Final Report
by
J.W. Turnbull
Forestry and Timber Bureau, Canberra
ACT 2600, Australia
The carry over of funds from the 1970–71 FAO allocation enabled the collection programme to continue in 1972 without interruption and the first trip was made in March 1972 to the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.
Rising salaries and travelling costs during the period under review have resulted in a significant erosion in the value of the FAO funds. Recent revaluations of the Australian dollar will further reduce the funds available for seed collection unless there is an increase in the total allocation. Since the Bureau received the first grant of US$ 10 000 in 1966 the value of this amount of money has been approximately halved.
FAO funds have been used to finance the costs of travel and travel allowances for the participants of collection expeditions. Other expenses including salaries have been met from Forestry and Timber Bureau funds. In the period 1972–73 the funds have been used to purchase seed from a State Forest Service and to pay the salary of an additional professional officer for a short period of seed collecting.
The seed collection work has been concentrated in tropical and sub-tropical regions. This is because the demand for seed for research from these regions has been extremely heavy and the fact that the lack of settlement and absence of forestry operations in these areas have resulted in seeds being largely unobtainable except by special expeditions.
The majority of the seed collections have been carried out by the Seed Section of the Forest Research Institute. The collections have generally been most successful; the total quantity of Eucalyptus seed obtained on FAO trips was 166 kg (366 lb) and in addition there have been small amounts of Acacia spp, Gasuarina spp. etc. The Forest Research Institute sent expeditions to the Blue Mountains (New South Wales); the Kimberley area (Western Australia); areas of the Northern Territory including the Tanami and Simpson deserts; Lake Albacutya (Victoria); Southern Queensland; the Northern Tablelands (New South Wales); Eyre Peninsula (South Australia); the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York (Queensland).
Blue Mountains (NSW)
This trip was successful in obtaining provenances of E. sieberi, E. oreades and *E. deanei. Smaller collections were obtained of E. bauerlenii, E. blaxlandii, E. gregsoniana, E. ligustrina, E. moorei, E. ovata, E. pulverulenta, E. quadrangulata, E. squamosa and E. stricta. In addition, seeds of two recently described species, E. dendromorpha and E. rupicola were obtained.
Kimberly (W.A.) and Northern Territory
The results of this expendition were described in detail in Forest Genetic Resources Information Nbr. 1 (FAO Forestry Occasional Paper 1973/1). The most important outcome was the collection of the wide range of *E. camaldulensis provenances. A total of 54 kg of seed was obtained of which 48 kg was E. camaldulensis covering 25 provenances.
Other species collected were E. alba, E. brevifolia, E. gillii, E. jensenii, E. morrisii, *E. miniata, E. odontacarpa, *E. pruinosa, E. ptychocarpa, E. sessilis, E. trivalvis, *E. microtheca, E. argillacea, E. confluens, *E. gamophylla, E. lirata, E. mannensis, E. normantonensis, E. pachyphylla, E. patellaris, E. socialis, E. setosa, E. umbrawarrensis, *Acacia peuce, *Casuarina decaisneana and Erythrina vespertilio.
Lake Albacutya (Victoria)
The outstanding performance of the Lake Albacutya provenance of E. camaldulensis in several provenance trials in the Mediterranean area has resulted in a demand for additional collections to widen the genetic base from which to select seed orchard material. The collection of 18 kg of seed from Lake Albacutya and the nearby Lake Coorong in western Victoria was very valuable.
Southern Queensland
A field trip lasting approximately three weeks was made to the Brisbane-Gympie area of South Queensland. 26 kg of seed of *E. grandis (4 provenances), *E. cloeziana (2), E. acmenioides (1), *E. saligna (1) and E. pilularis (1) was obtained despite some difficult weather conditions.
Northern Tablelands (NSW) and Queensland
12 kg of seed was obtained in the Gympie and Dalby areas of southern Queensland, and the Tenterfield -Glen Innes- Armidale region of New South Wales. A hot spell of weather immediately prior to the arrival of the party in Gympie resulted in most of the *E. tereticornis shedding its seed, however, some seed of this species was collected at Gympie and near Dalby. Seeds were also obtained from E. malacoxylon, and E. umbra spp. umbra.
Eyre Peninsula (South Australia)
The trip to Eyre Peninsula had the principal objective of collecting *E. camaldulensis from limestone sites in the Port Lincoln area. Collections were made at Wanilla (4.6 kg) and Mt Wedge (118g). Interesting collections of outlying populations of E. leucoxylon were also made on Eyre Peninsula.
Gulf of Carpentaria (Queensland)
The “Centre Technique Forestier Tropical” joined the Forest Research Institute in this trip. The main objective was to obtain provenances of *E. camaldulensis and *E. tereticornis. An effort was made to obtain a substantial supply of seed of the Petford provenance of E. camaldulensis, a very poor seed crop thwarted this but 511 g of seed was collected from seven trees. A small seed collection was also made of E. tereticornis from the Mt. Garnet area.
Thirteen provenances of E. camaldulensis totalling 16 kg of seed were obtained, other species were *E. tereticornis, *E. citriodora, E. leptophleba, E. orgadophila, E. microneura, E. cullenii and E. normantonenis.
Cape York (Queensland)
The collection of provenances of *E. ‘brassiana’ and *E. tereticornis was the main aim of this trip. Six provenances of E. ‘brassiana’ (10.6 kg) and four provenances of E. tereticornis (13.3 kg) were secured. The E. tereticornis from the Cooktown area were of particularly good form for this species.
The other species collected were E. pellita, E. resinifera, E. staigerana, E. leptophleba, *E. cloeziana. Small research samples were also obtained from E. gilbertensis, E. argillacea, E. intermedia, E. drepanophylla, E. howittiana, E. whitei, E. similis, E. shirleyi, E. peltata and *Callitris intratropica.
At the request of FAO, seeds of Toona ciliata var. australis were purchased from the Queensland Department of Forestry for use in Costa Rica by the project studying Hypsipyla borers in red cedar.
The demand for high quality seed of eucalypts and other Australian tree species has continued to increase. In 1972 the Seed Section of the Forest Research Institute serviced over 300 requests for seed, involving 3112 separate samples. Many of the requests were for seed collected with the assistance of FAO funds and during 1972–73 UNDP projects made increasing use of the service. Seeds of over 300 species were forwarded to 69 countries.
