Western white gum

• Medium to tall tree, growing to 40m high.
• Stem grows to 1m diameter.
• Naturally occurring trees have good form with stems clear of branches for at least half the tree height.
• Smooth ('gum') bark, often with a stocking  of removed bark to 1m from ground level.

• Limited natural occurrence, restricted to 600km² near Chinchilla in southern Queensland.
• Classified as 'vulnerable' (Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992) which restricts harvesting or clearing of naturally occurring trees.

Colour

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

Grain

• Fine to medium texture.
• Grain varies from straight to interlocking.

• Engineering applications: poles, piles, railway sleepers, wharf and bridge construction.
• Construction: general house framing, flooring, decking, lining, cladding, fencing, landscaping and retaining walls.
• Decorative: furniture and cabinetry, turning.

• Air dry density: natural-grown—1055kg/m³ (mature); plantation-grown—1005kg/m³ (32-year-old), 860kg/m³ (10-year-old).
• Basic density: natural-grown—855 kg/m³ (mature); plantation-grown—840kg/m³ (32-year-old), 725kg/m³ (10-year-old).
• Strength groups: natural-grown, mature—unseasoned (S2), seasoned (SD3); full rotation plantation-grown—unseasoned (S3) (brackets indicate provisional value).
• Stress grades: natural-grown, mature—F11, F14, F17, F22 (unseasoned); F14, F17, F22, F27 (seasoned); full rotation plantation-grown—F8, F11, F14, F17, when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: JD1 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: natural-grown, mature—4.9% (tangential), 2.8% (radial); plantation-grown, 32-year-old—3.7% (tangential), 2.5% (radial); 10-year-old—3.8% (tangential), 2.1% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: natural-grown, mature—0.4% (tangential), 0.3% (radial); plantation-grown timber, 32-year-old—-0.33% (tangential), 0.29% (radial); 10-year-old—0.23% (tangential), 0.19% (radial).
• Durability: natural-grown, mature—anecdotal evidence supports a rating in the highest category (Class 1 on a 4-class scale); plantation-grown—accelerated durability bioassay trials also rate as Class 1; based on this work, western white gum is highly resistant to decay in ground contact or in persistently damp or poorly ventilated situations.
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood is susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
• Termite resistance: not resistant.
• Preservation: no information is available for treating.
• Seasoning: air-dry or dry with a combined air-plus kiln-drying process. As with most high-density eucalypts, some checking will occur through heartwood and associated with knots. A combined air- and kiln-drying experiment successfully dried green (40% moisture content) 25mm boards (32-year-old plantation-grown). Total drying time, including an equalisation phase, was less than 20 days and resulted in very little degrade.
• Hardness: mature, natural-grown and plantation-grown wood is rated very hard (1 on a 6-class scale), and thinnings material (10-year-old) is rated hard (2 on the same scale) to indent and work with hand tools. Janka hardness (seasoned)—10-year-old is 10.6kN, 33-year-old is 14.4kN.
• Machining: straight-grain machines well and achieves a fine finish; some chipping out will occur with interlocking grain.
• Fixing: no difficulties using standard fasteners and fittings.
• Gluing: as with most high-density hardwoods with high extractives content, machine and prepare surface immediately before gluing.
• Finishing: readily accepts stains, paints and polish.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: whitish and distinct from heartwood; forms about 20% of the cross-sectional area in full-rotation aged material, and 35% of the cross-sectional area of 10-year-old thinnings material.
• Heartwood: orange-brown to deep reddish brown.
• Texture: fine to medium texture; grain varies from straight to interlocking; lacks figure (pattern) except around knots.

Wood structure

• Vessels: small, solitary with tyloses.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): thin layer surrounding vessels.
• Rays: fine, not visible to the naked eye.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: charcoal.

• 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.