ROOM 1.16 Timber

The timber industry in The Vasse started in the 1840’s and was built on logging of old growth tuart and jarrah forests by teams of timber workers. The industry relied principally on man and beast and the use of machines and industrial processes to harvest timber were limited, apart from the mills and the railways, trees were felled by hand in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions.

The earliest recorded timber milling in The Vasse was conducted in the 1840’s by Charles Keyser when he loaded pit sawn flitches and squared logs onto American whaling ships to be exported to the east coast of America. This timber was shipped from McGibbon’s Jetty, about 5 miles west of Busselton.

The 1850’s saw a number of local settlers applying to the Colonial Secretary for licenses to cut and export timber. This included Henry Yelverton who established the first steam operated timber mill at Quindalup in 1854. This mill employed some convict labour and timber was shipped from the Quindalup jetty.

The 1870’s saw the rise of the Ballarat Timber Company and the WA Timber Company in the vicinity of Wonnerup. A mill and jetty were built in the Wonnerup region and the Lockeville – Yoganup Railway (Ballarat Tramline) was constructed. The Ballarat engine that ran on this line was the first steam locomotive to operate in WA and it transported timber from as far inland as Yoganup to the mill and the jetty.

From the 1870’s timber from inland mills like Barrabup was railed to Busselton for export from the Busselton Jetty and Busselton continued to be a major shipping port of timber until post WW2.