For almost a hundred years the sound of the bullock team was heard in forests all over Australia, forests which provided wood for shelter and warmth for the first settlers at Sydney Cove in 1788. This was the pattern of timber logging for many years but now the age of mechanization has taken over and the pace has quickened. Our forests which are amongst our most valuable natural resources are providing the raw materials for fast growing, multi-million dollar industries. For wood is a material which can be used in many ways- it can be used in the round for poles and posts, it can be sawn in various sizes for use as a building material, it can be peeled to produce veneers for making plywood, or chipped into small flakes to make particle board. It can be reduced to a pulp for making hardboard or digested and refined to its basic fibres for making paper. What then is this material wood which can be used in so many ways?