CONTACT US

Canberra

Building 10, CSIRO Forestry Precinct
Banks Street
Yarralumla ACT 2600

PO Box 178
Deakin West ACT 2600

Tel: + 61 2 6282 2280

Fax: + 61 2 6282 3734

Email: canberra@biotext.com.au

Brisbane

14 Horan Street
West End Qld 4101

PO Box 734
South Brisbane 4101

Tel: + 61 7 3844 4004

Fax: + 61 7 3846 4144

Email: brisbane@biotext.com.au

Melbourne

228/55 Flemington Road
North Melbourne Vic 3051

Tel: + 61 3 9329 4150

Fax: + 61 3 9329 8245

Email: melbourne@biotext.com.au

The history of our Canberra office location

In March 2009, Biotext’s Canberra office moved to the CSIRO Forestry Precinct on Wilf Crane Crescent in Yarralumla. We wondered, who was ‘Wilf Crane’? We soon discovered that our building is steeped in science communication history.

Dr Wilf Crane was a CSIRO Forestry researcher who promoted planting trees as a means to rejuvenate degraded landscapes during the 1970s and ’80s.

According to CSIRO, some of Crane’s memorable quotes help to describe his enthusiasm and vision for tree planting, and gave an insight into the importance of science communication to help effect change.

  • ‘Think trees grow trees’ was Crane’s bumper sticker idea that went on to become a lecture course and a best-selling book.
  • ‘Trees make soil’ was key to Crane’s view that trees helped to lower watertables, prevented soil erosion, and played a crucial role in the formation of fertile soil.
  • ‘Thoroughbred racehorses’ was how Crane described superior radiata pine clones near Wagga Wagga, NSW, that had been irrigated with sewage effluent. This was an example of how he used colourful analogies to communicate science to laymen and scientists alike.

Crane’s death in a 1992 plane crash inspired fellow tree enthusiast, Roger McDonald, to write a book that explores the instinctive linkages between trees and humankind. When promoting his book in 2001, McDonald said that Crane was ‘a great inspiration to many people around trees, not least me’.

The site of our Canberra office has been connected to tree planting and forestry since Canberra’s early days. Before housing CSIRO Forestry, the Australian Forestry School (from which Wilf Crane graduated in 1962) operated on the site (1927–1968).

The schools founders, Norman Jolly and Charles Lane Poole, were adamant that the school building should display Australia’s finest timbers, which added substantially to its construction cost. Charles Lane Poole personally specified the timbers and provided the designs for the chairs and tables too.

The site is adjacent to the Westbourne Woods Arboretum and the Yarralumla Nursery.

In May 1913, Thomas Weston was appointed officer-in-charge of afforestation in Australia’s new capital, Canberra. At the time, the site for Canberra was described as ‘a remote rural location, infertile, windy and rabbit infested’. As part of his work, Weston sought to expand the number of species that might grow in Canberra and carried out extensive, scientifically planned trials at Westbourne Woods.

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