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Lahey's Canungra Sawmill Complex is a heritage-listed sawmill at 10-26 Finch Road, Canungra, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1884. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 March 2009. == History == The Canungra Sawmill operated between 1884 and c.1935. The mill was wholly owned and operated by the Lahey family until 1921. Timber from throughout the Canungra region was brought to the mill from the company's timber stands via their private tramway (Lahey's Canungra Tramway Tunnel) and transported out of Canungra on the Government railway line. The mill was rebuilt after major fires in 1897 and 1906 and modernised with new milling equipment and updates to processing techniques were made regularly. The mill and all associated equipment, infrastructure and timber stands were finally sold by the Lahey's in 1921. The mill changed hands twice more (in 1923 and 1933) as the viability of the timber industry in the region waned, before closing for a final time c.1935.〔 European settlement of the area surrounding the Coomera River commenced in 1843 with the establishment of the Tambourine holding. Early timber harvesting commenced in the 1860s by Hugh Mahony who cut and hauled cedar logs to mills in Ipswich.〔 The Lahey family emigrated from their native Ireland to Australia in 1862. Francis Lahey, his wife and eleven children arrived in Sydney, but immediately travelled north to Brisbane. The family began farming in the Pimpama region in 1870. In 1875 Francis Lahey purchased a sugar mill at Tygum, near Waterford, for his sons. Francis expanded the operations at Tygum to include sawmilling, an industry that would dominate the working lives of the next generation of the Lahey family.〔 After being informed of quality timber in the region, David Lahey commenced construction of a sawmill at Canungra on 2 October 1884.〔〔 During the same year David, John, Isaiah, Thomas and Evangeline Lahey all applied for and were granted selections of land around Canungra totalling over 3,000 acres. Lahey's Canungra Sawmill was established on Portion 61, Canungra on land leased from Robert Christie and beside what is now known as Christie Street.〔 With the construction of the mill, David Lahey also had a number of small cottages built on site for mill workers while others were established in and around what would become the township of Canungra.〔 Machinery for Lahey's Canungra Sawmill was brought up the Logan River by steamer to a location near Logan Village, and hauled to the sawmill site by bullock teams.〔〔 Production at the mill steadily increased from 1885 onwards. Much of the timber produced was used for the construction of housing throughout southeast Queensland.〔 The Lahey family was hard working, innovative, and often experimental, eager for change and mindful of market forces and demands. During the 1880s, the Lahey family expanded their business, establishing an office in Brisbane in 1887, additional saw and planing mills at Beaudesert in 1888, and another mill at Widgee near Hill View in 1898. The economic downturn of the 1890s forced the Lahey's into stave-shaping and casking to provide enough income to keep the business alive. Staves are narrow strips of wood placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure.〔 On the night of 9 July 1897, the Canungra mill burnt down and 20,000 super feet of sawn and dressed pine in the mill yards was destroyed. The mill was re-built but at a larger scale and was more modern in layout than the original mill, with the planing machine and other machinery separated from the main milling activities.〔〔 By the turn of the twentieth century, transportation of timber to Lahey's Canungra Sawmill was becoming a problem. By this time the Lahey's had acquired timber leases amounting to over 16,000 acres in the Canungra and Pine Creek Valleys, thereby requiring the slow and expensive bullock teams to haul logs over ever-increasing distances. The Lahey's viewed mechanisation as the solution to their transportation problems and it was decided a tramway be built into the Pine Creek Valley. A narrow gauge of 3 feet 6 inches was chosen for the tramway to match the gauge of the growing Queensland Government Railways, as it was hoped that the government line would eventually extend to Canungra (this finally occurred in 1914).〔 Lahey's Canungra Sawmill was again badly damaged by fire in the early hours of 13 January 1906.〔 The main building which housed the sawing operations was completely destroyed. Up-to-date equipment recently imported from the United States of America was lost, including a broom handle machine, sand-papering machine and butter box printing machine. Several new additions to the mill operations, including a new drying kiln and planning machine shed were, however, saved. The fire forced the closure of the mill for three months.〔 The rebuild following this fire was complemented by improvements between 1907 and 1908. Electric log-hauling machinery was installed. The tramway servicing the mill was extended over time and by 1910 the main line was 13? km long with a branch 2 km up Flying Fox Creek and a sub-branch 500m up Little Flying Fox Creek to service a new aerial ropeway on Beech Mountain.〔 Eventually, the total length of track laid amounted to 26? km. Usage of the tramway continued to increase so that during 1915 alone, 15,000 tons of logs were being hauled to the mill along the tramway.〔 In 1913, Tom Lahey left Australia on an inspection of milling operations in the United States of America. The Lahey's were interested in purchasing new milling machinery and keen to stay abreast of the latest trends in sawmilling practice. A range of new equipment was purchased, and once installed, the capacity of the mill doubled and the cost of labour greatly reduced. The introduction of an eight-foot band mill and steam log turner made the Lahey's Canungra Sawmill the biggest softwood mill in Queensland. In its heyday, the mill was producing Australia's largest output of softwood timber. In the process, the township of Canungra was established because of the presence and success of the mill.〔 By 1920 much of the timber had been removed from the Canungra area. The War Services Homes Commission, established at the end of World War One, purchased the milling operation from the Lahey family, taking possession of the site on 1 January 1921.〔 Timber processed at the mill was to be used in the construction of housing for returned World War One servicemen. The mill, however, closed three months later due to a change in policy by the Commission for their acquisitions of timber〔 and was put up for sale. In 1923, Brisbane Timbers Ltd (part of which was owned by the Lahey family) purchased the mill by tender.〔 The sale included all plant equipment, 10,412 acres of freehold land of which 4,393 acres carried pine, the timber tramway and branch lines totalling 16 miles of track, the locomotives and all rolling stock.〔 In 1933, the Standply Timber Company purchased the mill and added an advanced veneer and plywood plant. The timber industry in the Canungra area had largely collapsed, however, by c.1935. That same year the last of the tramway rails and equipment was sold to a milling venture in Cardwell, North Queensland and the mill was dismantled.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lahey's Canungra Sawmill Complex」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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