Australia has many timbers whose heartwood is highly resistant to fungal and termite attack; however, changing public policies have resulted in restricted access to many native forests where these species are found. Plantations of these same species are expected to replace these resources, but there are questions concerning whether timber from these trees will have the same resistance as the native forest material since they are likely to be grown on much shorter rotations with more aggressive management. The simplest way to evaluate durability is to use accelerated laboratory trials of small blocks cut from different regions of a stem, but it can be difficult to relate performance to a specific radial position. One approach to overcome this is to peel the tree so that each veneer layer can be evaluated for its durability related to radial position at small increments from the pith. The potential for using this approach was evaluated on 30-year-old Gympie messmate (Eucalyptus cloeziana) logs that were peeled to a 3 mm thickness and dried to 10-15% moisture content. The samples were exposed to attack by the economically significant subterranean termite Coptotermes acinacinoformis. Mass losses and visual termite ratings were used to assess termite resistance.

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