The Pentland Furniture Company

SUGAR GUM PLANTATIONS SHOW POTENTIAL

The winter winds howl across the open plains of Victoria's Western District.

The graziers of the Lismore-Derinallem district are mostly descended from hardy Scottish stock. And their own stock is known for being resilient in the face of biting cold.
The locals jokingly call this country the 'pleurisy plains'. The early settlers saw the scant natural tree cover and scarce permanent water supply as drawbacks and were initially slow to settle here.
It's staggering to think that annual tree plantings by some graziers in the 1870's would rival today's corporate woodlot companies in size. Plagues of hares chewed the seedlings or drought and dry winds killed many, but the pioneers persisted, re-planting and constantly evaluating the suitability of natives and exotic species.
Trees are Andrew Lang's passion. His encylopaedic local knowledge stems largely from what is perhaps his most prized possession. this extraordinary family heirloom, he calls the 'tree book.'
J.L Currie specified the species, the style of planting, and he detailed the costs and his successes and failures. Species like the African Boxthorn would emerge and persist a spiny pest. The Lang family tree journal also persisted with Andrew's father recording his tree planting activities in the 1980's.
Currie's foresight profoundly shaped the Western district landscape. His innovation provided graziers with invaluable shelter belts and woodlots.
His obsession with trees was aided by good wool prices and low labor costs, but his innovation and enterprise was also scientific. He imported sugar gum seed from South Australia, began to harvest seed from his own trees and by 1875 had developed a method of direct seeding eucalypt shelterbelts.
Sugar gum orginates from South Australian where it tolerates a wide range of poorer soils.
Neatly stacked beside a neighbouring plantation is some of the three and half thousand tonnes of firewood John Gatty will cut this winter.
Andrew Lang's quest is to encourage landholders and the woodgetters to turn a higher ratio of this timber into sawlogs. As firewood it sells for around $50 a cubic metre. As seasoned furniture timber it could bring $2,000.
A CSIRO study rated sugar gum to be in many ways superior to redgum and slowly perceptions are changing.
At Ballan near Ballarat, Nick Dear who crafts fine furniture from native timbers is a sugar gum convert.
Nick Dear believes consumers will increasingly demand plantation-grown timber furtniture instead of those sourced from native forests.
Faced with stiff competition from cheaper imports, this part-time bluegrass musician focusses on custom built, individual pieces.
Four of his employees are disabled, including Lonnie who is almost totally blind. His business philisophy, like his furniture is attracting many admirers.
Only a stone's throw away, the sugar gum's drought tolerance is making it a valuable environmental weapon.
Landholders in this area are receiving Federal Government funding of between $300 and $700 per hectare from the Regional Forest Agreement to establish sawlog plantations.
The wider challenge is how to attract farm forestry investment to the 70 per cent of Australia with hungry soils and low rainfall.
The hardiness and versatility of eucalyptus cladocalyx, puts at the forefront of future farm forestry plantings. With the help of the CSIRO genetic research future strains will grow, taller, straighter and quicker.
And changing perceptions of 'sugar gum' could involve a name change to something more endearing just as Tasmanian Oak is really Mountain Ash.
The early settlers planted some three thousand hectares of sugar gums. This humble, spindly eucalypt is being re-discovered and re-evaluated with renewed passion.

... from The Courier, Ballarat,
Saturday, June 15, 2002

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Ballan mannufacturer Pentland Furniture Company has been recognised with a prestigious award at the annual Equal Employment Opportunity Network Dinner.
The company was awarded the Leadership Award for most outstanding organisation with less than 100 empoloyees, for thier efforts in intergrating people with a disability into the workplace.
The company employs 11 people, 4 of whom have a disability.
One of the employees is also blind, but uses special equipment to cut timber to length.
Company director said that until two years ago, he had never thought of employing someone with a disability.
"I was approached by Highland Personnel, who said they were trying to place people with a disability in work so I thought about it &m decided to give it a go," he said. "It gives them an opportunity to work & they have been great. It's very hard to find a reliable skilled workforce its helped us out."

Highlands Personnel CEO Mel Werner said it was fantastic to see their commitment recognised.


	... from The Courier, Ballarat, Saturday, June 15, 2002 MAKING A DIFFERENCE Ballan mannufacturer Pentland Furniture Company has been recognised with a prestigious award at the annual Equal Employment Opportunity Network Dinner. The company was awarded the Leadership Award for most outstanding organisation with less than 100 empoloyees, for thier efforts in intergrating people with a disability into the workplace. The company employs 11 people, 4 of whom have a disability. One of the employees is also blind, but uses special equipment to cut timber to length. Company director said that until two years ago, he had never thought of employing someone with a disability. "I was approached by Highland Personnel, who said they were trying to place people with a disability in work so I thought about it &m decided to give it a go," he said. "It gives them an opportunity to work & they have been great. It's very hard to find a reliable skilled workforce its helped us out." Highlands Personnel CEO Mel Werner said it was fantastic to see their commitment recognised.
	... from The Courier, Ballarat, July, 2002 WINNING WAYS WITH WOOD An apprentice at Pentland Furniture, Ballan, has won WorldSkills Australia Regional Competition cabinet making award. As a third year apprentice Bill Blokland had to make a desktop lectern within eight hours of recieving the project. "At trade school in Ballarat I was given a drawing & had to work out the measurements of the cabinet & it had to be cut with hand tools," said Bill. "I didn't know what it was going to be a design of & it all had to be cut within half a millimetre. "They have a competition like this every 2 years & I was encouraged to enter it by my boss, because we do a lot of solid timber work in the factory & this was an opportunity to work with a lot of joins. "I really enjoyed doing it because it was something different & very relaxing, & not rushed." Bill recieved a medal & certificate & will go to tyhe Victorian competition in Melbourne. Pentland Furniture has also recently won an award for workplace diversity because it employs four disabled people.
	... from Treegrower Co-operatives Newsletter, Autumn 2002 Chairs made from SMARTimbers sugar gum: Ballarat AFG branch president Phil Kinghorn (on left) who is also a director of SMARTimbers, with Nick Dear, owner of Pentland Furniture, a furniture manufacturer that has entered a strategic alliance with SMARTimbers.
	to right... EXCELLENCE & LEADERSHIP AWARD. The most outstanding organisation nominated with less than 100 employees.