It seemed such a brilliant idea. An Australian company set up to grow willow trees that could be used to fashion top-grade cricket bats, reviving a dormant industry and breaking the English domination of the market. ................. The
Australian Cricket Bat Willow Project was spruiked by greats including Dean Jones, Richie Benaud, Steve Waugh and Greg Matthews but after 16 years, it has produced just one sample bat. ................. A cricket bat and cap at the launch of the Australian Cricket Bat Willow Project. A cricket bat and cap at the launch of the Australian Cricket Bat Willow Project. Photo: Wayne Taylor Jones has walked from the whole project and other investors say the early promise of returns have collapsed. "They still haven't got a tree. We haven't seen a tree," Jones says. "Well, I have in one photograph and it was a piece of shit. They [the management] were very amateurish. All they were worried about was getting money in and they never worried about the investor." ................. The scheme had high hopes when it was established in the late 1990s. At the time an estimated 350,000 English willow bats were sold worldwide each year. That figure was expected to rise to 900,000 by 2010. The price of top-grade bats has also risen since then – from $500 to more than $1000 in 2015.
A willow plantation north of Swan Hill.
The trees will be used to make cricket bats. ...... "Australia has an opportunity to generate considerable export dollars for our country through a sport in which we have excelled as a nation for over a century," Waugh said in the prospectus. ................. Similar to other managed investment schemes, the project was given a
100 per cent tax deduction ruling by the Australian Taxation Office. The tax deduction, especially appealing to investors in a high tax bracket, was to encourage investment in agriculture, Craig Crosbie, of PPB Advisory, says. ................. From a minimum investment of $5000 for 20 trees and annual fees of $250 per unit, the company said it
could produce 600 bats by 2013. They estimated this would give each $5000 investment a net return of
$73,263. The company now says a return is more than three years away. .................
It is not known how much money investors ploughed into the project but unconfirmed estimates are more than $1 million by about 70 investors. .... Click here for the full story http://www.smh.com.au/national/willow-bat-cricket-company-seo-here-20150818-gj1jxr.html
CRICKET BAT WILLOW
IS VALUABLE
By KURRAJONG, Special Agricultural Representative of
"The Examiner."
Somebody said once that Waterloo was won on the
playing fields of Eton. The old school tie may not be play
Fix this texting such a paramount part in this war, but that emblem
of the British public school spirit,
the cricket bat, or at
least the tree from which it is made, is pulling its weight,
for the cricket bat willow is used for several important
military purposes. There is every possibility that growing
the cricket bat willow will
become a major Tasmanian industry.
Some forty years ago, while waiting
his turn to face up to the Australian
bowlers, A. C. McLaren, the English
captain, remarked to the great international umpire, the late Bob Crockett.
that
Australia should be admirably
suited to the growing of the cricket
bat willow. As a sequel to that talk
six cuttings were sent to Australia, one
of which survived. From that tree 5000
descendants are now growing on the
Daylesford plantations of R. M. Crockett and Son, and the bats made from
their timber are equal to, if not actually
better than, the finest England can produce. Australia alone spends some
£150,000 a year on cricket bats, so it
is easy to see that the possibilities for
expansion are immense.
With the outbreak of war the cricket
bat willow assumed new importance be
cause it was found to be the
equal of
spruce in certain airplane components,
admirably suited to the manufacture
of artificial limbs, and that
charcoal
made from it turns out the fine textured
jasic substance from which special explosives are made.
Because of this the willow, which
has always been valuable, has become
particularly so, and the world is faced
with an acute shortage which will persist for many years as a result of the
rapid cutting out of the English supplies. Accordingly the extensive expansion of Australian plantings becomes
a matter of urgency, and
experts consider that Tasmania is the most favoured state in the Commonwealth for
the purpose, trees here attaining in 12
years the same degree of maturity
which takes 20 years in their native
England.
Department Interested
Mr. P. E. Keam, Tasmanian representative on the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research, has interested
Mr. D'Alton, Minister for Forestry, in
the possibilities of this tree, and the
Minister recently visited the Crockett
plantations. As a result Mr. Crockett
is coming to Tasmania this week, and
it is probable that the industry will be
launched here in the near future.
From a farmer's point of view the
cricket bat willow, or blue willow,
variety "Cacrulea," of the genus 'Salix
alba," has two important attributes. In
the first place it offers a quick and
substantial return, a 12-year-old tree,.
if sound and well-grown,
being valued at £10 for tie 8ft. bole alone, while
some return may also be expected lortie
timber in the boughs for purposes
other than bat manufacture. Secondly,
this tree is
particularly valuable for
the prevention of erosion on river and
creek banks, quickly forming all imperviols mat of roots which will defy the
wildest waters. Some thousands of the
species are ill use for this purpose on
properties under the charge of the
Metropolitan Water Board and the State
Rivers and Water Supply Commission.
In the midlands of Tasmania there are
streams which are destroying many
hundreds of acres of good land every
serious flood, and overseas experience
is that trees are much more effective
than piles or even concrete for the
protection of banks.
A Tough Tree
Landowners know the weakness of
.the ordinary willow, its sprawling
boughs breaking easily and cluttering
up stream beds, but the cricket bat
willow has an upright form of grown
and its boughs hold tightly to the trunk
It flourishes wherever the ordinary
willow grows, namely, along streams
and water-courses where dampness prevails but the subsoil is not waterlogged.
It will not thrive under stagnant conditions.
The story is not wholly rosy, as may
be expected, for, like all good things,
even the cricket bat willow industry
has its handicaps. Not all "Salix elba"
trees make good bats. The practice is
to take cuttings only from those trees
which are proved by felling to be
sound and suitable. Cuttings taken in
discriminately may grow into trees of
undesirable texture which give only
inferior timber. Furthermore, a disease, known as "watermark," attacks
the trees, rendering them unfit for use.
Fortunately the Crockett plantation have been kept free of this plague, and
with care it should be possible to keep
it out of Tasmania altogether.
Generally speaking, it seems likely
that Tasmanian bats may soon 'compete in fame with Tasmanian tennis
rackets, and they can be 100 per cent.
locally grown if landholders in this
state are alive to the possibilities.
Mr.
Crockett himself will be here in a day
or two and no doubt will give us much
valuable information to this end.
The willows (Salix – Salicaceae) in
Tasmania
Matthew L. Baker
Tasmanian Herbarium, Private Bag 4, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/documents/Muelleria_27%282%29%2C_p127-148%2C_Baker%2C_Salix_in_Tasmania_web_version.pdf
Abstract
The genus Salix L. in Tasmania is
wholly alien, having been introduced
as cultivated plants. Several taxa have
become naturalised, whilst others are
potential sources of naturalised taxa.
The naturalised taxa are: S. fragilis L.
var. fragilis, S. ×reichardtii A.Kern.,
S. cinerea L. subsp. cinerea and S.
cinerea subsp. oleifolia (Sm.) Macreight.
Taxa that are not fully naturalised
are: S. alba L. var. vitellina (L.) Stokes,
S. ×rubens Schrank, S. ×sepulcralis
Simonk. nothovar. chrysocoma (Dode)
Meikle, S. matsudana Koidz., ‘Tortuosa’,
S. ×calodendron Wimm., S. purpurea
L. Taxa that are common in Tasmania
but only known from cultivation are:
S. humboldtiana Willd. ‘Pyramidalis’,
S. matsudana × S. alba and S.
×pendulina Wender. var. pendulina.
The taxa are described and illustrated,
and their identification, distribution,
habitat and status are discussed.
Muelleria 27(2): 127-148 (2009)
Why willow? The magic wood and English monopoly
Roar Pro
As a cricket tragic, the timber used to make cricket bats has always fascinated me.
Why willow?
Of all the plants in the world (there are over 60,000 species of tree), why is only one very specific timber used to make bats?
The timber in question comes from a single cultivar of the English White Willow, known as the cricket-bat willow, or
Salix alba var. caerulea
All the best cricket bats in the world are made from this tree. At least, they are considered the best if the timber is cultivated and harvested in Britain. England has a surprising monopoly when it comes to producing cricket bats.
There is another place from which we get cricket-bat timber: the Kashmir region of India, which produces what is known as Kashmir willow. This is, in fact, the same
Salix alba caerulea found in Britain, but grown in India ...
http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/09/12/willow-magic-wood-english-monopoly/
