Comaum NFRs - ForestrySA

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Reserve previously known as Berkins takes its name from the Hd of Comaum and its
relative location to the settlement of the same name shown on the 1:50000 map.
Boolara NFR
Sections 243 and 245 were purchased from A.C. and K.M. Alcock in 1971 for $96 per
hectare and were gazetted as Forest Reserve on 2/11/72. This Reserve, formerly
called Alcocks, takes its name from the adjoining private property of the same name
with the Aboriginal meaning ‘ place with Ibis’ and is shown on the 1: 50000 map.
The majority of the area now reserved was described in the original survey diagram
in the late 1800s as ‘mostly white sand-hills and ferns, patches of good grassland,
timbered with Gum, Stringy-bark, Honeysuckle, Shea-oak and Wattles’. Following
purchase for forestry the cleared or partly cleared gum country was established to
pines and the less suitable stringy-bark and fern dunes which were considered only
suitable for Pinus pinaster at the time were retained in their existing state. These
areas were formally set aside for conservation purposes in line with departmental
policy initiated in 1970 to protect all significant areas of native vegetation.
3.2 Historical Impacts
3.2.1 Grazing
The majority of the area now reserved supports Brown stringybark over bracken and
heath type shrub and ground flora. There is and probably was very little palatable
grass or herbage to sustain domestic grazing animals. Apart from the former
headquarters house paddock recently added to Wombat Flat NFR (part Cpt. C) which
has been intensively grazed for over 40 years at time of writing, there has been
negligible modification of the native vegetation by domestic grazing animals since
purchase of these areas by ForestrySA.
3.2.2 Timber Production
Because these Reserves are relatively remote from the larger population centres and
the major industrial users of fuel wood in the 1940s and 1950s, and because the
surrounding districts had extensive natural stands of Red, Blue and Pink gum, the
Stringybark forest would not have been exploited intensively as it was on the ranges
south of Penola and Mt Burr.
Large quantities of Red and Blue gum log cut from land being cleared for pine
plantation establishment were sawn into sleepers and construction timber by private
mills operating in this area. Charcoal production in the 1940s and wattle bark
stripping in the 1950s would have had little impact on these Stringybark Reserves.
However there is anecdotal and physical evidence which suggests that some of the
better trees both gum and stringybark were cut from these areas to produce
construction timber, sleepers, strainers, posts, rails and firewood prior to 1962. The
former owner of Comaum NFR is said to have milled shed construction timber and
shearing shed floor grating from that Reserve.
Hardwood utilisation from Comaum Forest Reserve ceased in 1962. It is now difficult
to determine the impacts of this cutting other than to acknowledge a modification in
age and size due to the removal of large well formed trees.
Final Plan – August 2001