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Timber Getting in New South Wales: Tree-felling
Title:
Timber Getting in New South Wales: Tree-felling
NFSA ID
11958
Year
1925
Two men complete chopping around the base of a large tree trunk with hand-held axes. The tree falls to the ground. At another tree, men stand on planks of wood embedded in the tree trunk that create a makeshift ladder and platform. The men, steadily balanced, chop into an elevated section of the tree trunk. As the tree begins to lean, the men deftly climb back down to safety. As the tree falls, the men scramble in the other direction to avoid injury. Summary by Poppy de Souza.
A remarkable scene in which the wood-choppers remain balanced on thin planks of wood while at the same time rigorously swinging their axes!
Timber Getting in NSW synopsis
Presented by Australasian Films, this silent film looks at the timber industry in New South Wales. It shows methods of timber-felling, the transportation of logs by steel cables and bullock teams, and the main depot in Langley Vale, New South Wales.
Timber Getting in NSW curator's notes
Production company Australasian Films had been producing documentaries since 1913 and produced the Australasian Gazette newsreel from 1913 until the 1930s. The Shell Company sponsored documentary Timber, made by Herschells Films, offers a good comparison of methods later used in the forestry industry in the late 1940s.
Notes by Poppy de Souza
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.