The Victorian School of Forestry (VSF) was established in October 1910 at Creswick, in the Australian state of Victoria. It was located at the former Creswick Hospital, built in 1863 during the gold rush. The creation of VSF was one of the many recommendations of a Royal Commission held between 1897 and 1901 into forest degradation. The first tertiary forestry school in Australia, VSF was administered by the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) until 1980, when VSF amalgamated with the University of Melbourne to become that institution's School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences. From 1910 to 1980, 522 students completed the Diploma of Forestry at VSF.
History
The supply of professional staff was a paramount concern to Conservators of the early State Forests Department in Victoria.Carron, L T (1985). A History of Forestry in Australia. Aust National University. .
Forestry training really began with the idea expressed by Conservator Frederick D'A. Vincent from the Imperial Forest Service in India after his inspection of Victorian forestry in 1887. It was then reiterated by George Samuel Perrin, the first Conservator of Forests, in 1890, that a training school was necessary because overseas forestry staff, if available, could not "adapt themselves to the new and strange conditions of forestry in this country". His suggestion was supported by numerous reports and inquiries.
The new Forest Act (1907) also recognised that effective management of forests required appropriately skilled staff, stipulating that no person could be appointed to a forestry position without completing a relevant course and passing a special examination, thus paving the way for the establishment of the forestry school at Creswick.
The Victorian School of Forestry (VSF), also known locally as "The School on the Hill", was located at the former Creswick hospital which was built in 1863. The buildings and grounds were purchased for £1,163 7s 3d in 1909 by the Victorian Government and refurbished at the instigation of John Johnstone, (Superintendent of State Plantations), the direction of Donald McLeod, (Minister of Forests, 1904–1909) together with Sir Peter McBride (Minister of Forests, 1909–1913) and the support of Sir Alexander Peacock, who was then the parliamentary representative for the seat of Creswick and later Premier of Victoria. The school's main gates were dedicated to Sir Alexander in 1952.
The State Government opened the school on 29 October 1910, attended by a large delegation of dignitaries, Members of the Victorian Parliament, and their companions. The visitors toured the School, nursery, plantation and proposed Arboretum, and toasted the great endeavour.
The Victorian School of Forestry was the first institution of its kind in Australia.HISTORICAL FACTORS AND THE VICTORIAN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY Robert G. Orr (Written in 1978 as part of Dip. Ed. Studies)
VSF was a residential school having the old hospital wards available as classrooms, well equipped kitchen and nurses quarters and other rooms suitable for staff and student accommodation. Originally called "Pednolva" school classes began in the house built in 1881 for Dr John Tremearne, who had been the resident medical officer at the Creswick Hospital from 1872 to 1888, but later moved up the hill to the old hospital building. The forests surrounding Creswick had been thoroughly cut over during the gold mining era from the 1850s until around 1900. The forester John La Gerche was placed in charge of the forest land around Creswick in the late 1880s. He established a State nursery at nearby Sawpit Gully in 1888 to aid the revegetation of the forests around Creswick. Land rehabilitation and the need to create softwood resources meant that some of the first plantations of radiata pine were established around 1900 and became part of the school demonstration forest. In the early years, practical training was completed under the direction of John Johnstone, Superintendent of State Plantations. Johnstone was born in Scotland in 1858 and served his gardening and forestry apprenticeship at Gordon Castle, and after getting married decided to emigrate to Victoria. He worked to establish Maddingley Park at Bacchus Marsh before being recruited to the Forests Department in 1898 by George Samuel Perrin.
The School lacked trained foresters to teach specialised coursework, so teachers were recruited from the nearby Ballarat School of Mines who focussed solely on basic sciences. Mr Thomas Stephan Hart, formerly Professor of Geology and Mining, was appointed Senior Master in May 1913. The academic standard of the course was ensured by a Board of Examiners headed by the Professor of Botany at Melbourne University, Professor Alfred James Ewart (1872–1937). The initial class of six students that commenced in October 1910 were already in training as foresters under a system of supervised practical work or were appointed from work crews. Entrance to the school was by competitive examination for boys between fourteen and sixteen years of sound health and good moral character. The school was later officially opened at a ceremony on 26 May 1913 by Hugh Mackay, Conservator of Forests.
Regulations were gazetted in September 1914 to enable trainees at the school to be paid £48 in their first year, £52 in the second year and £56 in the third, with £45 being deducted to cover board, lodging and tuition. Upon graduation, students were appointed as cadet foresters to the Forests Commission Victoria.
In 1914, the British Association met in Australia and among the many distinguished visitors was Sir David Ernest Hutchins, a graduate of the École nationale des eaux et forêts at Nancy in France. Hutchins was then retired, but with considerable experience across the British Empire in both India and South Africa. Australia's first Inspector-General of Forests Charles Edward Lane Poole also an alma mater of the French forestry school, invited Hutchins to tour all Australian States and New Zealand. Hutchins reported in 1916 on the overall parlous state of forest management but wrote enthusiastically about both Victoria and the progress being made at the Forestry School.
Nine VSF students are known to have enlisted in the Great War and one of the first graduates of the school, Reginald Graham Lindsay, (brother of famous Australian artist and writer, Norman Lindsay), joined 22nd Australian Field Artillery Brigade but was killed in action in France on 31 December 1916. Reg was queuing with four other soldiers for rations when they were all killed by a direct shell landing in their midst, although it is often more colourfully reported that he was shot "when dashing out of his dugout to rescue a bottle of rum" on New Year's Eve.
A number of VSF graduates volunteered for military service in WW2 with some joining units deployed to the UK and other places as forestry companies in the Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) and served with distinction to produce timber for the war efforts. After the war, the first intake of ex-servicemen into the forestry school occurred. Twenty applications were received with four being selected. A further six were later enrolled in 1946–47.
VSF students were also subject to compulsory national service training in the 1950s. The forestry profession was not exempt and four students were conscripted to serve in Vietnam in the 1960s.
Relationship with other Australian tertiary institutions
The twentieth century had started optimistically with the Federation of Australia, but co-operation between the states was hesitant. The leaders of the small state forest agencies met in 1911 and recommended that Australia needed to conserve sufficient forests and start plantations. Although they had already established forestry organisations as best they could, they needed better ways of recruiting and training foresters. Within a few months of each other, Victoria and South Australia started forestry schools but took paths that reflected their roots. Western Australia and NSW also started forestry schools at Ludlow and Narara in the 1920s but these schools only lasted for a few years.
An Australian Forestry School (AFS) was first mooted in 1916 and later established, initially in Adelaide in 1926, before moving to the Canberra suburb of Yarralumla in 1927 under the Commonwealth Department of National Development. Students undertaking the first two years of an appropriately designed science course at their (then sole) State University and then proceeding to Canberra to undertake a Diploma course over two years. The home university granted a Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree. Sixteen students representing all states, including Alf Lawrence from Victoria, were enrolled in 1926. Lecturing staff included Norman William Jolly, Charles Earnest Carter (ex Principal of VSF), Hugh Richard Gray and A. Rule while Charles Edward Lane Poole acted as Principal. The prestigious Schlich Medal was awarded annually to the outstanding forestry student at the Australian Forestry School from 1928. However, Victoria withdrew from the arrangement in 1930 and instead continued to support the VSF at Creswick, thereby starting a rift within the recently formed Institute of Foresters of Australia (IFA) that took many years to heal.
While other states cautiously relinquished their fledgling forestry schools, Victoria continued with supporting the VSF Diploma course after the Commonwealth started its national Australian Forestry School in 1926, partly due to an acrimonious dispute with the Commonwealth Inspector-General of Forestry and Principal of the School, Charles Edward Lane Poole, over the standard of the Victorian foresters. The Institute of Foresters of Australia, founded in 1935, was also racked over its refusal to grant full membership to foresters holding the Victorian Diploma.
However, the first twenty years of the Australian Forestry School proved difficult. The Great Depression, the Second World War, the states’ suspicions of the Commonwealth, and the abrasive manner of the school's head, Charles Lane Poole, all acted to reduce the number of students being sent there; one year there were none and several times during the war years it was nearly closed.Dargavel, John, The Zealous Conservator: a Life of Charles Lane Poole, Crawley, WA, University of Western Australia Press, 2008. Upon Lane Poole's retirement in January 1945 Dr Maxwell Ralph Jacobs was appointed Principal, a position he held until 1959. The post war intake of students increased to between 15 and 30 with many from New Zealand until a school was opened at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. By 1965 the responsibilities of the Australian Forestry School were transferred to the Australian National University in Canberra and it developed a four-year Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree and postgraduate research degrees.