Timber industry icon creates stunning piece

VISITORS to Mount Gambier’s newly opened Forestry Centre of Excellence are now greeted by a striking centrepiece: a handcrafted Scrimber table made by plantation industry stalwart David Quill.

Scrimber, a bold engineered-wood innovation invented in Australia in the mid-1980s by the CSIRO, has long since disappeared from local production.

But for David, the principal of Eumeralla forestry consulting, the material never lost its appeal.

A friend had a small supply of offcuts tucked away from Mount Gambier’s ‘old pilot plant days’, and when he finally put blade to board, he discovered something unexpected.

“I thought it would tear out and fight me the whole way,” he said, “but it proved to be beautiful wood to work with – it’s strong, stable and surprisingly forgiving.”

Scrimber, commercially produced by Scrimber International from 1990 in Mount Gambier, used low-value softwood pulp-grade logs from thinnings with no traditional commercial value.

The wood was crushed, mixed with adhesive, moulded and heat treated to create structural lengths up to 12m long.

The product was locally recognised as a showcase element in the Mount Gambier Airport, prior to its recent replacement.

The table took five full days of painstaking work to complete, a notable accomplishment given David’s ongoing battle with MND and the restricted mobility that comes with it.

Yet the project was driven by something deeper than craftsmanship alone. It began as a tribute to a friend, who was a former Scrimber pilot-plant worker diagnosed with terminal cancer who wished to see a table made from the resource before he passed.

David honoured that wish with his assistance, and from there, interest snowballed as word spread and memories of the material resurfaced.

Professor Jeff Morrell, director of the Forestry Centre of Excellence, said the table had sparked plenty of interest among guests to the centre, with one visiting Adelaide University engineering professor revealing they had worked on the original CSIRO Scrimber project in its foundation days.

“Reactions like this reinforce the piece’s value as a living link to the region’s innovation heritage,” Professor Morrell said.

“This table is a stunning piece of craftsmanship and a tangible reminder of South Australia’s pioneering work in engineered wood and the creation of this unique engineered material.

“We are genuinely honoured to have David’s work here; it brings another link to our great timber history into the centre and fantastic it was made by a great champion for our research program.”

Despite the challenges of MND, David continues to create.

When not making furniture, he has created a collection of decorative chopping boards using various wood species which are sold to raise funds for MND Australia. One recent sale fetched more than $1000.

To learn more about the centre and its work visit www.forestrycoe.com.au