Logging and timber have formed an important piece in Gympie’s development over the course of its 150 years. Here’s a little snippet of the history of our industry. We thought we’d share some bits and pieces of info from time to time.

Gympie’s timber history began in earnest soon after gold was discovered in 1867 by James Nash, and the industry has been at the heart of Gympie ever since.

Following alluvial fossicking (fossicking done beneath the surface at the bottom of a creek or stream), and when mining began, timber became vital for the safe construction of mine shafts.

As soon as Moreton Bay region was no longer a penal colony, free settlement began. The population increased and so the need for timber followed.

Farming and agriculture also added to the reason for the growth of the timber industry.

In the early days of Gympie development, there was no through road nor railway to Maryborough and this included suitable bullock wagon tracks.

Instead, logs were transported to Maryborough along the Mary River, with light wood such as red cedar, white beech, hoop and bunya pine the principal and best known species.

While some logs may have been floated downstream singly, logs were mainly tied together as a float group of about six.

Local sawmills were built to supply local needs.

In the early years of the timber industry, the snigging and hauling of logs was done mostly by bullock teams – see the fantastic pic.

The timber was cut in the forest using cross-cut saws, axes, wooden mauls and iron wedges.

Timber from the Cooloola Coast was winched to a wooden rail tram line (recorded as Pettigrew’s tram line) loaded on to wagons and hauled by the steam engine, Mary Ann, to Poverty Point near Tin Can Bay.

There it was loaded on to a large barge and taken to Maryborough, because there were no suitable haulage roads to Gympie.

Much later on, as sand mining moved into the Cooloola area, mining companies built the access road which linked Tin Can Bay and Gympie.

State forests were established because private land was being cleared and timber was being wasted.

As the population increased, the industry grew and by 1925 there were 257 sawmills in the wider Moreton Bay and Wide Bay regions. As part of this expansion, Gympie had a significant number of sawmills resulting in the greater use of locally sawn timber. By 1950, trees were marked for cutting in state forests.

An important factor in improved regeneration was the controlled burning of forest fuel during the cooler months of the year.

This prevented bush fires in hotter weather, which damaged growing trees – and as a result the volume increased dramatically.

Our historic sawmill has passed through different hands over the years, and today Mary Valley Timbers is an eminent name in the Queensland timber industry. We’re also one of the few remaining working sawmills in a region long synonymous with forestry.

We’ve come a long way and we’re truly proud of our industry’s incredible heritage.