| Historical notes: | Pre-European contact
Before Europeans arrived the Pilliga was predominately 'open forest' comprising 5 or 6 large trees for each hectare of grassland. Traditional Aboriginal 'fire-stick farming' practices over thousands of years maintained most of the Pilliga region as grassland and modified the natural composition and form of the forest. The understorey was managed by this process and as a result would have appeared different to the scrub it is now. (van Kempen, 11, 30).
The region which includes present-day Gwabegar, large areas of the Pilliga and bounded by the junction of the Namoi and Barwon Rivers in the west, south-west near Coonabarabran and east to Tamworth and Inverell is the land of the Gamilaroi people. After the arrival of Europeans Aboriginal people continued to live and work in the Pilliga and to maintain a traditional relationship with the land despite being actively discouraged from doing so by the new settlers. This relationship continues today. (Lucas 24, 25; Oral History 2010)
Nineteenth-century settlement and early grazing
Following John Oxley's exploratory expedition to the north-western plains in 1818, the first non-Aboriginal settlers began to arrive in the 1830s (van Kempen, 32). A Scotsman called Andrew Brown established an outstation on the banks of the Baradine Creek in the late 1830s, and in the 1860s the town of Baradine was established (Curby and Humphreys,101). Settlers introduced European grazing stock which eventually displaced much of the native fauna and led to the cessation of the Aboriginal fire practices (van Kempen, 32).
Regeneration of the pine forest
The new settlers found the conditions inhospitable and unsuitable for intensive grazing. The decline in traditional Aboriginal fire controls after the 1830s, a severe drought in the 1870s which forced many settlers off their land, followed by heavy rain in early 1880s and the arrival of rabbits to the region in the late 1880s were all factors that disturbed the pre-contact composition of the Pilliga forests and led to the creation of the forests as we now know them: primarily regenerated ironbark and white cypress pine forests (van Kempen, 95-96). By the 1880s the Pilliga Forest had been transformed into dense scrub made up of thousands of young trees in areas which had, as little as 10 years earlier, been open enough to run sheep (van Kempen, 42).
Management of the Pilliga as a timber resource
Following the failure of early non-Aboriginal grazing attempts the area was deemed more suitable for timber production than for settlement. The timber potential of the Pilliga forests was recognised when the first Forest Reserve was declared in 1876 (van Kempen, 96), and by the end of the 1870s a timber industry had developed. Further reserves were dedicated in 1877 and 1878 (van Kempen, 39).
The railway line to Narrabri was constructed in 1882 and the Pilliga was initially logged for its ironbark needed for railway sleepers. Logs were taken by bullock wagon to the rail head at Narrabri (Curby and Humphreys, 17, 101). In the late 1890s deliberate 'thinning' or harvesting of the cypress pine forests began (van Kempen, page 46). The thinning opened up the area around the larger trees which would then take on a new growth spurt, even after laying dormant for years.
Following the 1908 Royal Commission of Enquiry into Forests, the NSW Forestry Commission was created by the 1909 Forestry Act (van Kempen, page 51). This began the deliberate government management for timber production of what was recognised as a young forest, compared to the older, heavily depleted coastal forests. Despite the introduction of the 1909 forestry Act there was a conflict between the Lands Department that wanted to clear land and the Forestry Commission who wanted land reserved for State forest. In 1916 the Forestry Act was changed to allow dedication of State forests and on 2 March 1917 the area known as the Pilliga West State Forest No 267 was dedicated (van Kempen, 52)
Aboriginal people and the Pilliga Forest
Oral history projects undertaken with Aboriginal people in recent years show that the Pilliga forests are the location of social, economic and spiritual activities in the traditional, historic and current periods. Forests are particularly valued as locations in which skills, knowledge and traditions can be handed down. The decline of forested areas has increased the cultural value placed on those that remain. (Brigalow Aboriginal Heritage Assessment 36)
Aboriginal people played a significant role in the forestry industry in NSW particularly in the Pilliga. Aboriginal communities have been a constant source of labour and knowledge in the economic life of the region and have had a central, though largely unacknowledged, role in its economic development. (BAHA 35) Working in the forestry industry not only provided employment but was a means for Aboriginal people to maintain contact with the land they valued. (Lucas 3) From the contact period up until the 1950's Aboriginal people continued to camp, travel, and live in the forest when timber cutting. This allowed traditional practices, knowledge and activities to be continued. The forest had a diversity of plant and animal life that provided a source of food and medicine and supplemented rations. Hunting and gathering was an enjoyable activity which kept stories and knowledge alive. The forest was also a place of refuge where families could live without fear of surveillance and in some instances provided escape from the authorities who sought to remove Aboriginal children from their families. (Lucas 3)
Aboriginal people moved through the Pilliga according to complex patterns of movement centred around kinship ties and frequently facilitated through work patterns. These patterns of movement are understood to be the continuation of traditional patterns into the historical period and through to the current day. (BAHA 35)
Establishment of the sawmill at Wooleybah
Controlled thinning of the Pilliga forest continued through the Depression and the late 1930s using unemployed relief work. Such labour also contributed to the forest infrastructure, providing fences, water bores, roads, fire look-out towers and a telephone line (van Kempen, 69). On 29 September 1937 17 forests comprising a total of 625,593 acres in the Pilliga were consolidated to create the Pilliga National Forest No 7 (van Kempen, 70; Curby and Humphreys, 25).
Following the First World War an attempt was made to settle farmers in the Pilliga. The Commonwealth Government required the opening of all available Crown lands within a distance of 15 miles from the railway route in the interests of returned soldiers. A railway line had been proposed between Coonabarabran and Burren Junction in 1913 which passed through the Pilliga. The railway reached Coonabarabran in 1917 and in anticipation of its extension to Gwabegar, 72 homestead farms near present-day Gwabegar and Kenebri were created in December 1919. The settlement failed and most returned soldiers walked off their land.
The railway line didn't reach Gwabegar until September 1923 (van Kempen, 55-58). While the attempted settlement of returned soldiers failed, the opening of the railway line to Gwabegar boosted the accessibility of the area for timber cutting, and a number of small, independent milling operations were set up in the forest.
In January 1935 the NSW Forestry Commission issued a 5-hectare Occupation Permit to the Underwood family at Wooleybah. The Underwood family had already operated two sawmills in the Euligal State Forest, near Narrabri (including one at Rocky Creek) in the 1920s, and in the early 1930s moved their milling operation to Wooleybah (Curby and Humphreys, 36). They bought with them milling equipment, including an English steam engine to power the mill which had previously been used in tin mines at Inverell (Tom Underwood, Nov 2002). A small forest sawmilling community developed around the mill.
At this time small sawmills were located in the bush so that timber could be milled near where it was logged because it was easier to transport milled timber than large logs. During the Second World War there were 14 cypress pine sawmills in the Pilliga (van Kempen, 97), many of which operated as 'portable' sawmills, opening and closing according to the location of the timber and relocating machinery as needed.
For the life of the mill the work force was comprised of 50% Aboriginal workers and 50% non-Aboriginal workers. The majority of workers and their families lived at the mill in small timber houses on the fringes of the clearing. The time spent at Wooleybah is remembered with fondness by those surviving today who have an association with the place. Robyn Rutley remembers going to Wooleybah when she was a child in the 1950's. "It was like a village. The Underwoods treated their workers like a family. They took them under their wing." "It was a comforting place." Oral History 2010. Patricia Madden (nee Kinchela) remembers Wooleybah from when she lived there as a young woman in the 1960's. She describes it as a "good place to work, there were never any fights, everyone wanted to be there." Mervin Donald (Don) Sutherland visted his uncles at Wooleybah when he was a child. His uncles families lived in houses at Wooleybah. Don, Pat and Robyn all remember playing in the forest as children. They describe the freedom they felt and the games building "bush humpies" and collecting bush tucker such as geebungs, five corners and quandongs. They also describe the difficulties faced by their parents and themselves in the community outside the Wooleybah and forest community. These difficulties centred around discriminatory practices such as segregation, difficulties in finding work and feeding their families and discrimination at school. These social problems were not experienced at Wooleybah where everyone was treated equally and there was a friendly happy atmosphere. The work force was united by a benevolent management and the need for team work in what was a dangerous and highly skilled industry. (Oral History 2010)
Since the 1920s cypress pine has been a major forest product in NSW and used in the construction of timber-frame housing (Curby and Humphreys, 16-17). The white cypress pine logged and milled at Wooleybah has been used primarily for domestic timber flooring.
The Underwood's continue to live at Wooleybah occupying one house whilst a retired mill worker lies in what is known as the Forester's house. One of the residences was at one time the schoolteacher's residence, and prior to that the Forestry foreman's residence where, Walter Cornwell, the first forest foreman resided. According to Curby and Humphreys, this is not the standard Forestry Commission foreman's house. This suggests that it may have already been on the site before the Forestry Commission was established in 1909. Before her marriage, Tom Underwood's mother Mary and her mother used to travel through Wooleybah on their way to Coonamble, and she recalled a house there in the early years of the twentieth century (Curby and Humphreys, page 36). According to Tom Underwood (Jan 2003), the water tank next to the house continues to be the property of the Forestry Commission.
Wooleybah School
The original school building was 'across the road', and provided tuition for about 9-12 children. In 1937 when the numbers of children of mill workers and surrounding families reached 20, an application for a provisional school was made. The NSW Department of Education approved the application at the end of 1937 and in September 1941 an Education Dept school building no longer needed at Talama was moved to Wooleybah (Curby and Humphreys, page 37).
Further forest regeneration (1950s)
Following improvements in transport in the post-war years, sawmills moved into the towns to be closer to the railway line and most of the small forest sawmilling communities were abandoned (Curby and Humphreys, page 36). Sites of other nearby sawmills include Ceelnoy and Wombo in Pilliga West State Forest, and Rocky Creek in the central Pilliga. Wooleybah sawmill and settlement survives as the last intact bush sawmill in the Pilliga State Forests.
In the 1950s, the Pilliga forests underwent a second major period of accelerated growth, similar to their expansion in the 1880s. Heavy rain in 1949 and the introduction of myxomatosis in the early 1950s to control rabbits permitted large numbers of tree seedlings to survive (van Kempen, page 98). By 1982 thinning of the nineteenth-century growth was completed, and harvesting of the 1950s growth began (van Kempen, page 98).
The 1960s to the present
According to Tom Underwood, the original steam engine was replaced with a new Robey steam engine in 1953-1954 (Nov 2002).
The mill at Wooleybah burnt down twice, in 1960 and 1962, and has been rebuilt. After the 1960 fire, steam power was replaced with a small diesel plant. After the 1962 fire, electricity was installed and connected in 1963 (Curby and Humphreys, page 38). Nothing from the 1930s mill structure remains, although the two old steam engines remain on site (Curby and Humphreys, page 38). The residences, accommodation huts and the school buildings survive from the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1965 the Underwood family bought a sawmill at Gwabegar and in 1968 another at Kenebri. The mill at Wooleybah was managed by Tom Underwood's uncle, Dan Casey while Tom Underwood managed the mill at Gwabegar. The mill at Wooleybah was closed when Dan Casey retired in c1988. It was later leased to Colin Head in c1993 before finally closing in the late 1990s (Curby and Humphreys, page 38-39; Dan Casey, Nov 2002).
The Wooleybah sawmill has been a major local employer within the local Aboriginal community, with many families living on site. According to Tom Underwood and his uncle, Dan Casey, the Wooleybah mill, from the 1930s to the 1990s, employed a large number of Aboriginal workers who lived on site with their families. Tom Underwood estimates that, on average at any time, half the employees were Aboriginal and, together with their families, largely comprised the live-in population. Generally, staff consisted of approximately 12 workers and their famillies: about 9 lived at Wooleybah settlement and 3 lived in the bush camps, cutting timber. Relations were consistently harmonious and Tom Underwood believes that the Wooleybah mill and settlement was the first time Aboriginals and white people worked together, making the mill historically and socially important to the local Pilliga, Gwabegar and Barradine communities (Tom Underwood, Novr 2002 and Jan 2003; Dan Casey, Nov 2002).
The Wooleybah School continued to operate until 1967. In the 1950s and 1960s Tom Underwood estimates that the school catered for up to 50 children. Numbers declined and by the time of its closure, it had only 12-20 children (Tom Underwood, Nov 2002).
Tom Underwood recalls that both Aboriginal and white children from the mill and surrounding rural properties attended the Wooleybah school. |