Moreton Bay ash; Carbeen bloodwood

• Medium to large tree.
• Grows 15–30m high and to 1.0m diameter.
• Long narrow pendulous leaves (distinguishing feature).
• Basal stocking of grey tessellated bark to 1–4m high, which then changes to smooth greyish or white bark.

• Carbeen occurs from far northern New South Wales throughout most of eastern Queensland, extending to the northern-most tip of Cape York Peninsula.

Colour

• Heartwood brown to dark chocolate brown.
• Sapwood distinctively paler light brown, or pinkish yellow.

Grain

• Texture is moderately coarse and variable.
• Wavy grain can produce an attractive fiddleback figure (pattern).

Engineering

• Wharf and bridge construction.
• Mining timber.
• Railway sleepers.
• Piles.
• Cross-arms.

Construction

• Unseasoned timber:
  • General house framing
• Seasoned dressed timber:
  • Cladding.
  • Internal and external flooring.
  • Lining and joinery.
  • Fencing.
  • Landscaping.
  • Retaining walls.

Decorative

• Outdoor furniture.
• Turnery.
• Joinery.

Others

• Coach, vehicle and carriage building.
• Agricultural machinery.
• Mallet heads,
• Mauls.

• Density: 1040kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.0m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: (S1) unseasoned, (SD1) seasoned.
• Stress grades: F14, F17, F22, F27 (unseasoned); F22, F27, F34 (seasoned) when visually stress graded according to AS 2082—2000, Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: J1 unseasoned, JD1 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: 3.4% (tangential), 3.0% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: not available.
• Durability above-ground: Class 1 (life expectancy more than 40 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 1 (life expectancy more than 25 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood susceptible to lyctine borer attack.
• Termite resistance: resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative.
• Seasoning: satisfactorily dries using conventional air and kiln seasoning.
• Hardness: very hard (class 1 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: machines and dresses well due to its natural greasiness.
• Fixing: no difficulty using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: as with most high-density species, machine and prepare the surface immediately before gluing.
• Finishing: readily accepts paint, stains and polish.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: light brown and distinct from heartwood.
• Heartwood: brown to dark brown.
• Texture: open, often with interlocked grain; slightly greasy to touch.

Wood structure

• Vessels: medium to small, solitary and radial chains common; vessel lines conspicuous on dressed surfaces: abundant tyloses.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): very abundant, tend to form zonate bands.
• Rays: medium, just visible to the naked eye.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: match-sized splinter will burn to a complete ash, white to buff in colour.

• 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.