Hardwood Posts

Red ironbark heartwood is a deep dark red to red-brown. By contrast, its sapwood is a distinctive pale yellow in colour. The timber’s texture is fine and even with an interlocked grain. It is extremely hardwearing and highly durable, allowing for wide range of external applications.

Red ironbark is ideal for engineered structures that require excellent durability and strength, including wharf and bridge members, poles, railway sleepers, mining timbers. The timber is also suitable for all building construction materials from feature posts ,, framing, flooring, decking and cladding.

Properties

Spotted gum is one of Australia’s premium native hardwoods with a striking appearance and a high degree of natural durability and strength, making it an ideal timber for a variety of structural, exterior and interior applications.

The species referred to as spotted gum vary in appearance but not in durability class or other properties. The heartwood ranges from light brown through to dark red-brown hues. Sapwood is usually white to light brown in colour. The presence of a wavy grain can produce an attractive fiddle-back figure. The wood has a slightly greasy feel, a characteristic that aids machining and boring. Spotted Gum components that are 18mm thick or greater do not require fire retardant treatment for use in construction in bush-fire prone areas. It is suitable for a range of building applications, such as posts and poles, framing, flooring, lining, decking and cladding.  Compared to other Australian hardwoods, spotted gum is a minimal staining timber as it is less prone to bleed-through of tannins than other species.

Properties

Eucalyptus pilularis, commonly known as blackbutt, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, finely fibrous greyish bark on the lower half of the trunk, smooth white, grey or cream-coloured bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and fifteen, white flowers and hemispherical or shortened spherical fruit.

A significant commercial species, blackbutt is well regarded by foresters for the high quality of timber, easy regeneration and quick growth. Uses include making poles, railway sleepers, flooring, building framework, cladding, joinery, lining boards, furniture, wood chipping and decking.[10] Wood density is about 900 kg per cubic metre. The sapwood is resistant to attack by lyctus borers, the heartwood is yellowish brown to light brown. Coarse textured, fairly straight grained, common small gum veins. Hard, strong, tough but not particularly difficult to work. Slow drying of mid to good levels of durability. Blackbutt timber is used in the flooring of Parliament House, Canberra.

Merbau is a popular hardwood derived largely from areas in South East Asia, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific islands, and northern Queensland. With its high degree of natural durability and strength it is used externally in engineering, construction and marine applications. The attractive yellow-orange brown hue of freshly cut heartwood deepens or reddens with ageing. This contrasts markedly with the merbau sapwood, which is white, pale yellow or buff coloured.  Merbau is quite resistant to termites and seasons well with kiln or air-drying, exhibiting only a low degrade and very little shrinkage or movement. Low durability rating for Inground  so above ground on stirrups is required.Requires appropriate seasling to limit excess tannin bleeding.