1930's Coastal Swamp Timber

The 1930's were the beginning albeit slow years of timber industry in Sarawak.

Logging and export was very controlled by the Brooke Government and much of the timber industry was mainly for local infrastructure development, like building of kampong houses, suraus, and shop houses.

My grandfather had a small timber licence to extract lowland timber near the coast, for his lumber yard in Mee Ann, in Binatang. He was the chief suppler of timber for the development of the new settlement of Binatang and the surrounding areas.

The sawmill was situated at the confluence of the Meradong and Rajang Rivers. Next to the sawmill, actually between the sawmill and the town was the Binatang Malay Kampong. In those days a foot path ran parallel to the Rajang river from the town to serve the sawmill. My grandfather saw to it that all machinery were properly installed and ran efficiently in the sawmill.

He also installed rice milling machinery to serve the local farmers. He was quite a workaholic, seldom stopping to have a snack or a rest, even having an afternoon nap. It was only after he retired that people realised that he would take a nap.

According to many elders, In those days many people would say that only towkays took a nap. But I did ask a few of myseniors about takig an afternoon nap and they actually said that they did not need one. And I thought that was amazing.

My grandfather would take his motor launch to the coast for a week or ten days with some labourers. He had quite a big team of workers, making Mee Ann a big business operation in the words of old relatives.

And on his return, he would tow back quite a long series of timber logs all very properly tied together. The Foochows have always been famous for this method of towing logs from one place to the other. These are called log rafts.





Indeed it was quite a skill to tie the logs together and tow them with a slow motor launch which never seemed to move much on the river. Grandfather was meticulous in checkig the work of his labourers. Any log not properly tie would mean the whole raft could just be loosened and be lost in the fast currents of the Rajang river.

A loving father, he would also bring back water melons, sweet corn, sea salt and salted fish from the folks he met at the coast.

My aunts and uncles would enjoy the sweet water melons. When he was back, everyone would see more food on the table too.