Sawpits in the forest: A case study of a failed timber-getting operation during the nineteenth century

Abstract The nineteenth century timber industry in Western Australia relied on traditional British technologies and struggled to deal with massive old-growth jarrah trees, and the subsequent transportation of milled timber to market. Mason’s Mill, situated in the Darling Range to the east of Perth, had access to a vast amount of high quality timber, yet was economically unviable for most of its 20 year history, ultimately failing in the mid-1870s. Archaeological survey of the mill site and associated primary extractive sites demonstrate that a significant corpus of evidence of timber-getting activities remains in the forest. While ephemeral, this evidence allows a greater understanding of difficulties encountered by early timber-getting operations, and how reliance on obsolete technologies, and inadequate transport options, ultimately undermined Mason’s Mill’s ability to succeed.