White beech

• Large tree grows to 40m high.
• Stem grow to 1.5m diameter.
• Trunk is straight, slender, usually circular in cross-section, often flanged at the base but not prominently buttressed.
• Bark is about 10mm thick, light grey to dark grey, rough, and scaly with the scales generally angular but occasionally rounded.

• Found in rainforests along the east coast of Australia.
• G. fasciculiflora and G. dalrympleana—Rockingham Bay, Innisfail area, through to Cape York and Torres Strait Islands; sawn timber is imported from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji.
• G. leichhardtii—Clyde River, New South Wales to K'gari (formerly Fraser Island), Queensland. Also further north on the Eungella Range and Mt Elliot (south of Townsville); sawn timber is not readily available.

Colour

• Heartwood is pale straw to light grey-brown.
• Sapwood and heartwood show no noticeable colour difference.

Grain

• Firm, close grain, slightly greasy wood.
• May have interlocking grain.
• No pronounced figure (pattern) or sheen except for a glistening effect on dressed surfaces due to tyloses in the vessel lines.

• Decorative: furniture, joinery, carving, turnery, picture frames; considered the premier carving timber in Queensland.
• Others: boat building (decking, planking); previously, used for draughtsperson´s implements, templates, pattern-making, cask bungs, brush stock, venetian blind slats, beehives; used in the early–mid 1900s in general building framing, flooring, lining, mouldings, joinery and cladding; but this use has been very infrequent for decades.

• Density: 515-545kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.8m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: G. fasciculiflora and G. leichhardtii—S6, G. dalrympleana—(S7) unseasoned, G. fasciculiflora—(SD6), G. leichhardtii—SD6, G. dalrympleana—(SD7) seasoned (brackets indicate provisional value).
• Stress grades: G. fasciculiflora and G. leichhardtii—F4, F5, F7, F8; G. dalrympleana—F4, F5, F7 (unseasoned); G. fasciculiflora, G. leichhardtii—F7, F8, F11, F14; G. dalrympleana—F5, F7, F8, F11 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: J4 unseasoned, JD4 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: G. leichhardtii—3.7% (tangential), 1.6% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: G. leichhardtii—0.26% (tangential), 0.15% (radial)—these values apply to timber reconditioned after seasoning.
• Durability above-ground: Class (1) (life expectancy over 40 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 1 (life expectancy over 25 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: Untreated sapwood susceptible to lyctine borer attack.
• Termite resistance: not resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative, but penetration of heartwood is negligible using available commercial processes.
• Seasoning: air seasons very slowly; requires mild schedules for satisfactory kiln drying.
• Hardness: soft (rated 5 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: machines well due to its slightly greasy nature.
• Fixing: due to natural acidity, use non-corrosive fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: satisfactorily bonds using standard procedures.
• Finishing: readily accepts stain, polish and paint.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: not distinctly different in colour from heartwood.
• Heartwood: pale straw to light grey-brown.
• Texture: medium to coarse, grain is often interlocked.

Wood structure

• Growth rings: absent.
• Vessels: medium, barely visible without a lens; many solitary but some in short radial multiples or groups of 2 or 3; distinct vessel lines; common tyloses; whitish deposits are common in vessels and sometimes in rays; sometimes visible without a lens on longitudinal surfaces.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): not visible under a lens.
• Rays: fine.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: gives a full, greyish-white to buff-coloured ash; burns with a crackling noise.
• Odour: freshly cut surfaces have a faint sour odour.
• Cutting: a sharp knife will cut across the grain with distinctive ease, leaving a very smooth surface with a soapy feel.

• 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.