The Queensland Forest Service routinely samples poles treated at all treatment plants throughout the State. Each treatment plant is issued with a Certificate of Registration and the accompanying documents list the different levels of preservative retention required for performance in various service conditions. The posted levels represent the.minimum permissible, and it is to these concentrations of preservative that a piece of treated timber is tested. All samples taken must pass the required level of treatment. Because minimum levels are used, it is important to ensure that any samples taken are representative of the whole piece. A plug sample taken from a pole is 19 mm in diameter by the depth of the sapwood long. The 'analytical zone' is the inner 1/3 of the sapwood band closest to the truewood and the size of the 'analytical zone' varies with the thickness of sapwood. Analyses were carried out on a number of plug samples from a preservative treated power pole, to examine the variation in preservative retention that can occur when samples are taken from different locations along the pole.

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