THE IFEAT MEDAL LECTURE:

A personal OdysseyPerhaps, at this point, I should say something of my role in the industry. I spent 15 years with thePlaimar group, and learnt a lot. But one message that came through strongly was if Australia was notto be pushed out of eucalyptus and other essential oils, it had to mechanise production and this, in turn,meant we had to establish plantations.I advocated the purchase of land, the development of plantations and mechanisation of harvesting anddistilling. However, Plaimar’s founder, H.V. Marr died in 1960 and the parent company were notinterested and indeed, to emphasise their disapproval of my ideas, I was sacked in 1964.My wife, Sybil, and I immediately started ourown business in the production, processing andmarketing of essential oils. Seven years later,when we were reasonably well established, webought a property at West Wyalong on thewestern plains of NSW with good natural standsof E. polybractea, so once again we could take upthe challenge of plantations and mechanisation.Immediately on taking possession of the propertywe established trial plots to determine the idealconditions for growing E. polybractea trees.From our trial plots, which eventually coveredabout 5 hectares, we obtained the requiredknowledge over a period of 10 years, to enable usto establish large-scale plantations. Thisdevelopment work included: site selection, soilpreparation, nursery techniques, layout ofplantations, planting technique, time of planting,density of planting, control of weeds, insects anderosion, method of harvesting, frequency ofharvesting and post harvesting treatment.Consequently, we have been able to plantsuccessfully several million trees, and thisprogram continues today, but with the addedadvantage that all trees now grown and plantedare from the superior quality stock we havedeveloped.Sybil in a wild stand of E. polybracteaE. polybractea seedling nurseryand (below) semi-mechanised plantingPlantations have advantages over natural stands.In particular, pure stands with a high density ofselected high oil yielding trees increases the yieldand makes harvesting easier with less strain onequipment. Moreover, proximity to the distilleryreduces transport distance and therefore time andcost. It also allows for easier weed and pestcontrol and, in the case of tea tree on our place,allows for irrigation in most years.112

further research finds an oil of exceptional value in Western Province of PNG, the best one can hopefor is that a small cottage industry will be of some value to the people involved in the project in this, inplaces, very lovely part of the world.Distillation Manual issued in Papua New Guinea119