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Author Taylor, Angela, 1942-

Title A forester's log : the story of John La Gerche and the Ballarat-Creswick State Forest, 1882-1897 / Angela Taylor
Published Carlton South, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 1998

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 ADPML SPWV  634.92099453 Lagerc Tay/Afl  LIB USE ONLY
Description xvii, 224 pages : illustrations, maps ; 20 cm
Contents 1. 'Something like a Forest'? -- 2. Beating the bounds: the bailiff-forester at work -- 3. Seeing the wood and the trees: of stringy bark, bastard gum and peppermint -- 4. Silvan disobedience: prop cutters, woodcutters and sluicers -- 5. 'A source of annoyance': illegal occupation and careless use of fire -- 6. Friction in the forest: the thinning system -- 7. 'The very thing for growing pines': Sawpit Gully Plantation
Summary "A Forester's Log is a unique forest story, told from a forester's viewpoint--the view of John La Gerche, one of the first generation of foresters in Victoria, who managed the Ballarat-Creswick State Forest in the late nineteenth century.La Gerche's Letter Books and Pocket Books have survived to provide a rare insight into a bailiff-forester's burdens in the 1880s and 1890s. As a bailiff, he daily had to confront prop cutters and woodcarters, 'scamps and vagabonds' who constantly defied forest regulations. His pioneering work helped shape today's forested landscape around the Central Victorian goldfields town of Creswick, 'the home of forestry'. In the detailed correspondence between this amateur forester and his bureaucratic masters lies the human story of an ordinary yet remarkable man, endeavouring to strike a fair balance between the competing demands of local woodcutters and distant officials. Angela Taylor reads between the lines to create a beautifully perceptive portrait of a vanishing character type--the truly committed public servant. A Forester's Log is an illuminating and charming book which will appeal to a wide range of readers, both urban and rural, including those interested in conservation and landscape heritage." --BOOK JACKET.lectu
Notes Includes index
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-214) and index
Subject La Gerche, John, 1845-1914.
Forest management -- Australia -- Ballarat-Creswick State Forest (Vic.) -- History.
Forests and forestry -- Australia -- Ballarat-Creswick State Forest (Vic.) -- History.
Forests and forestry -- Australia -- Victoria -- Ballarat-Creswick State Forest -- History
SUBJECT Ballarat-Creswick State Forest (Vic.) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00000304 -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99005024
Genre/Form Biographies.
LC no. 98202137
ISBN 0522848397