Hi Ian,
I don't know about the bit of wood, but if you ar only lining up your pier with south, then it doesn't need to be too accurate. You should have some form of adjustment device on top of the pier to fine tune it later.
In the maentime, if you just take the long axis of the southern cross out four and a half times from the point. That is the celestial south you should line it up on.
Have a look at a couple of the illustrations
here
Hope it helps.
Baz.