: Hi - I've just moved to Australia and am researching the building of a Night
: Heron & Guillemot S.
: Could anyone point me at where I could get the strips from? Ideally I'd like
: to get them cut into 3/5" x 1/4" strips with coves & beads
: as it is not practical to do this where I live.
: What type of local wood is suitable?
: I'm also trying to cost the materials. Could anyone share their breakdown of
: costs? In particular a breakdown of the cost to build in Australia.

: Many thanks.
: Simon

Hi Simon, Welcome to Oz.

It would help if we knew where you are, Australia is a big place.

I'm in Sydney and can give you list of places to buy stuff, but there's not much point me writing a big list if it turns out that you're in Perth (3000 miles away!).

There are a lot of places to get stuff cheaper, avoid boating accessory shops, you'll leave a lot of cash there. Look in the yellow pages and try to find importers/local manufacturers. there are a lot of local places that make good epoxy and it'll cost a lot less than the well known (imported) brands, and be just as good ("botecoat" for example).

Western red cedar is probably going to be your best bet, most of the local timber is hard and dense (like a lot of the population ), or easy to work and expensive. Again, it depends on where you are. If you're in sydney, Trend timbers at Penrith is the only timber seller I ever heard of who sell wood for kayaks, you could try them. I've never been there myself cause it's about an hour out of sydney and i never seem to have the time.

I've bought the local mag that other people have recommended, but I really cant see much value in it, mostly just unimaginative projects poorly done, but that's just my opinion. Australian woodworker mag is better from a standpoint of locating local suppliers.

Feel free to email me if you're in Sydney, and I'll let you know about the places I've hunted down.

Cheers,

Paul