The Mills of Jarrahdale

From the beginning of the Swan River Colony in 1829, the early colonists were overawed by the vast forests that clothed the land for hundreds of miles. Exploring parties groped their way through jarrah trees that grew to enormous heights and dimensions, and wherever parties pushed out into the unknown they found woodlands extending to the horizon.

Everyone recognised the forest as the colony's greatest natural asset, and it was there waiting to be exploited.

The Mills of Jarrahdale is a historical journey through a century of the timber industry in Western Australia, its growth and demise, particularly in Jarrahdale. The timber trade's importance to the colony and to all who plied an axe and lived amongst the tall timbers is brought to life by V. G. Fall in a very informative account of those prosperous and troubled times of the Jarrahdale mills.