Red eungella gum; white eungella gum; watergum (both)

• Grows large in North Queensland.
• Trunk moderately buttressed.
• Bark is flaky on both species.

• Occurs in highland areas from Proserpine to Cooktown, including the Eungella Range.

Colour

• Red eungella satinash (RES) heartwood is pink to red-brown.
• White eungella satinash (WES) heartwood is pale grey to yellow-brown.
• Sapwood is greyish yellow.

Grain

• Generally straight, short and open.
• Often moderately wavy.

• Construction: structural building framing, flooring, plywood.
• Decorative: flooring, panelling.
• Others: turnery.

• Density: red eungella satinash is 785kg/m³ and white eungella satinash is 755kg/m³ at 12% moisture content; about 1.3m³ of seasoned sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: red—(S4) unseasoned, (SD5) seasoned; white—S4 unseasoned, SD5 seasoned.
• Stress grades: F7, F8, F11, F14 (unseasoned); F8, F11, F14, F17 (seasoned) when visually stress graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: red—JD2 seasoned; white—J3 unseasoned, JD2 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: not available.
• Unit shrinkage: not available.
• Durability above-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 7—15 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 5—15 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
• Termite resistance: not resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood readily impregnates with preservative.
• Seasoning: slow to dry, be careful seasoning to avoid checking.
• Hardness: moderately hard (rated 3 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: hard to work.
• Fixing: no difficulties using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: glues well.
• Finishing: readily accepts paint, stain and polish.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: greyish yellow.
• Heartwood: red-brown (RES) and yellow-brown (WES).
• Texture: fine to medium and uniform; grain slightly interlocked.

Wood structure

• Vessels: small to medium, very numerous, but more so in WES; solitary and short radial multiples; vessels lines not obvious; both often show whitish vessel deposits.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): difficulty to see under lens.
• Rays: barely visible to the naked eye, and tends towards 2 distinct widths.

Other features

• • Burning splinter test: match-size splinter from both timbers will burn with some crackling to leave a charcoal tip and black non-adherent ash.

Note: both timbers differ only 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.