Grey gum

• Grows to 40m high and 1m diameter.
• Form is generally good on better sites with a straight bole (trunk) extending for half or two-thirds the tree's height.
• Bark decorticates (sheds) in large irregular patches exposing a cream to bright-orange surface, which weathers to grey or grey-brown.

• Varieties of grey gum occur along the east coast of Australia from Wyong, New South Wales, to Maryborough and inland to the Carnarvon Ranges and Blackdown Tablelands in Queensland.

Colour

• Heartwood is red to red-brown.
• Sapwood is distinctly paler.

Grain

• Grain usually interlocked, with coarse but even texture.
• Occasionally marked by grub holes.

• Engineering: railway sleepers, landscaping sleepers, cross-arms, poles, piles, mining timbers.
• Construction: framing, flooring, retaining walls.
• Others: boat building, butcher's blocks.

• Density: 1055kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.0m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: S1 unseasoned, (SD2) seasoned.
• Stress grades: F14, F17, F22, F27 (unseasoned); F17, F22, F27, F34 (seasoned) when visually stress graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded hardwood for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: J1 unseasoned, JD1 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: 7.0% (tangential), 4.5% (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: sapwood not susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
• Termite resistance: resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood readily accepts preservative.
• Seasoning: slow to dry, but little degrade occurs.
• Hardness: very hard (rated 1 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: machines well, however, be careful with interlocked grain.
• Fixing: no difficulties with using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: as with most high-density species, machine and prepare surface immediately before gluing.
• Finishing: readily accepts paint, stain and polish.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: pale, reddish brown distinguishable from heartwood.
• Heartwood: reddish brown to red.
• Texture: medium to coarse, interlocked grain.

Wood structure

• Vessels: small, solitary, uniform distribution; vessel lines prominent in some specimens of darker colour; abundant tyloses.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): not visible with lens.
• Rays: fine.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: match-size splinter burns to charcoal leaving no ash.

• 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.