part of the Western Australian economy, at one time forming more than half of the state's revenue. Settlement of the Wheatbelt area was accelerated by the funds generated by sandalwood found there. Distribution and population of the endemic stands were significantly affected during periods of rural development and economic downturn. The state conservator of forests, Charles Lane-Poole, reported in the 1920s that the export value of the 331205 tons shipped from 1845 to date was £3,061,661; the primary use when imported to China was the manufacture of incense. However, Poole also notes the development of an oil extraction industry and use as an effective medical product. A much smaller, but economically significant, source was in the Quorn region of South Australia, reported in 1928. Research by the Forestry Products Commission (WA), state universities and private industry was undertaken into the cultivation of the tree and the properties of its wood and nuts. Replanting has occurred at some properties as a land restoration strategy, a food crop and in the long term for harvest. Oil valued at per is produced at Mount Romance in Albany, Western Australia. The area of commercial plantations rose from to between 2000 and 2006. The export of 2 000 tonnes of sandalwood a year is primarily sourced from wild stands of the remote rangelands and Goldfields region of Western Australia. The harvest of naturally occurring trees is reduced when compared to the industry of the 19th century. Exports of over 50 000 tonnes in the last decade were related to agricultural expansion by increased access and harvesters. According to the research and development corporation AgriFutures Australia in 2020, the WA sandalwood industry provides about 40 per cent of the international sandalwood oil market. Since 2015, for the first time Aboriginal Australians have been involved in the production of the oil. The Dutjahn custodians, representing the wider Martu community, who are connected to the land in the Gibson Desert where sandalwood is harvested, co-manage the company along with Kutkabbuba Aboriginal Corporation and the founders of WA Sandalwood Plantations. The harvesters stay at the tiny outstation of Mungilli, built in the early 1980s by Muntiljarra people. The company has a distillery in Kalgoorlie and markets the oil to some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Estee Lauder. The Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils company is 50 per cent owned by Indigenous Australians. Cultivation Germination is difficult, and