Quote Originally Posted by Beserkleyboy View Post
Ranald, I could be mistaken, but my bet is those endgrain timber cobbles were Australian Jarrah, 'cause the Poms used Jarrah for their railway sleepers. Yes they do last extremely well due to very high tanin content and extreme density and hardness. Don't have the link handy, but search ' wood database' for some very comprehensive info of woods of the world. Cheers
Jim in (not at all) Sunny South Coast NSW
yeah, jarrah and yellow stringy bark don't suffer from much of natures extremes. there is one other cost effective species used but cant remember. When I had my srtuctural landscape licence I used to use the same as the cow cockies=yellow stringybark for posts : the rails were generally treated 100 by 32 pine as they were light enough to easily manage & with 3 rails were extremely strong once pailings were attached. Some parts of SW tassie they use saffafras for firewood. Go figure! excuse pun.