Charles Lane Poole

Who was Charles Lane Poole?

Charles Lane Poole was an English Australian forester who, introduced systematic, science-based forestry to Western Australia.

He was the Commonwealth's first Inspector-General of Forests and trained many of Australia's professional foresters at Australian Forestry School which he established in Canberra.

When the Western Australia authorities would not heed his advice, he resigned in protest. The Australian timber industry pressured the national government to hire Lane Poole to survey the existing timber resources in Papua, then an Australian territory, and later in New Guinea. He spent three years surveying the Papuan and New Guinea forests, from the lowlands to the highlands; he surveyed the country, measured trees, and collected specimens. Although he did not find the stands of timber that could be harvested on a large scale, his extensive notes on such forest products as resin, oils and nuts helped identify other possible avenues of commercial development. After the missionary Christian Keyser, he was one of the first Europeans to climb the Saruwaged Massif.