It was recognised by Sir William Schlich in his summary of British Empire forest policy in 1922 that Australia lacked many of the skills to undertake inventory needed to prepare proper working plans.
So in 1927–28, the Commission made concerted effort to recruit trained foresters from Norway.
They included Bernhard Johannessen, Kristian Drangsholt and Bjarne Dahl who formed the nucleus of a forest assessment branch.
In an era before there were many roads, these foresters travelled on horses into the remote forests of Victoria.
Base lines were surveyed and the forest divided into one-chain (20 metre) strips.
It was arduous work with an axeman clearing a straight path through the bush, a chainman following to measure distances while an assessor counted and assessed the trees.
An aneroid barometer was carried to mark out 50 feet contour levels.
Later, by joining-the-dots, they produced the first hand-drawn and coloured topographical maps of the forest which were rare before the War.
Often working in trackless bush accidents were common and help was far away.
Drangsholt almost drowned as he tried to cross the flooded Thomson River to reach the sanctuary of Aberfeldy.
During Bjarne Dahl's long career he probably saw more of Victoria than most foresters ever did.
He died in 1993 and left his entire estate, a sizable sum, to the Forests Commission which is now managed in a trust to focus on the eucalypts.
He wrote:
I was once a Chief Forester and I owe the Forests Commission of Victoria a great deal of gratitude for giving me in 1928 the opportunity to make good in my profession..... Bjarne Dahl.

Owen Jones, the young Welsh Chairman of the newly formed Forests Commission had enlisted as one of Britain's original "Warbirds" in the Royal Flying Corps during WW1 and had long championed the idea of forest surveying, mapping and assessment from aerial photographs so in 1928 the Commission undertook its first major aerial photography project over 15,000 acres of forest.
During the second world war, large areas of Victoria were photographed by RAAF aircrews and later used by various state government authorities to produce orthophoto maps.
By 1945 aerial photography of 13,000 square miles (3.4 M ha) of forest was completed, including much of the inaccessible forest in the eastern ranges.

After the War, stip assessments continued but were focused in the eastern ranges, with forest mapping and classification carried out using interpretation of aerial photography undertaken by the RAAF.
Assessments were in remote locations with access by 4WD tracks, but also still by pack horse, with staff based in canvas tents in the mountain forests often in grassy clearings in high elevation snow gum woodland.

From the mid-1950s, there was a transition from strip assessments to using fixed sample plots combined with new computer programming techniques to calculate volumes of both sawlog and pulpwood.

In 1964, a network of Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) plots were established for measuring periodic growth, commencing initially in the Wombat forest, then Mt Cole, Barmah Forest and also conifer plantations.

As aerial photographic cameras developed and got cheaper in the 1960s and ‘70s all forest services began purchasing their own 70 mm medium format camera equipment and modifying small civilian aircraft to undertake regular surveys collecting information on things like vegetation, logging areas, new road works and bushfire history.
Photos were interpreted using steroplotting equipment such as a Zeiss Aero Sketchmaster.

The Commission continued to make a sizable effort in aerial photography, forest inventory, mapping, tree measurement, growth monitoring and analysis.
This information was used not only to identify timber resources but also to monitor forest health and calculate sustainable yields and allowable harvesting levels.
It was recognised by Sir William Schlich in his summary of British Empire forest policy in 1922 that Australia lacked many of the skills to undertake inventory needed to prepare proper working plans. So in 1927–28, the Commission made concerted effort to recruit trained foresters from Norway. They included Bernhard Johannessen, Kristian Drangsholt and Bjarne Dahl who formed the nucleus of a forest assessment branch. In an era before there were many roads, these foresters travelled on horses into the remote forests of Victoria. Base lines were surveyed and the forest divided into one-chain (20 metre) strips. It was arduous work with an axeman clearing a straight path through the bush, a chainman following to measure distances while an assessor counted and assessed the trees. An aneroid barometer was carried to mark out 50 feet contour levels. Later, by joining-the-dots, they produced the first hand-drawn and coloured topographical maps of the forest which were rare before the War. Often working in trackless bush accidents were common and help was far away. Drangsholt almost drowned as he tried to cross the flooded Thomson River to reach the sanctuary of Aberfeldy. During Bjarne Dahl's long career he probably saw more of Victoria than most foresters ever did. He died in 1993 and left his entire estate, a sizable sum, to the Forests Commission which is now managed in a trust to focus on the eucalypts. He wrote:
I was once a Chief Forester and I owe the Forests Commission of Victoria a great deal of gratitude for giving me in 1928 the opportunity to make good in my profession..... Bjarne Dahl.
Owen Jones, the young Welsh Chairman of the newly formed Forests Commission had enlisted as one of Britain's original "Warbirds" in the Royal Flying Corps during WW1 and had long championed the idea of forest surveying, mapping and assessment from aerial photographs so in 1928 the Commission undertook its first major aerial photography project over 15,000 acres of forest. During the second world war, large areas of Victoria were photographed by RAAF aircrews and later used by various state government authorities to produce orthophoto maps. By 1945 aerial photography of 13,000 square miles (3.4 M ha) of forest was completed, including much of the inaccessible forest in the eastern ranges.
After the War, stip assessments continued but were focused in the eastern ranges, with forest mapping and classification carried out using interpretation of aerial photography undertaken by the RAAF. Assessments were in remote locations with access by 4WD tracks, but also still by pack horse, with staff based in canvas tents in the mountain forests often in grassy clearings in high elevation snow gum woodland.
From the mid-1950s, there was a transition from strip assessments to using fixed sample plots combined with new computer programming techniques to calculate volumes of both sawlog and pulpwood.
In 1964, a network of Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) plots were established for measuring periodic growth, commencing initially in the Wombat forest, then Mt Cole, Barmah Forest and also conifer plantations.
As aerial photographic cameras developed and got cheaper in the 1960s and ‘70s all forest services began purchasing their own 70 mm medium format camera equipment and modifying small civilian aircraft to undertake regular surveys collecting information on things like vegetation, logging areas, new road works and bushfire history. Photos were interpreted using steroplotting equipment such as a Zeiss Aero Sketchmaster.
The Commission continued to make a sizable effort in aerial photography, forest inventory, mapping, tree measurement, growth monitoring and analysis. This information was used not only to identify timber resources but also to monitor forest health and calculate sustainable yields and allowable harvesting levels.
Forests Commission Victoria