A beautiful corner cabinet … and blackwood logs on the Burnie wharf …

I was approached by Kim Booth in late 2013 on the subject of reject blackwood logs then lying on Burnie Wharf and about to be shipped by Forestry Tasmania to China at firewood prices.

Kim wanted to know if there was a cabinet maker in Tasmania capable of turning these logs into a fine piece of furniture?

I put Kim Booth in contact with Peter Collenette of Tasmanian Fine Furniture Pty Ltd of Launceston.

Amy Tyler on behalf of Kim Booth wrote on 15/1/2014:

Dear Peter,

Kim has asked me to get in touch because the sawn timber, rescued from Burnie Wharf, is wrapped and drying well, we have a quantity of kiln dried blackwood ready now to be turned into beautiful products… the plan is that following the display at QVMAG in August 2014 the furniture will be sold with all participants recovering their costs and any profits going to charity.

Peter Collenette picked up some of the racked and dried blackwood from Booth on the 9th February 2014 and wrote to me as follows on the 5th March 2014:

As you know, I am only too happy to get involved in this, because I like to see good timber used and my pleasure is in designing and making stuff.

My suggestion is as follows.

The piece is worth at least, say, $3800 as a fair price for the work involved, including carving and polishing. You could pay me half, ie $1900. I would keep it and put in in Kim’s exhibition in August and his subsequent auction.

At the auction we would put $3800 on it – this is what we would get after Kim has taken out his costs and given the profit to charity. If it sells we would split the proceeds, ie you would get your money back. If not, you would pay me the other $1900 and get the cabinet.

I am hoping…. a )this will satisfy Kim’s desire to have a nice piece for his show, b) your desire to support the whole exercise and (c) my desire to get paid.

Attached was a drawing of the proposed corner cabinet dated 5th March 2014.

I slightly altered Collenette’s original design based on a drawing taken from a Gillow’s of Lancaster Estimates Book and we used a carved 18th century oval plaster pattern mould for the door design.

I duly paid the 1st half of the invoice of $1900 on 12th October 2014.

After various conversations between Collenette and Booth I finally received an email from Booth re the then completed corner cabinet on 3 February 2015:

Hi John,

At this stage that is the situation, given that unfortunately we have not achieved sufficient pieces of furniture to make the display worthy of a curated exhibition (Although the individual pieces were worthy)

I have simple been unable to do any more than I have and it is only recently that Hodgman has run up the white flag and funded my Chief of Staff, which meant I had no available funds to promote the exhibition etc….

This caused me to write …

Dear Kim,

I believe you have spoken to Peter on the matter and that the matter is now shelved, I trust this is not so.

I asked Peter to look into doing the work as a result of our conversation over the making of an item of furniture from the timber you reclaimed from the wharf at Burnie.

Peter has made the most beautiful corner cabinet as a result of many consultations between us over the design, I have paid half the cost $1900, as per attached invoice and he has contributed the other half in his labour.

It was to be sold at a charity event to prove the waste and export of Tasmanian cabinet timbers and I agreed to make up any loss should the cost price not be achieved. That is how the matter stands please advise me as to the course of action you intend.

After a number of emails regarding a proposed meeting to discuss the matter which never seemed to eventuate I wrote on 20th May 2015:

Dear Kim,

Further to our last email I have heard nothing.

I have so far paid a half share in the corner cabinet.

As a result I will now pay Peter Collenette the other half as I find this matter to be extremely embarrassing and he most certainly does not deserve to be out of pocket.

I received a request from you to recommend a cabinetmaker to turn the timber….. from the wharf in Burnie, into a valuable piece of furniture.

Peter constructed the superb corner cabinet, photograph attached, from the timber supplied by you, obtained I believe from reject logs dumped on the wharves by Forestry Tasmania.

I now own a corner cabinet for which I submit to you my account which is cost + 10% for design supervision and payment……..

I am in business and I am certainly not a rusted on Green supporter.

Best wishes,

John Hawkins

This interesting project which has ended in tears exemplifies the problem of a so-called special timbers industry in Tasmania as proposed by the likes of George Harris and the brain-dead Minister under the template of access to our old growth World Heritage Listed forests … under the excuse of cutting Tasmanian special timbers.

This corner cabinet is a magnificent product made to a very high standard and promoted by a political party with good intentions but with little or no fortitude in the market place.

It would be unsaleable if the wood was obtained without FSC accreditation from a World Heritage Listed forest.

In the words of Peter Collenette:

If the cost outweighs the price that can be charged, the result is not really waste but simply unavoidable.

This has always been one of the issues facing the professionals in Tasmania’s forest industry – and it surely remains true that good timber will find its way to market just as long as its production remains viable.

I suggest that a market for Tasmanian cabinet timbers with considerable wastage in the selection as evidenced by the corner cabinet can only be created by a free gift of that timber from Forestry Tasmania to China to be made into furniture by a Chinese cabinet maker at $3 an hour.

Or alternatively in the form of cheap mass-produced curios as sold in the Salamanca Market, the end product of detritus left on the forest floor prior to burning by the fossil that is Forestry Tasmania.

I will be donating the corner cabinet under the Tax Incentive to the Arts Scheme to the QVMAG.

Tasmanian Times (TT) is free – always has been, always will be. If you like what TT does, please consider making a donation. We would also encourage you to support our current advertisers. If there are other companies you think would like to advertise on TT, please email your suggestions to editor@oldtt.pixelkey.biz. Thank you!

EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …

• Tasmanian forests, timber craftsmen and another looming battle

• The Kim Booth Media Release which started it all …

• Gordon Gradbury in Comments: … Those logs on the Burnie wharf were a gift to the Chinese. I don’t have a problem with exporting logs provided the grower is making a decent profit from the deal, and the forest management is up-to-scratch. But whilst we have politicians, a public forest resource and a begging community of wood workers none of this will happen. It’s a matter of attitude and so far the attitude is all about reliving the past. The sooner we stop logging public native forest the sooner we can stop this waste and madness and create a real forest industry.