Carbeen
Scientific name
Corymbia tessellaris. Family: Myrtaceae
Other names
Moreton Bay ash; Carbeen bloodwood
Description
- Medium to large tree.
- Grows 15–30m high and to 1.0m diameter.
- Long narrow pendulous leaves (distinguishing feature).
- Basal stocking of grey tessellated bark to 1–4m high, which then changes to smooth greyish or white bark.
Occurrence
- Carbeen occurs from far northern New South Wales throughout most of eastern Queensland, extending to the northern-most tip of Cape York Peninsula.
Appearance
Colour
- Heartwood brown to dark chocolate brown.
- Sapwood distinctively paler light brown, or pinkish yellow.
Grain
- Texture is moderately coarse and variable.
- Wavy grain can produce an attractive fiddleback figure (pattern).
Uses
Engineering
- Wharf and bridge construction.
- Mining timber.
- Railway sleepers.
- Piles.
- Cross-arms.
Construction
- Unseasoned timber:
- General house framing
- Seasoned dressed timber:
- Cladding.
- Internal and external flooring.
- Lining and joinery.
- Fencing.
- Landscaping.
- Retaining walls.
Decorative
- Outdoor furniture.
- Turnery.
- Joinery.
Others
- Coach, vehicle and carriage building.
- Agricultural machinery.
- Mallet heads,
- Mauls.
Properties
- Density: 1040kg/m3 at 12% moisture content; about 1.0m3 of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
- Strength groups: (S1) unseasoned, (SD1) seasoned.
- Stress grades: F14, F17, F22, F27 (unseasoned); F22, F27, F34 (seasoned) when visually stress graded according to AS 2082—2000, Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
- Joint groups: J1 unseasoned, JD1 seasoned.
- Shrinkage to 12% MC: 3.4% (tangential), 3.0% (radial).
- Unit shrinkage: not available.
- Durability above-ground: Class 1 (life expectancy more than 40 years).
- Durability in-ground: Class 1 (life expectancy more than 25 years).
- Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood susceptible to lyctine borer attack.
- Termite resistance: resistant.
- Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative.
- Seasoning: satisfactorily dries using conventional air and kiln seasoning.
- Hardness: very hard (class 1 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
- Machining: machines and dresses well due to its natural greasiness.
- Fixing: no difficulty using standard fittings and fastenings.
- Gluing: as with most high-density species, machine and prepare the surface immediately before gluing.
- Finishing: readily accepts paint, stains and polish.
Identification features
General characteristics
- Sapwood: light brown and distinct from heartwood.
- Heartwood: brown to dark brown.
- Texture: open, often with interlocked grain; slightly greasy to touch.
Wood structure
- Vessels: medium to small, solitary and radial chains common; vessel lines conspicuous on dressed surfaces: abundant tyloses.
- Parenchyma (soft tissue): very abundant, tend to form zonate bands.
- Rays: medium, just visible to the naked eye.
Other features
- Burning splinter test: match-sized splinter will burn to a complete ash, white to buff in colour.
Research and resources
- Boland, DJ, Brooker, MIH, Chippendale, GM, Hall, N, Hyland, BPM, Johnston, RD, Kleinig, DA and Turner, JD 2006, Forest trees of Australia, 5th ed., 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.