The Sandalwood Industry In Australia: A History

From its inception in 1805, when it contributed to Sydney merchant incomes from whaling ventures, until today, when it earns several million dollars in export revenue, the sandalwood industry has played a small but significant part in Australia's economic development. The history of the industry falls into three major stages: first is the off-shore exploitation of the wood from Sydney, from 1805 to the 1840's and beyond; second is the free exploitation of Australian grown sandalwood from 1844 to 1929; and finally the period of government controlled exploitation from 1929 to the present. Sandalwood is a highly aromatic wood that has been highly prized for centuries, particularly by the Chinese and Indians. Powdered sandalwood is burnt in joss sticks as incense and forms an integral part of religious ceremonies (see report on details of joss stick manufacture in Forests and Forest Products and Industries of W.A., 1921), while certain species of the wood can be carved into many delicate forms such as fans, inlaid boxes and ornaments, and incense holders. Large carved sandalwood boxes have been especially valued as bride or trouseau boxes, as the wood is said to deter moths and other insects. Sandalwood cones, again of powdered wood, are used today as mosquito deterrents. Sandalwood oil, when distilled from the heartwood, is equally valuable being used as a fixative in making soaps and perfumes, and for medicinal purposes. It is mostly used today in perfumes and up to the Second World War, before penicillin, it was even used to treat venereal disease (Donovan 1975; Underwood 1954, p. 21). The many uses of sandalwood and its religious significance to vast populations, on one hand, and the relative scarcity of the wood and its very slow growth rate, on the other, have combined to make it an extremely valuable commodity in many parts of the world. Although sandalwood grows in a number of countries, most consume it domestically, and in several nations where the tree does not grow, demand is also high (e.g. Singapore and China). Consequently, a large international demand exists for the fragrant wood. Australia, basically a nonuser, has thus become one of the principal suppliers. Australia has several native species within the broad genus Santalum, but only two—Santalum spicatum and Santalum lanceolatum—have been used for export because of their "true sandalwood" fragrance. These two types can also be ranked in terms of their export potential. S. spicatum (also called S. cygnaum) has been the major export earner and flourishes mainly in Western Australia. Originally it grew in a broad range from above the Murchison River to Esperence in the South, and Presented at the Symposium on Sandalwood in the Pacific, April 9-11, 1990, Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Senior Lecturer, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Perth, Australia. inland beyond the Eastern Goldfields through to the foothills of the Darling Ranges (Talbot 1983, p. 25; Irwin 1847; Robertson 1958, p. 4). It also grew on the western borders of the Nullabor in South Australia. S. lanceolatum, the second major type of sandalwood exported, flourishes in Northern Australia, around Shark Bay and the Kimberleys in Western Australia (Talbot 1983) and in Northern Queensland above Cairns and in the HughendonCloncurry area, a basalt region which also contained a small patch of sandalwood of the album variety. Interestingly, 4 tons of this last mentioned wood were apparently used at Ghandi's funeral in 1948 (North Queensland Register 22.9.1979). The northern species of sandalwood were, and still are, highly prized by the aboriginals as the wood and its scent are regarded as fundamental elements in sex-magic (Sansom 1980). It is thus possible that the value they placed on the wood prevented its ready exchange with visiting Macassan fisherman and so delayed world cognizance of its existence until the mid-19th century! The growth patterns, variance, and problems in propagating and cultivating these native species are discussed in other chapters. STAGE I: THE OFFSHORE INDUSTRY Australia's romance with the sandalwood industry began very early. Just 15 years after its foundation in 1788, Sydney merchants were looking for cargoes that could be exchanged for tea from China, for which even the convicts had developed a passion. In this period such trade was difficult not only because the Chinese would accept only limited commodities—including fur and sandalwood—in exchange, but because the British East India Company claimed a monopoly on all British trade in the region. To overcome this monopoly, the Sydney traders soon developed trading links with American whalers in the area and transferred to them the whale oil, seal furs and skins, and the sandalwood they had obtained on their own account, receiving tackle and tea in exchange. No sandalwood grows naturally on Australia's East Coast. It does grow in northwestern Queensland but not in areas that were readily accessible to the eastern coast in the days of bullock transportion (Boland 1984). All wood collected by the Sydney traders in the early years, therefore, came from stands growing on Pacific Islands, principally Fiji. Initial exploitation of the wood has been attributed to the increasing activity of Sydney-based sealers and whalers in the Pacific region (Hainsworth 1964-65, p. 2; Shineberg 1967, p. 2) because merchants financing such voyages ordered crews to look for payable cargoes in off-season periods. In this manner merchant Simeon Lord brought the first sandalwood cargo into Sydney in April 1805 (Hainsworth 1964-65, p. 3-5). By 1808 Simeon Lord's London agents were gathering in remittances from Nantucket, which totaled some £30,000 (N.S.W. Archives 1822-26)—a fortune when the Governor's yearly salary was only £500. But the risks of sandalwood voyages for the small colonial vessels and their crews were horrendous. Not only were the Fiji Islands guarded by dangerous reefs, their inhabitants 26 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-122. 1990 were cannibal warriors customarily engaged in tribal warfare (Hainsworth 1971, p. 177). Overtime, moreover, the natives became dissatisfied with the beads and nicknacks they had previously accepted in exchange and demanded more valuable goods for the wood they brought to the beaches, hence increasing the costs of each voyage. For all these reasons the sandalwood trade remained small scale, and even during this first boom period total quantities extracted from Fiji did not exceed several hundred tons (Hainsworth 1964-65, p. 18). Prevailing high prices began to falter in 1809 (mainly due to oversupply) and only sporadic cargoes were collected between then and 1816 when Fijian stands "were to all intents and purposes cut out" (Shineberg 1967, p. 7). Those merchants who had profited had done so, I believe, because the costs of collecting sandalwood had been largely swallowed in the general costs of equipping the whaling and and sealing voyages they were already financing; and because, in the early period at least, the wood was exchanged for scrimshaw—the carved whale's teeth that sailors etched during long periods of inactivity (Hainsworth 1971, p. 164). Carved whale's teeth were known as "Tambua" in Fiji and were worn by chiefs on a string of female pubic hair as a symbol of power. The Tambua are still highly prized and have enormous significance in transactions. Presentation of a Tambua is a matter of great honor, and by law they are not allowed to leave the island. One presented to Prince Charles had to remain in Fiji (oral evidence). Although isolated incidents of trade in sandalwood by the Sydney traders have been traced to the 1820's and 1830's, low prices in China and political difficulties between China and Britain generally depressed the trade until the 1840's. With the end of the Opium Wars in 1842-43 and the recommencement of open trade with China, however, sandalwood prices began to rise, initiating the second main sandalwood boom which lasted— despite fluctuations—to the 1860's (Shineberg 1967, p. 64-70, 72). The Sydney traders were quick to reenter the trade and extended their collections from Fiji to a wide range of Pacific Islands, especially the Marquesas and the New Hebrides. But the Sydney traders this time had American and English competitors for the wood, and supplies on the small islands were not limitless. To counteract diminishing returns, ships and crews had to venture further and further afield, sometimes into uncharted waters, which increased the risks of shipwreck. Problems with the natives of the islands also escalated with their continuing exposure to Europeans, and natives' demands for more valuable trade items also increased. Profits were thus never as high in this second boom as they had been in the first, and by the mid-1860's the Sydney-based industry collapsed— mainly due to the exhaustion of commercially viable stands in the South Pacific (table 1). But by that time the Chinese merchants were being supplied from another Australian source— and this time with native Australian sandalwood. STAGE II. AUSTRALIAN SANDALWOOD, 1844-1929 In the period 1844 to 1929, Western Australia was a dominant exporter of sandalwood, which was purchased mainly by Chinese merchants in Singapore and Shanghai to be powdered for incense. An overview of the volumes of wood exported from Western Australia in this period of free exploitation, however, reveals three separate phases. The first phase, 1844-1880, was the era of discovery and initial exploitation when sandalwood cutting was closely linked with the expansion of the pastoral and wheat industries (table 2). The second phase, 1880-1918, was Western Australia's golden era when sandalwood and gold prospecting were closely linked (table 3). The third phase, 19181929, was marked by a rapid boom, the entry of other states, and by first attempts to regulate and stabilize the industry (tables 4, 5).