STRINGERS KNOB

	Grid Reference	FU 120357
	Department	DEPI
	Work Depot	Orbost
	Region	Gippsland
	Grading	Primary
	Elevation (ASL)	306m
	Height	30m
	Construction	Timber
	Cabin size	2.4m x 2.4m
	Public access to site	Yes
	In use since	1941 - 196?
	CFA Region	11 - Eastern

Mr. H. Galbrath, Divisional Forester for East Gippsland, asked an employee in the Orbost district to experiment with a single pole tower. The spot selected was Stringer's Knob, an eminence which takes its name from a timber cutter who worked in the area. The height of the tower was to be one hundred feet above the ground with ten feet of the pole in the ground. A straight red ironbark and a yellow stringybark were felled and hauled to the site where they were bolted together to make the required length. Hundreds of feet of wire rope with pulley blocks were arranged to allow a 36H.P. tractor to haul the pole upright. When it was secured, a cabin, eight feet square, had to be built on the seventeen inch diameter pole one hundred feet up in the air. The ladder to the cabin was made of two rows of iron bars placed in such a way that the climb was vertical and not around the pole. There are 2 resting platforms on the way to the top. The observation room is 2.5m square, of timber construction and enclosed on four sides with the top third comprised of louvred windows. Entry was through a trap-door in the floor of the cabin.
The Stringer's Knob Tower overlooks the Orbost flats and the coastline from east of Marlo to Lake Tyers. In the other direction it covers the Snowy River Valley as far as Gelantipy, Mt. Deddick and a large portion of the Nowa Nowa district. There it stands, a useful monument to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of our forest workers.
(From material supplied by a Forestry employee, Mr. Clem Heather, who built the tower)
This information is taken from a local "Gap" magazine and believed to be written by a V. A. Davey, H.T. Orbost.
Photo (taken in 1984) and copy of paper clipping supplied by Lois and John Brownbridge (Seldom Seen)

The tower was inspected on the 17th October 1979 and the report states:
"It was bored at breast level and appears to be as sound as the day it was built."

Part of a letter received from a job applicant (year unknown): "After studying your specification for the position, I find I am no longer interested. My commitments compel me to be home each night" (supplied by DSE Orbost)

Please click on thumbnails for enlargements


Proof that someone did climb this tower!!	Base of the tower supplied by Paul Jones	Inside cabin on pole in 2000?	May 2007	May 2007	May 2007

Inside cabin photo supplied by DSE Orbost
The 2007 thumbnail photos were supplied by Andre Belterman

Stringers Knob was unfortunatly destroyed by the devastating fires in January 2020 :(
Please click here for an article (Jan2020), including photos, about the destroyed tower. It was written by Mark Simons from DELWP.

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