"I can remember his eyes glazing over and his voice taking on a reverent tone as he declared red cedar to be the king of all trees, then, the total disdain, as he described all other timbers as being only fit for firewood," Mr Ridgway said.

"Most Australians do not know how important red cedar was in the foundation of the colony back in the 1790s and after. Long before wool or gold, before coal and iron ore provided an export income, it was the fabulous timber of the red cedar tree that truly transformed a convict colony into a nation."

Little did he know as a child, Mr Ridgway's life would start revolving around the "remarkable tree".

In the late 70s his parents and sisters moved to Port Macquarie, and soon after Mr Ridgway followed, fascinated with Timbertown's history.

After pursuing a number of jobs such as making pizzas, working in a bakery and even a mechanical engineer's fitters assistant, he completed his industrial arts teachers training.

"I came out at a time where there was an oversupply of teachers so at first I didn't get a job, so I did other things. Once I got my face and name known around the area I started working, I did most of my teaching at Port High but I've taught everywhere: Wauchope, West Port and Camden Haven.

"I've always done two jobs at once, I was an industrial arts teacher who had a great interest in timber and the cedar... and the history of timber around here is so interesting.”

Mr Ridgway even established his own wood machining business, started off cabinet making and expanded from there.

"I was dressing timber, making fancy skirting boards and architraves for the tradies then I built a little saw mill and was cutting up logs, cedar and rosewood and made boxes, chests and tables that I was selling.

"I've always been a very hands on person, I guess I grew up with my grandparents, good with their hands always making things and had access to basic tools, I just get a lot of satisfaction out of producing something from a piece of wood, medal or whatever."

In 2001 Mr Ridgway decided to stray away from teaching and began writing, writing about a passion of his: three books celebrating the final years of cedar­getting on the east coast of Australia.

"It's sort of like a fictional story based on facts. I had a great uncle who got killed in world war one and my grandmother always spoke about him as if he was going to come home and sit down and have a cup of tea with her, this was back in the 60s when I was growing up, and I was always fascinated by his story.

"So when I wrote the books I needed a main character so I used him. Instead of him dying I brought him home and this is the story he had in the 20s (first war), 30s (great depression) and 40s (after WWII).

"That's some of the family history I've put in it, it's a real human interest story but it's also history of this area and the cedar history, the change in technology in the industry.

"The first book is in 1920 when this guy comes back from world war one and is a bit shell shocked and damaged," he said.

Mr Ridgway said a review he received from Dr JS Ryan from UNE, a well­noted Australian historian, was like a dream.

"He called me after he read the book and I couldn't get him off the phone. He wanted to know where I got all of my information and I tried to pick my brain to add to his collection of knowledge and he compared me to a couple of well­known Australian writers and English writers."