Silvertop; coast ash; ironbark (Tasmania)

• Tall tree growing to 45m high.
• Bark covering the trunk is hard and deeply furrowed, contrasting with smooth-barked branches.
• Bark is dark grey to black.

• Occurs in the tablelands, central coastal and south coastal New South Wales.
• Occurs in eastern Victoria and the coastal Gippsland districts.
• Occurs in the north-eastern corner of Tasmania.

Colour

• Heartwood is pale brown, sometimes with a pink tinge.
• Sapwood is narrow and indistinguishable.
• Pinhole borer commonly discolours.

Grain

• Grain is often interlocked.
• Texture is medium

• Construction: general construction, flooring, panelling.
• Decorative: steam bending, outdoor furniture.
• Others: woodchip for paper production, shingles.

• Density: 820kg/m³ per at 12% moisture content; about 1.2m³ of seasoned, sawn timber per tonne.
• Strength groups: S3 unseasoned, SD3 seasoned.
• Stress grades: F8, F11, F14, F17 (unseasoned); F14, F17, F22, F27 (seasoned) when visually stress-graded according to AS 2082—2000: Timber—Hardwood—Visually stress-graded for structural purposes.
• Joint groups: J2 unseasoned, JD2 seasoned.
• Shrinkage to 12% MC: about 10% (tangential), 6% (radial).
• Unit shrinkage: not available.
• Durability above-ground: Class 2 (life expectancy 15–40 years).
• Durability in-ground: Class 3 (life expectancy 5–15 years).
• Lyctine susceptibility: untreated sapwood is not susceptible to lyctid borer attack.
• Termite resistance: not resistant.
• Preservation: sapwood will impregnate with preservative.
• Seasoning: more difficult to season without degrade than the Tasmanian oaks, and dries slower; collapse is significant and reconditioning is desirable.
• Hardness: hard (rated 2 on a 6-class scale) to indent and work with hand tools.
• Machining: machines well.
• Fixing: no difficulty using standard fittings and fastenings.
• Gluing: satisfactorily bonds using standard procedures.
• Finishing: readily accepts paint, stain and polish.

General characteristics

• Sapwood: light brown, and not distinct from the heartwood.
• Heartwood: pale brown with occasional gum veins and/or flecks, sometimes with pink tints.
• Texture: moderately open, growth rings may be visible, grain may be interlocked.

Wood structure

• Vessels: medium to small, solitary, tyloses, obvious vessel lines.
• Parenchyma (soft tissue): not visible with hand lens.
• Rays: fine, visible as a darker fleck on radial surfaces.

Other features

• Burning splinter test: match-size splinter burns to charcoal with no ash.

• Boland, DJ, Brooker, MIH, Chippendale, GM, Hall, N, Hyland, BPM, Johnston, RD, Kleinig, DA and Turner, JD 2006, Forest Trees of Australia, 5^th 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, Bathust, 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, Australian Standard International, Strathfield, NSW.