It certainly was an art form to Jack up Pyrmont Bridge and replace the timbers 58 years ago, and to my knowledge they are still there. Bob Law.

Thanks to the hard working European settlers for building this great country 🍻

I go out putting around in this State Forest on a old trike.Its very beautiful land & very relaxing out there.Top Video.

Im a kiwi who works in trees. I lived in Kalamunda East of Perth for a while. The timbers here are outrageously good and beautiful. And the men I worked with were first class hard bastards. And toured around the South of the state. Days I will always remember. Wait Awhile hey mates.

@benclarke8743

3 жыл бұрын

You aren’t any different my friend, we are all brothers from other mothers, peace.

@samgiuffre8695

2 жыл бұрын

Hey Mick, your a legend mate. Remember going out in the bush with me, u and kingy and klugs I think and chopping that huge redgum down with an axe and how long it took us. Fun days. What a spin out coming across your comment. If you ever come back to kalamunda get in touch me mate. Cheers from sam

heritage film - I love this way of working + living in the woods + true axemanship - learned alot

My Grandfather spent the first 3 or 4 years in the bush near Greenbushes in s.w of W.A cutting sleepers by hand when he first came to Australia in the early 1920,s.

Great video. My grandfather was a Broad Axeman down in the South-West of Western Australia and this vid gave me an insight into how he might've done it rough back in the day. He has since passed on, but his axes are on display above the entrance to the Dwellingup Pub.

@chrisc3697

4 жыл бұрын

@TheRadetzkyMarch very cool

@bushratbeachbum

4 жыл бұрын

Ill check them out next time im over that way. Massive respect to the hard life he would have had.

@bushratbeachbum

4 жыл бұрын

What was his name?

@philh3072

3 жыл бұрын

Was that Jim Thomas Rockets grand dad

@benclarke8743

3 жыл бұрын

That’s awesome mate👍

Hats off to the bushmen.Hard too believe all that great timber going into sleepers.Aussie timber is really something .From a Kiwi.

@timaha83

5 жыл бұрын

for us uninitiated, what are sleepers?

@Stevie671

5 жыл бұрын

@@timaha83 Sleepers were the rectangular beams of timber laid down as a foundation for the steel track to be attached to.These days replaced with concrete.Sleepers are now popularly used as landscaping material as the Aussie hardwood is tough and durable.NZ Rail was built on imported hardwood as I understand.

@vsvnrg3263

5 жыл бұрын

@@Stevie671 , karri is unsuitable for railway sleepers. timber sleepers are jarrah. i believe wandoo or blackbutt was also used once apon a time. west australian termites love karri. they prefer imported species of pine. they will only eat jarrah after it has well and truly weathered. for those people not from wa reading this, you truly wouldn't believe the size of some of the termites here. they are the size of fly maggots

Real men doing a real job and they were as tough as the conditions in which they were working!!

@georgeclinton3657

4 жыл бұрын

real men don't fuck up the earth

How awesome is that? I've been picking up old tools as of late, and a broad axe is the next one on my list. I have a drawknife from the 1830's that works like a dream and will likely last another two centuries if not forgotten. I also have a froe and a adze, built a shaving bench, and I'm working on a pole lathe. Video's like this are such an inspiration. I've spent time out in the woods on a logging crew and I'd much prefer being out there alone, until an accident happens that is.

One of the locals gave me a book, which was based on his family who worked in the Barmah Forest cutting sleepers. It was a real eye opener to how hard their life was, and how little they seemed to get for all the hard work.

@benclarke8743

3 жыл бұрын

I would love to know the title of that book mate, pass it on if you still have it please🙂.

Splendid historical record of a hard life earning a crust!

That felling notch @ 11:10 is as close to perfect as you can get.

@benclarke8743

3 жыл бұрын

To the millimetre hey?

11:16 Great footage.

I have never seen that mechanical bush saw before - great footage.

Excellent example of strength , strength endurance and perseverance. Good ol fashion Man Work.

To all Noojee and District Historical Society friend please watch this. This is just incredible footage.

just a joy to watch .... hard men in deed and i dont think you had enough to retire on ......

What a fabulous piece of Australiana, reminds me of my bush days and mt grandfather who was a logger/bushman.

@benclarke8743

3 жыл бұрын

So was mine, and a fish monger on the Shoalhaven river in NSW.

@bullsnutsoz

3 жыл бұрын

@@benclarke8743 yeah and now my son is a fish bloke down in bawley point!....gramps was a logger as well

@benclarke8743

3 жыл бұрын

@@bullsnutsoz bloody awesome mate, you would be a proud man, 👍

@bullsnutsoz

3 жыл бұрын

@@benclarke8743 yup, erina man

Jarrah and wandoo were used for railway sleepers but not karri because it is prone to rot and termite attack when in contact with the ground.Karri is an excellent structural timber however and was most commonly used in roof construction and was available in very long lengths.

@ThatGuyInTheShed

2 жыл бұрын

That's incorrect, the Pemberton mill supplied approximately 1.4 million Karri sleepers for the trans Australian railway. The contract specified Karri sleepers were okay as long as they were treated. Roughly 20% of the sleepers on our railway are Karri and most are untreated. They seem to last as well as the Jarrah ones but once rot gets into them they just turn to oatmeal. I'm yet to see termites in the Karri sleepers, they only get bug attacks after they rot by which time they're stuffed anyway. We do get termites in the Jarrah sometimes though. We have a small percentage of Wandoo sleepers, they're a pain to remove and they rot terribly in our very wet conditions. Still, all our Wandoo and Karri sleeepers are 40+ years old now so they've had a good run!

Very interesting video...I was born in early 1948 and spent my first 17 years growing up in that timber country. Places like Pemberton, Manjimup, Kirup, Hartlea, Gleneagle and Dwellingup. Much of the old equipment being used is very familiar to me. Those were the days!

@benclarke8743

3 жыл бұрын

Mate you must have some amazing memories?

My family are looking into our history and my great grandfather and his brother left home and began timber-getting in QLD 1900s? Well I never heard of it. Thanks for the information in this video

Thanks so much for this. I visited WA in 1998 and saw the old saw mills and amazing karri trees. These dudes were so tough to be able to work in high heat and humidity. Some bars also had amazing photos of the old loggers. If anyone has any info on Dick Sprogue, a legendary tree climber daredevil from the old days, I would be most grateful.

very unusual but extremely interesting to have a video with a sound form those ages. Great video

what an absolute gem.............Thanks

@lumberjaxe8910

5 жыл бұрын

Yeh just how i swing a Axe, the Endurance way.

Thank you so much for this piece of History, I must admit, I've not seen the trick with the 'Groper' stick before, fantastic!

From 9:18 the film sleeper cutter is from my great pop (1899 - 1990) his name was James Thomas In yarloop I am his great grandson of Bunbury I have this video on VHS He made it when he was 70 in 1969

Great documentary. Thank You.

Those, were some tough old men, who lived the hard life! Didn't even have a smart phone or a TV!

Hi, And many thanks for the upload. This show just what a skilful job this really was, and actually still is, though there is a lot more power tools now to make things seem easy, it isn’t!

Awesome video! Thank you for posting!

The history of logging the big kauri, is similar to that of the California redwoods. Both demanded strong men and evolving methods to bring down and process. Only 5% of the remaining old growth redwoods remain, partly protected in parks. My own home is redwood framed, ceiling planked, roofing and floor joists, all when affordable in 1960. I wonder how many still enjoy and appreciate the homes built with Kauri?

@vtecpreludevtec

8 жыл бұрын

Mate,kauri NZ,karri WA,🤓

@damodoesall6240

6 жыл бұрын

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_diversicolor

@vsvnrg3263

5 жыл бұрын

@@vtecpreludevtec, and red woods, yeah, nah. there are australian kauris too. grows in qld. i'm pleased to say i have 1800's furniture made of it. the redwoods are softwoods in not just name. the australian hardwoods truly are hard. and some of them are even harder. some types of them were left standing until metallurgy caught up with them. the timber was too hard for carpentry tools. however man triumphed. rest assured, i agree that dropping a redwood or a kauri without chainsaws was still bloody hard work. and they didn't just drop one then go home. they did it all day long. then came back the next day to do it all again.

@Master...deBater

4 жыл бұрын

@@vsvnrg3263: Once seasoned, Aussie hardwoods are incredibly hard...but they're easily felled when green.

@vsvnrg3263

4 жыл бұрын

@@vtecpreludevtec ,mate, there are species of kauri in nz, aust, asia, some pacific islands. i've got a lot of antique aust kauri furniture. beautiful golden colour. no knots in pieces 600 mm wide. a specialist timber place here in wa corrected me "karri, not kauri" and i had to inform him of his mistake.

My Great, Great Grandfather was Stringy Bark Jack Fear. the last woodcutter of the Granville forest.

Fascinating VID. What a way to cut sleepers. They were used in there thousands many in the London underground and for road base. Must have been a lot of cutters to satisfy the demand. The pity of it is most of that prime hard wood was wasted, only the best for everything when second grade or other timber would have satisfied. All gone now except for some patches saved. The Government closed the industry down in the early 2000's and retrained the workers who didn't retire. Small amounts supplied to the market mainly used for top end furniture etc. Some good regrowth but nothing like the original stands.

@vsvnrg3263

5 жыл бұрын

there's a lot of government (both sides) approved clearfelling going on, away from the public gaze, to provide wood for a silica factory somewhere near bunbury. the jarrah is a great timber for this use.

Thank You 👍👍

fantastic footage. thanks for sharing

Great documentary, from Wales

love it! These are real hard men.

@MrJeffdahmer

10 жыл бұрын

pause.......

@paintitblack6728

5 жыл бұрын

@phuck ewe Harder than Nails ..

I pulled one end of a crosscut saw as a 12 year old in the 1950,s with my father on the other end .

awesome video...mate

The two Men at the start (were) swinging the Axe correctly. Doing this all day, the pendulum swing actually makes sense.

@bushratbeachbum

7 ай бұрын

Good to know that you approve of the professional timber getters technique. Im sure they'll rest easy knowing that.

@lumberjaxe8910

7 ай бұрын

@@bushratbeachbum Haha Yes. Thanks for your comment. I get bagged out a lot for swinging the axe like this. Is always from people that have never swung an Axe all day.

@bushratbeachbum

7 ай бұрын

@@lumberjaxe8910 you're holding an axe. Stand up for yourself

@lumberjaxe8910

7 ай бұрын

@@bushratbeachbum No no Violence doesnt pay, also these mugs are online.

Great video

to work and function in society rewarded the people who contributed now a days we no longer have that same mindset

old man used to haul ( truck) in the 50's from the McPherson Ranges, to local mills. Up above Killarney, just past Queen Mary falls, there is an old chap, potato farmer. Anyhow there is about a 40 acre paddock there, not national Park, that is absolute Virgin. Has never seen an axe. ie NEVER. Beautiful country. About 90% of the country now is actually regrowth. But don't tell the Greenies that, Hey!

@vsvnrg3263

5 жыл бұрын

aubreyaub, any regrowth is better than no regrowth. as far as i'm concerned a lot of this climate change stuff is misguided. if you strip the trees the rains come less and less. i remember driving in western victoria and coming across a straight-edged cloud sitting directly over a piece of bush. all around were flogged out sheep paddocks and no cloud. nature abhors a straight line. i saw one in the sky that day. i bet none of the local farmers put 2 and 2 together if they ever saw such a thing. they just blame the bush for hiding wild dogs. why don't you go into that patch of bush you mention and notice how stable the climate is- warm when its cold in the open and cool when its hot in summer in the open. i saw a piece in a newspaper by a hydrologist who blamed the esperance land clearances in the 60's for the drying of the perth climate that started in the 70's. by the way, there is a sleeper cutter in my ancestry -bloody honest hard work.

Great video, but have a new found respect for a broadaxe and how it's used

Wow...those axes look exactly like my old Connecticut pattern!!! Apparently...the Aussies had good taste in axe patterns!!!

@rotam8680

7 жыл бұрын

Yeah we do. Well at least we used to. Its a shame that companies like Plumb, Collins, Kelly True Temper, Sager Chemical etc. dont exist and make good quality tooling. Now its all cheap chinesium products that arent made by people who use them

@Master...deBater

7 жыл бұрын

Yep...my big old Connecticut is a True Temper Flint Edge...and you're right they don't make them like that anymore!!! I find it really interesting that Australian woodsmen preferred that pattern for the types of lumber they encountered. In the US we developed at least a dozen different patterns in different geographic regions...where as the Aussies pretty much stuck to one particular style. A style which just happens to be my personal favorite. Nothing throws great big chunks like a Connecticut or Australian pattern axe!!!

@rotam8680

7 жыл бұрын

yeah mate well when you deal with the hardwoods we have you have no other option. Anything less and it would take way too long to cut a tree down

@rotam8680

7 жыл бұрын

i myself have found some 4lb plumb axe heads that are begging for a restoration

@Master...deBater

7 жыл бұрын

Yeah...Plumb made some really nice stuff...I've got a couple of nice old hatchets made by Plumb.

Looks like Pemberton near Manjimup

Looks easy now all the infrastructure and machinery are brought in. Think about all the hard bastards that cut those paths/tracks water holes, rail tracks and engineering that is involved. Fucking wow i say.

isso ai nao acabava com a natureza hoje em dia uma pessoa faz o serviço de cem desses ai!!!

that is one big jinker Mr

this could have been in the neck of my woods near i live 60 years ago.

Bloody hell thats a tough way to make a living. Fit as Malley bulls!

"In the days of wooden ships and iron men!"

@ijc1958

3 жыл бұрын

What a brilliant description of those times Nowadays ships of steel and men of marshmallow

hey aub my dad took me to a place in the pilaga scrub nsw and he was saying there were 20 plus cutters working for nearly 2 years and you can't see where they have been so i know what you are talking about

Please leave some big old trees for the future.

wat ontzettend zonde van die mooie bomen

Quality group

yeah good

They can get that big in a 100 years.

Hard work! That video was just like a fallout 4 video

Excellent entertainment does wear boys old school style 😎

what are those forests like now..?

@noneck8166

5 жыл бұрын

Protected...and making a roaring trade from tourism...treetop walks amongst ancient giants...and if you're really game, you can climb the old forest fire lookouts...steel peg ladder spiralling up a tree...not for the faint hearted

absolutely devastating seeing that tree fall

that's a massive tree

how crazy it was back then.... doing physical labor. lolol....

At 12:48 there's a ban on picking wild flowers in Australia

REAL MEN,

How long did it take to get those massive Kauri Trees down?

@cmennare

10 жыл бұрын

Similar to Redwoods, 2 men would fell a 9ft diameter tree in 4 hours, though a good part of that was building scaffolding.

@dvchel

10 жыл бұрын

cmennare But Kauri was a hardwood tree species and Redwood not. So, I guess the felling would take even longer than 4 hours.

@cmennare

10 жыл бұрын

Kauri trees are conifers therefore they are soft woods. They differ from Redwoods in that they do not taper as they get taller but grow straight, this allows for them to have quite a bit more useable lumber. According to Wikipedia the largest Kauri tree was 8.54m at the base.

@dvchel

10 жыл бұрын

cmennare Ah oke, thanks. I see now that I have mistaken the Kauri with the Karri tree, which is a Eucalyptus species and therefore part of the hardwood family. I thought the Redwoods also grew straight as they get taller? The only difference I thought were the leaves, color and nuts.

@AussieBobL

10 жыл бұрын

My father was a karri faller in the 1950's with axe and cross cuts just like this vide. They also had the same mechanical cross cuts for breaking up logs. It took 2 men on average about a day and a half to cut down and break up one tree - (not all there trees were as big as those in the movie). The in 1958 the got the first two man chainsaws with 8ft long bars, 350 cc motors, no mufflers and soft chains. These saws were so unreliable and the chains needed so much sharpening that they only saw action about 4 hours in a day. Even so two men could bring down and break up 4 trees a day!. Then in 1959 Dad and his partner each got a McCulloch one man chainsaw with a 3ft bar and much better chains. Even using such a small chainsaw bar, two men could bring down and section up about a tree per hour so 16 trees a day and the forests just felllllllllll. Within 2 years the sawmills has stockpiles of timber to last for years. All contracts were cancelled and many fallers lost their jobs. We moved to another town and Dad got a job cutting Jarrah trees. He would come home completely covered in the blood red jarrah dust. My uncle worked in the forests on the railway gangs belting in spikes with a sledge hammer. I remember he had popeye arms and spindly legs. I went often with my dad into the bush from the age of about 6 years old while he cut down trees - no OHS in those days. He wore a soft beret on his head and no ear plugs. As a result he lost most of his hearing by the time he was 45 years old. I saw many trees being felled - it was an awesome thing. my job was to carry the oil and petrol for my dad from tree to tree. Dad carried two chainsaws, a bag of axes tools, and steel wedges. There were many close shaves, accident and adventures - I don't know how I am still here . Someday I should write a book about it. BTW I have the Jinkers and Whims book referred to in the blurb for this dock - some great photos in there too. My father was only 47 when he was involved in a log truck accident and had to retire from manual labor. He went back to school and finished his high school and did a university degree to become a teacher but could not teach because his hearing was so bad. He ended up working in the front office of a Fremantle Seaman's Club for a number of years before he retired. After years of academic life one of my retirement hobbies is chainsaw milling - dad must be rolling around laughing in his grave!

Pro. 👍 👌

Ohh , so sad those old trees , just cut down .

What’s a sleeper? What’s its use?

@tutekohe1361

5 жыл бұрын

A Sleeper, I believe, is known in the USA as a railway tie.

@bobbythompson3544

5 жыл бұрын

Can't believe you are that stupid, you are taking the piss of course!

@Master...deBater

4 жыл бұрын

@@bobbythompson3544: How can you blame him...Aussies have the dumbest words in the "English" language!!! At least a "railway tie"...TIES the rails together...what's a "sleeper" do...SLEEP???

@CSkwirl

4 жыл бұрын

@@Master...deBater Originally and technically it's called a Railway Sleeper because it lies there like a sleeping man, so yes exactly. Then it was just shortened to a Sleeper and everyone knew what that meant, they're just referred to as Sleepers now, made from treated Pine and used in landscaping. If i went to a timber supply and asked for a "Railway Sleeper" it means I want an old used actual one from a railway, but they're almost impossible to get and expensive now, they used to just throw them away before people wanted them for their houses/gardens

Tuff tuff tuff

Eucalyptus Globulus?

@damodoesall6240

6 жыл бұрын

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_diversicolor

@kaynefryday6637

2 жыл бұрын

No

I'd have been more the overseer sought myself .

Eso. Es. Laburar.

I was born 100 yrs to late,

So very sad to see the trees this size being destroyed.

@spoddog1

9 жыл бұрын

Kira Whittaker no point worrying about what happened 100 years ago. whats done is done. and they needed the timber. logging has put food on my wooden table in my wooden house for years. and my fathers.

@cruz1santa

9 жыл бұрын

Kira Whittaker They're not being "destroyed", they're being harvested, so you and your like, can sit at your wooden tables, safe in your wooden houses.

@nbale1142

6 жыл бұрын

There still alot big trees growing in the old forrest and more dont stress.

@tuantanah9076

5 жыл бұрын

So, so very sad.

Shame about the shitty contrast and brightness. Could someone please re-edit it to make it watcheable.

It's amazing but terrible in many ways. A lot of this beautiful timber from WA is lying on the footpaths and roads in England. Yes they took it over there just for that purpose. If you look around WA you will see very few houses made from this beautiful timber. Very few timber house's at all.

@bobbythompson3544

5 жыл бұрын

marie gamble The Jarrah hardened to such an extent the seasoned recycled sleepers could only be machined using metalworkers tools!

@bushratbeachbum

7 ай бұрын

Jarrah houses are everywhere in rural areas. What are you talking about??!!!!!!!

I do admire the old days and my family from the timber industry, but the old boys would be rolling in their graves if they could see the destruction of the forests and loss of jobs that now happens from machinery. Cant wait till this is no more in WA, we will win, most of the old families know there is no future in the timber industry in WA, move over old boys and let the future begin.

@badpossum440

5 жыл бұрын

,can't agree more i worked on the QLD forestry for years & saw the huge oil spills caused by refueling & cleaning machines & its never cleaned up.Also the number of dozer tracks abandoned in the bush was astounding.

@michaelbullman208

5 жыл бұрын

What is your house built out of?

@badpossum440

5 жыл бұрын

@@michaelbullman208 Brick W/ steel frame.

Thats when men were men, didnt ride around on an e-scooter with hair in man bun sipping a soy latte holding or some bullshit whinging about how mummy and daddy didnt cuddle them enough.

He can keep the kangaroo ,but would like to try the bread,,I'm sure that he,s not a millionaire from cutting trees,,

so sad

@Master...deBater

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah I know...the good old days are gone!!!

This is a new video made to look old!

Jesus Christ and God Almighty -those trees would have been a thousand to fifteen hundred years old - it's like knocking down a cathedral - I am a wood nut and woodworker but this is sacrilege they would have been turned into flooring - the men a good hard working blokes but it is a sin against god's creation.

@Dags470

5 жыл бұрын

Hahahaha. Claim to be a wood nut yet over estimate age by over 1000 years. Well done mate. What a champ.

@noneck8166

5 жыл бұрын

So your outrage against " Gods creation "...only carries to a specific age of wood? You do know that a tree is a living thing from when it's a seed?....not after you decide you want to do some woodworking... Brilliant analogy...thanks mate!