ON THE LAND

THE BULGA PLATEAU.

VALUABLE TIMBER RESOURCES.

The Bulga plateau, which rises to an eleva-tion of over 2000 feet above the district of

the Upper Manning, has only been made accessible during recent years. A graded

mountain road provides many wonderful vistas of glorious scenery, and, incidentally, many thrills to the traveler who follows the nar-row ribbon of track winding clingingly to the sheer mountain face. The present road, with its six miles of uninterrupted ascent from the valley below, is a great advance on the old line of communication – a precipitous bridle path, fit only for horses bred In the hills and it means a lot to the sturdy settlers, who have gone on to the plateau to literally carve, chop, and burn a home out of the dense forest on its crest. It may have a railway some day, and the settlers, co-operat-ing with the people of the Manning and Hastings on the coast, and with those on the tableland on the Walcha side, have already got their “proposed route.” The Bulga pla-teau is linked up with that of the Comboyne

by a narrow ridge, traversed by a bridle track. The Comboyne is situated to the north and Iles midway between the valleys of the Manning and the Hastings rivers. It has now passed through the pioneering stage, and the rich volcanic soil is covered with paspalum and English grasses, maintaining a large num–

ber of dairy herds. There is the nucleus

of a township, a butter factory, and regu-lar motor communication with Wingham and Taree on the Manning.

Bulga is late in tho field, and, unfortunately for its prospects of Immediate settlement the very value of its asset in timber is likely to retard its growth in the way that the Dor-rigo and Comboyne plateaus have developed That may seem unfortunate for the Bulga, but it is all to the good of the Stale. Both, the Dorrigo and the Comboyne have been de–veloped only at the cost to the State of pro-digious wealth In the timber gone up in smoke The settlers cannot be held blameable as they were allowed to take up their blocks in the heart of forests of magnificent hardwoods and in the valuable softwood brush. They could do nothing until the timber was dis-posed of, and in the absence of good roads, timber mills or railways, there was only one way to dispose of it – by cutting and firing. It was only another case of settlement pre-ceding railways, but the destruction of mil-lions of feet of the best timber in the Com-monwealth was the price paid for It. The Bulga timber, valued at hundreds of thou-sands of pounds, narrowly oscaped a similar fate. Even now one can see on the Bulga magnificent tallowwood, blue gum, and brush box standing bare and stark in a forest of

dead trees.

The Bulga State forest comprises about

10,000 acres of magnificent timber, and 12,840 acres of Crown lands adjoining were sub-

divided for settlement Into farms for returned soldiers. About this time, however, the State was taking stock of its resources in timber, and the result showed that these, instead of being almost unlimited, as was anticipated, were really much smaller than they should be in a State of its extent. This forest area had been subdivided, and intersected with roads at great expense in readiness for the proposed settlement, when tho Government, realising the huge sacrifice of timber which must follow, decided to call a halt. Over 50 blocks of land had been made available, but eventually only about a dozen were allowed to go to ballot. It was mainly by reason of the resolute determination of the then Minis-ter for Lands (Mr. Ashford) to save most of the Bulga timber, and thus prevent a re-petition of the folly which sacrificed so many of the coastal forests, that this decision was final. The assessment of timber on this area marked down for settlement was 210,000,000 superficial feet of present commer-cial value, or an average of over 16,000 feet per acre. About two-thirds of this timber was hardwood, principally blackbutt, tallow-wood, blue gum. and brush box, and Its quality was perhaps higher than any in New South

Wales.

The question of utilising these valuable tim-ber resources Is now being considered. There are several small sawmills on the plateau, but in the absence of adequate facilities for disposing of the sawn product the asset can-not be utilised. The mountain road is quite good enough for light traffic, but heavy wag-gons would soon make the road Impassable. Light railways have never been favoured in this State, but there is no doubt that their adoption would have saved millions of pounds of the finest timber In the world. Mr. H. Machin, the Mayor of Wingham, and late shiro president, who has an axe-handle factory on the Bulga, has already approached the Go–vernment with a proposal to find the capital to build a light railway to Wingham. He Is besieged with orders for timber which can-not be executed, because of the haulage difficulties, and the shortago of timber-getters. His plant is now manufacturing axe-handles from mountain water gum. which he regards as ono of the most valuable trees on the Bulga, being especially suited for milling when about 8 or 10 Inches in diameter. This tim-ber has also been favourably reported on as material for golf sticks, and it is one of those selected for testing for use in aeroplanes.