Know Your Timber

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Timber for Gates and Post + Rail Fencing

With many years of experience creating beautiful gates and fences around Australia, we’ve come to appreciate the many variations of timber, and truly understand what sets apart the best fencing and gates. If you’re choosing a fence and gate, we implore you to do more than a quick Google search and instead get a proper understanding of what timbers are ideal for the job.  

Many timbers are sought after with undue hype. Years of experience have shown us the truth about what timbers are best, and we want to share this with you so you can make an informed decision.

Hardwoods - best overall for post + rail

The best timber for post and rail fencing is Hardwood. It is heavy-duty and highly resistant to termites, rot and decay. The weight of this timber means it is able to absorb knocks and bumps that most fences receive, such as those from mowers and livestock. Hardwood is the premium option and if we had our way, every post and rail fence in Australia would be made of this hardy timber.

To ensure that your Strukta fence remains strong and beautiful for many years to come, we use a variety of hardwoods including Australian Ironbark, Tallowwood, and Blackbutt (pictured below in order) for most of our posts. 

Ironbark is a eucalypt with exceptionally dense, hardwood that was often used in the early 20th century for the construction of bridges and wharves.  You don’t get much stronger than that! Found in forests spread across southern Australia, it is also grown in extensive plantations, making it a sustainable timber.

Tallowwood grows in wet, sclerophyll coastal forests from the Hunter Region of New South Wales north to K’gari (Fraser Island) in Queensland.  It is an extremely durable, tough timber with a coarse texture and interlocking grain. 

Blackbutt is a moderately tall eucalypt native to Eastern Australia and due to its quick growth and versatility, is an excellent plantation timber.  With an impressive, straight grain and lovely golden-brown colour, Blackbutt is perfect for flooring, construction and of course, fences.

These hardwoods have a Class 1 & 2 durability rating, which is the best you can get. Government tests carried out on 50x50mm stakes show these hardwoods lasting 25+ years in the ground, so larger posts will last considerably longer.

Victorian Cypress - most cost-effective for post + rail

We also have Victorian Cypress as a second fencing timber option. Victorian Cypress is a soft-wood sourced from end-of-life windbreaks that have become dangerous to people and livestock due to falling branches.

Where this lovely timber would usually be bulldozed and burnt, Strukta mills it into the beautiful post and rail fencing we’ve become known for. Victorian Cypress (pictured below) is not as durable as Hardwood, but it is a more economical and sustainable option.

With a pale, straw colour when freshly cut, Victorian Cypress naturally weathers to a silver-grey – so it looks gorgeous as fencing in our silvery grey-green Australian landscapes! Naturally stable and durable, Cypress Macrocarpa is a large fast-growing tree with multiple branching trunks. This results in less knots than white cypress, a straight grain, and a softer structure. 

To protect Cypress posts from in-ground conditions which can cause rot, we recommend it’s first coated with StruktaCoat Tarshield – a bitumen-based coating that will shield it from moisture and increase its lifespan.

Victorian Cypress Pine has a timber rating of Class 2 above ground, and Class 3 in ground, meaning a 50x50mm stake will last 30+ years and 8-15 years respectively.

We hope it brings you the same joy as it does us, that every Strukta Cypress fence is preserving, honouring and giving purpose to precious timbers that otherwise would’ve been destroyed.

Queensland “White” Cypress (Pine) - best for gates

Queensland Cypress – or white cypress – is an extremely durable softwood, grown in Queensland and New South Wales. With a delightful pale yellow or golden colour, it is perfect for construction and is used widely for a variety of different purposes, including Strukta gates.

Queensland Cypress is a tall, straight, slow-growing tree with many small branches, resulting in knots and a colourful, dark brown grain pattern.  It is naturally termite-resistant and has a long life-expectancy. The vast majority is harvested from well-managed State-owned land in Queensland and New South Wales. This ensures that our amazing Australian white cypress is being sustainably managed for the present and for future generations.

Strukta white cypress is sourced from sustainable plantations in central-west Queensland and others across Australia, meaning that you can be assured that your gates are not being made from old-growth timber or destroying ancient ecosystems.

We choose to use Queensland Cypress Pine for all of our gates because it is a highly attractive timber that is also extremely durable and naturally termite resistant. It is much lighter than hardwood, making it perfect for gates that are robust and durable yet light enough to be operated manually or with automation.

Being a slow growing plantation timber most timber mills find it difficult to cut Cypress Pine to larger dimensions, such as 150x150mm. So, whilst we can create fences from this timber, we recommend only using it for gates, and using Hardwood or Victorian Cypress for fencing.

Queensland Cypress Pine is a Class 1 timber above the ground, meaning it can last 50+ years.

Finishing touches to a Queensland Cypress Strukta gate.

Timber naturally goes silver-grey

It is important to note that any timber, once cut, will grey with exposure to weather. The best way to avoid this is to oil your timber, enhancing and maintaining its natural beauty. Whether you choose a clear or tinted coating, it is always best applied after cleaning and it’s well worth paying for high-quality products. We now offer StruktaCoat, a range of gorgeous naturally coloured coatings shown below. Contact us to order StruktaCoat.

StruktaCoat - our new range of oils and protectants

In summary

The best overall, longest-lasting and strongest timber for post and rail fencing is Hardwood.

The best cost-effective and more sustainable timber for post and rail fencing is Victorian Cypress.

The best timber option for wooden gates is Queensland Cypress Pine.