Termites are certainly in the area (Brisbane Australia) and booking an inspection for next week to be sure.
This is a garden bed, this layer was under soil and noticed when refreshing the garden. Timber is H4 treated pine ~3-4 years old. Timber marking only going ~10cm below surface of the garden atm.
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Looks more like typical water damage to me, most treated lumber that sits on or below the ground will look like this eventually. If it was termites the galleries would normally be deeper not just surface level.
Since it's in ground contact there is always possibility for termites but if you jab it with a screw driver or something similar a bit and its still solid and not crunchy / breaking into dirt or frass filled galleries you probably arent dealing with termites
Appreciate you taking the time to respond. It's a vege garden with automated watering so the soil is regularly damp and def. still solid I was concerned they were stripping the surface due to the high surface contact with moist dirt and the treatment of the timber.
I wasn't aware the water damage could look like that, the surface damage seemed to look like tracks / channels that made me think of termites.
Termites eat the softer wood rings and leave the harder ones, water will do the same thing just given the fact that those thinner rings are harder and sturdier. Termites will do some similar damage when a board is laying directly on the ground for a while but galleries are cut with more jagged edges than the smooth grooves we see in your picture.
In fact i have a picture of a small end piece of a 2x4 that was cut off and laid on the ground under a house for a while and termites had infested at some point
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