Tasmanian oak
This story was told to me by a guy on the Spirit, he just decided to tell me out of the blue.
He wondered why he hadn’t seen and Tasmanian Oak trees on his trip to Tas. He was at a forestry interpretation centre and they had displays of what certain trees looked like and also what certain woods looked like. He asked the staff why there was a wood sample of Tas Oak and no picture of its tree. The girls didn’t know so they asked their boss, he came out and asked the man to sit down as he told him a tale.
Back in the olden days when ships were the only way of getting from here to there, a man from
“What wood is this?” asked the barrel buying guy (let’s call him Esquire).
“Swamp Gum” replied the ex-con (let’s call him Simon)
“That’s no good, I need Oak barrels” said Esquire and left Simon with all his barrels.
The next year Esquire was in town again and Simon approached him.
“Do you want some barrels? I have 200 made out of Tasmanian Oak” Simon asked Esquire
“Let’s have a look at them then” Esquire said.
They inspected the barrels and Esquire was happy and bought all 200 of them. And for years after Tasmanian Oak barrels were bought by those poms.
So, Tasmanian Oak is actually any one of 12 Tasmanian gum trees.
IS it true? I don’t know, but I like the story.
I am in Sydney now for a couple of days, being put up by the lovely Cecilia and Leigh, i had my first Sydney driving experiance too, only involved about 10 rude people trying to cut me off in the kilometer i had to drive from the boat. I especially liked the truck that indicated and just went for it.. nearly very spectacular.
I’m going to see a South African drag act tonight, apparetly the Dame Edna of Africa, may also see Arj Barker. Or i could go to Newtown and catch up with Charlie Pickering and watch a band made up of ex members of Men at Work. The drag act is in walking distance, so that might win out this time, plus i have an access all areas pass so i won’t have to pay.
There will be more news soon, as i embark on my first trip to Canberra in 15 years with Justin Heazlewood the Bedroom Philosopher, i might give him the map and see if he gets it right. So from Canberra we head to Melbourne where i will be living and working as part of the comedy festival. So, i hope this blog will keep updated… but i know i will be almost dead within 2 weeks.
