Hauling logs, Karridale Timber Station, Western Australia

Abstract

Photograph with a forest backdrop of a train loaded with logs in the foreground. A number of men stand on and alongside the train. Painted on the engine side panel is: M. C. DAVIES CO LTD., and below the funnel: KATE. Written on the cross section of the foremost log is: 156 (6 underlined)/ x/ 208 (8 underlined) girth. The trees are probably eucalyptus diversicolor, known as karri. Maurice Coleman Davies, who established a sawmill in the area in 1884 named it Karridale after the virgin karri forest in the area. In its heyday, the timber station town was populated with 300 timber workers and their families and had a school and a hospital. The town declined when the sawmill closed in 1913 and in 1961 a fire destroyed most of the remaining buildings.