Posts tagged newcastle

I got a call from a friend on his way home from work saying there was smoke coming from the Dunston Staiths, so I took a quick wander along there with the camera and sure enough someone had set it on fire, sadly. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad a fire, and the fire brigade were already arriving as I was (just as I began dialing 999 I rounded the corner to see them).

Fire engine arriving at Dunston Staiths

Smoke rising from Dunston Staiths

Firemen climbing over barrier at Dunston Staiths

Fireman stretching hose out onto Dunston Staiths

Fireman trying to extinguish fire at Dunston Staiths

Firemen cutting burning wood out with an axe at Dunston Staiths

Firemen dumping charred planks into the river at Dunston Staiths

As you can see, sadly they have had to cut even more chunks out of the Staiths, though thankfully it’s nowhere near as bad as the fire that ravaged the structure in November 2003. This means that even more of the structure needs to be repaired, though with each fire I would imagine that gets even more unlikely a proposition.

Part of the problem is that the Staiths are made from an Australian wood known by its aboriginal name of Jarrah, which comes from the protected Eucalyptus Marginata tree.  This wood was heavily forested for years for use in piers, railways, bridges and similar structures due to its dense nature and ability to withstand extreme moisture without decaying. The wood was exported throughout the British Empire for the uses mentioned above in the thousands of tons.  Due to over use it is now bordering on being an endangered species, and as such the Australian government has placed a ban on the export of the wood, in fact many things built from Jarrah now even in Australia are built using reclaimed timber from destroyed buildings. As the Dunston Staiths are a listed structure, any repairs must be carried out using the same materials as the original, which obviously is not possible due to the export restrictions in place in Australia.

The Dunston Staiths were built in 1893 and were instrumental in the export of coals from the Newcastle,Durham and other local mining communities.  Trains loaded with coal would arrive onto the Staiths and then be unloaded onto ships that would carry the coal out to sea and its eventual destination. It is truly saddening to see yet another fire started on there by vandals who obviously don’t appreciate the significance of the Staiths in both the maritime and mining history of Newcastle.

~Shepy