Poles power on
From the Autumn/Winter 2010 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
The two Davids today still on the job at the Wedding Bells State Forest pole trial: David Wilson, right and David Gardner centre.
Power poles are such a part of the modern landscape they hardly warrant a second thought for most people. They are there and they silently do their job day in and day out.
But behind the scenes there are people who care so much about the welfare of these innocuous power poles that they have had one test site of 700 poles under study for almost 35 years. It is on a corner of a road in Wedding Bells State Forest near Coffs Harbour, and is still, after all this time, in the care of at least two of the people who helped establish it.
One is David Gardner, formerly a research officer with the Forestry Commission of NSW who is still keeping the poles under study as a consultant for the electricity supply industry, and forester David Wilson, who is still with Forests NSW in Coffs Harbour.
The plot went in the ground in 1976. Another long-term pole test site was established in Belanglo State Forest in 1968.
“The Wedding Bells site was established to examine ways of combating soft rot in the sapwood of preservative-treated timber poles,” David Gardner said. “The chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treatment of poles in Australia began in the mid 1960s, but very early in their use in Queensland they found that soft rot, a type of fungal degrade, was an enormous problem.”
The pole trial tested the three common full-length pole treatments of the time, pentachlorophenol (PCP), CCA and creosote.
“We were aiming to find a means of increasing the performance of treated poles and to reduce the degradation of the preservative-treated sapwood of the poles,” David said.
“Around 18 different treatments were applied; most to improve performance and some to make the effects of soft rot worse.
“This trial has been supported by the electricity supply industry from the outset. The current research is mainly funded by the Energy Networks Association (ENA), the peak national body representing gas and electricity distribution businesses throughout Australia, providing governments, policy makers and the community with a single point of reference for major energy network issues.”
David said that there was no time limit set for the trial site, so after a career with Forests NSW he is still involved as a consultant.
“We have put in additional poles over the years, and the site has been inspected at regular intervals since its installation, with the last inspection in October last year,” David said.
“Results from the trial were used in 1997 to recommend to the NSW electricity supply industry that the first inspection for preservative-treated timber poles be deferred from five or six years to 15 years, resulting in a substantial cost saving.
“From the forestry point of view, the trial was intended to show the reliability of the product, which is perhaps now beyond doubt as there are more than six million timber poles in service across Australia, and many of them are preservative treated.
“The data from the current inspection of the Wedding Bells and Belanglo sites will be considered with data developed from in-service preservative-treated poles in two different climate zones-Sydney metropolitan area and the Bathurst/Orange area.
“This trial will be even more valuable the older it gets.”
Howard Spencer Public Affairs & Media, Coffs Harbour
