Project story

From an article in the Friends' magazine The Gardens Winter 2010 by Leon Sadubin, Curator, Kauri Project, for Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Leon is a designer, furniture maker and sculptor living and working on the Illawarra Escarpment between Berry and Kangaroo Valley. Photos Leon Sadubin, Jaime Plaza, Alex Springall, Nick Statham, Richard Raffan.

We can all see for ourselves the damage the flying foxes have been causing to many of the trees in Sydney�s Royal Botanic Garden. So how can something good come out of this destruction? Leon Sadubin explains how the Kauri Project came about.

My favorite place in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney used to be the section where a stand of vast trees grew, with beautiful mottled bark and an understorey of palms. Any visit to the Garden inevitably led me past this grove.

It was only years later, as a budding woodworker with a passion for identifying trees, that I realised the beauty and diversity of the Araucariaceae family. By this time I was also aware of the quality of the wood hidden beneath the surface - its colour, grain, weight, durability and strength, as well as its working and finishing properties. The woodworkers� dilemma is recognising that a standing tree is fundamental to our survival. Its beauty and usefulness as a living entity is boundless. Yet once on the ground, either felled with intent or fallen naturally, it provides us with a durable, workable material with many uses. The beauty of the tree is also apparent in its wood.

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Hugh Springford with freshly sawn Kauri wood for the Project.

Transforming concept

Such was the situation in 2007, when Donna Osland of the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust�s Community Education Unit approached my wife Ginny Sadubin, one of the Garden's enthusiastic band of volunteer guides. Donna enquired whether I would be interested in doing something with the wood of a dead giant tree. She had been talking with the Garden's senior arborist, David Bidwell, about the damage done by the flying fox population. At this stage, the Palm Grove was in an extreme state of damage with many of the surrounding trees suffering dieback due to the roosting habit of the flying foxes. My response was that the wood was very useful, but also that some kind of project could be developed which highlighted the dire state of some of the heritage trees in the Garden. I had read about the Onetree project in the UK (1998-2001) where a 170-year-old oak in a woodland estate in Cheshire was felled and its timber distributed among woodworkers, who produced and exhibited many fine artifacts. The aim of that project was to underline the importance of supporting sustainable woodland forestry as well as woodcrafts.

Our tree was a 160-year-old Pacific or White Kauri (Agathis moorei), collected by Charles Moore the then Director of Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and named for him. It was planted in the same bed as a Queensland Kauri (Agathis robusta). However, unlike its even larger giant companion, it succumbed to the constant damage to its growing shoots by the flying foxes.

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The log being fed into bandsaw at Richard Parson�s timber mill.

Getting underway

A meeting with Botanic Gardens Trust Executive Director Tim Entwisle, and Domain and Royal Botanic Garden Director Mark Savio, got the Kauri Project underway. Support from Tim Jackson of the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust as well as Hugh Springford, Treasurer of the Friends of The Gardens, was instrumental in facilitating the early organisation of the project. Once the tree had been felled, it was necessary to organise the removal and sawing of the logs. The felling took place in October 2007. David Bidwell and his staff carefully removed the trunk in three sections, each falling exactly into allocated spaces between palms and other vegetation. The whole operation was carried out with great precision - not one surrounding tree or palm was damaged.

The three large logs were then lifted onto Richard Parson�s truck and conveyed to his sawmill near North Richmond. The sawing took place two months later, assisted by Kauri Project participants Terry Gleeson and Tracy Gumm, and some of her woodworking students, as well as Hugh Springford and myself. Using a bandsaw equal in stature to the logs, Richard sawed two of the logs in a configuration that gave us a great diversity of material with wide boards ranging from 12 mm to 50 mm thick and blocks 75 mm to 100 mm in thickness. The top log, which was full of large knots from the main branches, was sawn into larger sculpture blocks at a later date. All the material was stripped out with wooden �stickers� so that each plank could sit in a stack and air-dry. This process took 18 months. In July 2009 Richard returned to Royal Botanic Garden Sydney with a load of dry kauri wood, which was duly unloaded and carefully stripped out inside a storage container near the Domain works depot.

Selecting the wood artists

While the timber was drying I undertook the task of selecting and inviting some 30 woodworkers whose work represented a wide cross-section of the craft. Some works will be contemporary, and others will be inspired by more traditional usage of kauri wood. The wood artists include:

Russell Beardmore	Boxes
Fred Blake	Sculpture, pierced carving & turned bowls
George Buchanan	Sculpture
Mark Bugden	Aztec drums & Kalimbas
Richard Crosland	Planter tubs
Enrique Esquivel	Mantle clock
Terry Gleeson	Library steps & Butlers tray
Minky Grant	Jewellery
Rew Hanks	Wood cut block and prints of Charles Moore
Peter Hayes	Chair, Writing table, Rolling pin, Tray, Spoons & Bowl
Tony Kenway	Armchair
Gayl Leake	Table & Cheeseboard
Thirston Morris	Sculptured table
David Muston	Coffee tables
Hedley Neil	Sculptures
Takashi Nishiura	Sculpture & Music boxes
Garry Olson	Blanket chest
Richard Parsons	Sailors chest
Alan Perry	Palm stands, Picture frame, Arnotts chair & Candle stands
Richard Raffan	Turned bowls
Ginny Sadubin	Trugs & Bird sticks
Leon Sadubin	Mirrors and Small items
Simon Sadubin	8ft Clinker dinghy
Alex Springall	Boxes
Hugh Springford	Hall Table & Breadboards
Nick Statham	Sculptures
Christian Timbs	Large dining table & Childrens chairs
Grant Vaughan	Sculptured mirror
Warwick Wright	Hall table

Increasing awareness

We are very fortunate to have Garry Olson from the UK working with us. Garry was one of the two organisers of the innovative Onetree project. I asked him whether he would consider participating in our project and he was delighted to accept. In February this year he swapped the chilly weather in the UK for a dose of heat and humidity and came to stay with us. During his visit he produced a fine blanket chest in our workshop.

The aim of the Kauri Project is to publicise the demise of our Pacific Kauri and at least celebrate the life of this heritage tree by producing beautiful and meaningful artifacts from its wood. We hope to raise funds through the sale of the items, and this money will be used to rehabilitate the Palm Grove and hopefully grow some more kauris to replace the damaged and dead trees. All the kauri pieces, except for the very small items, will be inlaid with a round medallion commemorating the magnificent tree and the project it has inspired.

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