© Copyright 2011 Julianne Dodds
Timber, Veneer and Plywood
1901 - 1969
From country to city
Kingston Glue Factory
The greatest expenses in running a timber mill were wages and logs. The ‘milk’ was needed to make the
casein glue to glue sheets of veneer together to make the plywood.
In the beginning, 200 to 1000 gallons of
skim milk per day were required.
In October 1918 Mac purchased
12 ½ acres of land at Kingston, south
of Brisbane beside the railway line.
He built a glue factory and, using the
buttermilk from the nearby Kingston
Butter factory, produced his own casein
glue.
Glue Factory built at Kingston, south of Brisbane in 1918.
Williams Collection.
Bullock team hauling logs in the Canungra district.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Image number: 170790
The bullock teams
Mac had been purchasing his pine logs
from the Beechmont Pine Company near
Canungra. To cut expenses he decided
to fell and mill his own timber. In 1918
he bought a property at Josephville,
nine miles south of Beaudesert that was
covered with 6,000,000 feet of standing
pine. Timber-getters worked with double-
handed saws cutting down the pine trees.
Stripped of excess branches the trees
were loaded onto a wagon. A team of
bullocks was yoked to the wagon and
slowly made its way along the dusty road
to the sawmill. The logs were either sawn
into planks or taken down to the railway
siding and railed to Coorparoo.
