Charles Edward Lane Poole (1885 - 1970)
- Forester
Introduction:
"Arguably Australia’s most famous forester, Charles Lane
Poole introduced systematic, science-based forestry to Western
Australia and made the first thorough inspection of Papua and New
Guinea forests. He was the Commonwealth’s first Inspector-General of
Forests and trained many of Australia’s professional foresters at
the Australian Forestry School in Canberra."
(Source:
Australian National Herbarium: Charles Edward
Lane Poole (1885 - 1970))
"Charles Edward
Lane-Poole (1885-1970), forester, was born on 16 August 1885 at Eastbourne,
Sussex, England, youngest son of Stanley Edward Lane-Poole, Egyptologist and
professor of Arabic at Trinity College, Dublin, and his wife Charlotte Bell,
née Wilson."
(Source:
Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Experiences:
"Born in Sussex in 1885, Charles was
one of two English cadets, sponsored by the Colonial Office, to graduate
from the French Forestry School at Nancy in 1906. He then spent more than four years in the
Transvaal Forest Department and then another five years in Sierra Leone.
When he arrived in Australia in 1916 and became Western Australia’s
Conservator of Forests, he was only the second university-trained
forester working in Australia.
Between 1916 and 1921, Charles put enormous personal energy into the
development of Western Australia’s first forestry legislation. The process
was long and complex and was a battle between the forest scientist and
powerful stakeholders, particularly the owners of Millars, then the largest
sawmilling company in Western Australia, that stood to have their
concessions converted to permits and their log prices increased to levels
consistent with those of other timber permit holders. He had to do battle
with the Premier of the state, and in the end when he could not achieve the
outcome that he believed was right for the forests he tendered his
resignation.
In 1927, he became the acting principal of the Australian Forestry School
when it opened in Canberra and remained in the post for 28 years."
(Source:
Australian Forestry 2009 Vol. 72 No 1 pp. 52 - 53)
| Did You Know? At the age of 19, Charles Lane Poole had his left hand amputated and replaced with a steel hook. Eucalyptus lane poolei and Cycas lane poolei were named after him.  (Source: Florabase)  (Source: Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney) Lane Poole’s wife Ruth had great skills in interior design and was given the job of designing the furniture and interior colours in both the Prime Minister’s and Governor General’s residences which were under construction in the new national capital of Australia, Canberra. (Source: Australian Forestry 2009 Vol. 72 No 1 pp. 52 - 53) He was considered a founding father of Australian forestry, and helped trial exotic species of timber around Canberra that would later form the heart of the nation's timber industry. (Source: ABC News) |
Education:
"He was educated at St Columba's College, Dublin, and at the Ecole Forestière, Nancy, France." (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Employment:
He graduated in 1906 and was sent to South Africa, where
he was made a district forester in the Transvaal Province at only 22 years
of age. He worked hard there to restore its depleted forests, but disagreed
with the government’s policies and resigned.
The Colonial Office then sent him to Sierra Leone on Africa’s ‘ Fever
Coast’. His small field notebooks, now held in the National Library of
Australia, give a picture of his work there. With little help and in spite
of bouts of malaria, he drafted forest legislation, set up the first
Forestry Department, laid out the first forest reserves, established
nurseries, plantations and an arboretum, and collected herbarium specimens,
some of which were new to science.
1916 to take up a role as Western Australia’s Conservator of Forests. He
resigned in 1921 from this job.
Next, he went to "survey the forests of Papua, then an Australian territory,
and later those in New Guinea. He spent an arduous three years traversing
the forests from the swamps to the high mountains, surveying the country,
measuring trees, and collecting herbarium specimens and timber samples.
Charles was appointed the Commonwealth’s Forestry Adviser in 1925.
Charles Lane Poole retired in 1945 and died in 1970."
(Source:
Australian National Herbarium: Charles Edward
Lane Poole (1885 - 1970)
Links:
National
Arboretum Canberra - How can you market this feature of Canberra to
the rest of Australia and particularly to Australian children?
Primary
Middle
High
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: Literacy
1. Charles Lane Poole was keen to have an Arboretum in Australia's National Capital, Canberra. But what is an Arboretum? And, why should people come to visit this feature?
Aims and vision
Definition: An arboretum is a place where trees are cultivated for
conservation, scientific and educational study and display.
The National Arboretum Canberra features 100 forests of rare and
symbolic trees from Australia and around the world. It is a
significant recreational and educational resource for visitors and
plays an important role in the protection of world-wide tree
diversity and the generation of new knowledge on tree growth and
survival, biodiversity and water management.
Vision: The vision of the National Arboretum
Canberra is to become one of the great arboreta in the world; to
provide a place of outstanding beauty and interest that is a
destination and recreational resource for the local community and
visitors to Canberra.
(Source:
National Arboretum Canberra)
Playground at National Arboretum Canberra
Children playing in "Pods"
Australia has a new National Arboretum. Located in
Canberra, this important cultural facility is host to 100 forests of rare
and endangered trees from around the world. High on the hill sits the pod
playground.
The opportunity to design a play space as part of the 100 forests facility
offered an opportunity to creatively engage children with the beauty of
trees and we hope, foster a life-long connection to this remarkable
environment.
Using the idea of seeds as the beginning life amongst the forest, children
and their families can enter a fantasy world of exaggerated scales. A play
space with giant acorns floating in the sky, and enormous banksia cones
nestled on the forest floor. (Source:
TCL)
Wikipedia:
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a narrow
sense is a collection of trees only.
Related collections include a fruticetum (from the Latin frutex,
meaning shrub), and a viticetum, a collection of vines.
More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing
living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for
scientific study.
An arboretum specializing in growing conifers is known as a pinetum.
Other specialist arboreta include salicetums (willows), populetums,
and quercetums (oaks).
The term arboretum was first used in an English publication by John
Claudius Loudon in 1833 in The Gardener's Magazine but the concept
was already long-established by then.
(Source:
Wikipedia)
Aerial View of National Arboretum
National Arboretum Canberra:
It includes an existing stand of 5000 Himalayan Cedars and the 80
year old Cork Oak plantation which were damaged by the 2001 and 2003
Canberra bushfires. It features different types of threatened and
symbolic trees from around Australia and the world, including the
world's largest planting of the Wollemi pine.
(Source:
Wikipedia)
2. Look at the following videos about the National Arboretum
3. Create an Online Poster or Scoop.it [incorporating the videos above] showing the beauty of the National Arboretum Canberra and why Australians [including children ] and other visitors should come to Canberra to see this attraction using EduGlogster or Scoop.it
 |
 |
4. Share with your class
Material sourced from
Australian National Herbarium: Charles Edward
Lane Poole (1885 - 1970)
Australian Forestry 2009 Vol. 72 No 1 pp. 52 - 53
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Copyright © On the Job Online
