Australian Hardwood Timber information

Are you looking for information on:

• Technical Design Guides
• Spotted Gum technical information
• Timber Decking
• Timber Boardwalks
• Timber Handrails & Barriers
• Timber Cladding
• Timber Preservatives
• Timber Design Tools

Looking for something else?
Please contact Outdoor Structures Australia regarding your specific enquiry.

Hardwood Timber Properties
(Australian Spotted Gum)

Colour:
The heartwood ranges from light brown through to dark brown. Sapwood is usually white in colour and up to 50mm wide.

Grain:
Moderately coarse textured and variable. Gum veins common. The presence of wavy grain can produce an attractive fiddle back figure.

Hardness:
Very hard (rated 1 on a 6 class scale) in relation to resistance to indentation and ease of working with hand tools.

Machining:
Machines well due to its natural greasiness.

Finishing:
Spotted Gum will readily accept paint and polish. Having a lower tannin content than most other eucalyptus Spotted Gum is less likely to cause problematic tannin stains than most other Aussie hardwoods.

Hardwood Timber Source

Environment-friendly managed source:
Spotted gum is generally found in dry sclerophyll forests and is not a rainforest species. Sclerophyll forests are forests which include species with drought resisting "hard leaves". Dry sclerophyll forests are sclerophyll forests occurring in drier regions and have an open canopy with a predominantly grassy understorey.

Source: Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management June 2009
Download document › 720KB PDF.

Hardwood Timber Uses

Engineering:
As sawn or round timbers in wharf and bridge construction, railway sleepers, crossarms, poles, piles, mining timbers.

Construction:
As unseasoned timber in general house framing and as seasoned dressed timber in cladding, internal and external flooring, lining and joinery. Also in fencing, landscaping, retaining walls and as structural plywood and hardboard.

Decorative:
Internal quality furniture, outdoor furniture, turnery, joinery, parquetry.

Other uses:
Tool handles, boat building, coach vehicle and carriage building, agricultural machinery, sporting goods (baseball bats, spring and diving boards, parallel bars), bent work. Spotted gum is the main Australian species for tool handles subject to high impact forces e.g. axe handles.

The physical properties of Spotted Gum are well in excess of pines and most non-Australian hardwoods.

Continue reading Spotted Gum technical information »