Black Palm is a native that grows with a very scattered distribution in and on the edges of the rainforest from around 200KM north of Cairns to the cape and into PNG. It's also grown as an ornamental in the northern tropics. After spending weeks visually hunting them down in peoples yards and driveways I figured that occasionally those same people would get one removed, so I made up an email with photos of the palm, an explanation of what I wanted it for and some photos of the finished product, that being a bow with black palm limbs, (I find showing people what you plan to make with the timber you are after is a great motivator) and an offer of $50 per six foot length. Then I emailed it to around 6-8 tree loppers that work in the local area. The response was quite good, three of them replied and said they would let me know next time the were going to cut one down (which was a fairly rare event).
Six months later I have acquired 2 seven foot lengths of 'Normanbya normanbyi' (which is the common one used more as an ornamental), a seven foot length and a four foot length of 'Laccospadix australasicus' (which is a more localized species that has big nasty black spikes all over the trunk).
The usable timber is a relatively thin band around the outside of the trunk which varies in width according to species and age of the palm. In the case of the 'Normanbya normanbyi' it's up to about 25-30mm thick in a mature palm at the base and gets thinner the higher up the tree. In the case of the 'Laccospadix australasicus' it's only about 10-15mm thick in the pieces I have but I don't think the tree was fully mature.
And here's some pictures.
'Laccospadix australasicus'
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Rob.
Email; robnicoll(at)bigpond(dot)com
