Blush alder

• Tall slender tree grows to 30m high.
• Stem diameter up to 1m.
• Trunk is often irregular, crooked, and buttressed at the base.
• Bark is about 6mm thick, rough, scaly and brown.

• Widely distributed throughout the coastal rainforests of the Illawarra district, New South Wales to the Atherton Tableland, North Queensland.

Colour

• Heartwood usually pink to reddish-brown.
• Sapwood is distinctly lighter.

Grain

• Close and even textured. No obvious figure (pattern) but when dressed, surfaces have a silky sheen.

Construction

• Unseasoned sawn timber for general house framing.
• Dressed seasoned flooring, lining, mouldings and joinery.

Decorative

• Furniture.
• Plywood.
• Shop.
• Office fixtures.
• Joinery.
• Turnery.
• Carving.
• Picture frames.

Others

• Light boat building.
• Brush stock.
• Broom handles.

• Density: 625kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.6m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: S5 unseasoned, SD6 seasoned.
• Stress grades: F5, F7, F8, F11, (unseasoned) F7, F8, F11, F14 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: JD3 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: 5.0% (tangential), 2.5% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: not available.
• Durability above-ground: Class 4 (life expectancy less than 7 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 4 (life expectancy less than 5 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood susceptible to lyctine borer attack.
• Termite resistance: resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood easily impregnates with preservatives but penetration of heartwood is negligible using available commercial processes.
• Seasoning: dries satisfactorily using conventional air and kiln seasoning methods.
• Hardness: firm (rated 4 on a 6-class scale) to indents and working with hand tools.
• Machining: machines, and turns well, to a smooth surface.
• Fixing: no difficulty in using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: bonds satisfactorily using standard procedures.
• Finishing: readily accept stain, polish and paint.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: lighter colour than heartwood.
• Heartwood: pink to red-brown.
• Texture: fine and uniform, grain is occasionally interlocked.

Wood structure

• Growth rings: absent.
• Vessels: numerous, very small, indistinct without a lens, solitary and in radial groups of less than 4; without tyloses and deposits.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): not visible under a lens.
• Rays: 2 kinds—large (visible without a lens) and fine (difficult to see even with a hand lens).
• Other features: burning.

• Boland, DJ, Brooker, MIH, Chippendale, GM, Hall, N, Hyland, BPM, Johnston, RD, Kleinig, DA and Turner, JD 2006, Forest trees of Australia, 5th edn, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
• Bootle, K 2005, Wood in Australia: Types, properties and uses, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
• Ilic, J 1991, CSIRO atlas of hardwoods, Crawford House Press, Bathurst, Australia.
• Queensland Government, DAF 2018, Construction timbers in Queensland: properties and specifications for satisfactory performance of construction timbers in Queensland. Class 1 and Class 10 buildings, Books 1 & 2, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Brisbane.
• Standards Australia, 2000, AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes, Standards Australia International, Strathfield, NSW.