Southern gidgee

Acacia pruinocarpa

Southern gidgee is a large spreading tree with height up to 12 m. It has rough, dark brown bark and often has fissures that fold into the wood, giving it a gnarled appearance. Distribution includes the central and northern desert areas of Western Australia, in a 700 km strip eastwards from east of Carnarvon to the north-eastern Goldfields. and is prominent in summer rainfall areas in the Murchison, Goldfields and Gascoyne. It is often associated with mulga on loamy soils.

Wood description [more info]
Heartwood is dark brown, and sapwood whitish.

Wood density [more info]
Green density is about 1265 kg/m3, air-dry density about 1150 kg/m3, and basic density about 970 kg/m3.

Shrinkage [more info]
Tangential and radial shrinkage are about 2.9 and 2.3 per cent respectively.

Workability [more info]
Goldfields craftsmen rank southern gidgee as average for machinability and stability, and good for turning, boring, screwholding, sanding and finishing.

Durability [more info]
Timber is presumably CSIRO Durability Class 1.

Strength group and properties [more info]
Green and dry strength groups are (S2) and (SD2). The brackets indicate conservative provisional ratings based on the air-dry density. The more important strength properties based on the strength groups are given in the table below.

Uses [more info]
The timber has considerable potential for craftwork.

Availability [more info]
Limited availability because of the scattered nature of the resource.