Acacia Species Elimination Trial in Kowen Forest
This trial is located about 500 m due east of the junction of Sutton Road and Pialligo Avenue on Canberra's eastern outskirts. Access is available from Sutton Road, but permission is required from Parks Conservation and Lands, Dept. of Territory and Municipal Services, ACT Government.
It was established by CSIRO and ACT Forests in 1994 as part of a wider experiment to identify and characterise temperate Australian acacias with potential for soil amelioration and commercial planting in Australia, Vietnam and China. The trial at Kowen forest was focussed on identifying suitable species for firewood plantations to supply the Canberra market. A similar trial established at Uriarra, west of Canberra, was destroyed in the 2003 bushfires.
Seeds of 25 Acacia species were selected at eastern Australian sites ranging from Gladstone in Queensland to Tasmania, as well as from NSW and Victoria. Seedlings for planting in the trial were produced at Yarralumla. Click here <PDF > for a list of species provenances, and here <PDF > for a plan of the trial.
A paper by S. D. Searle and J. V. Owen entitled "Variation in basic wood density and percentage heartwood in temperate Australian Acacia species", (Australian Forestry 2003, Vol. 68 pp. 126-136) documents and discusses the results of this trial, with particular reference to the basic density and heartwood percentage of the various species.