Welcome to the Strzeleckis in South Eastern Australia.

named after Count Paul Edmund de Strzelecki
  well done, Count!
 The Strzelecki State Forest forms the bulk of  the large, dark patch in the upper centre of the space shuttle image below (with the white cloud).  At the bottom of the picture is Wilsons Promontory, the southern most point of the Australian mainland. The dark patches to the right are Mullundung and WonWron State Forests.


The bush that can be found in this steep, wet mountain range
looks like this.

Pictured above is an assortment of ferns, treeferns, myrtle beech, blackwoods and mountain ash, which is a pretty typical mix for this state forest.

Below is another space shuttle image, this time looking roughly north-west across South Gippsland towards Melbourne and beyond. The large bay, close to the centre of the image, is Port Phillip Bay, around which Melbourne is built.  To the right of that lies the Central Highlands, a vast forested area, which is part of the Great Dividing Range.  Lower down the dark forested patches are mostly the Eastern Strzelecki Ranges, Mullundung State Forest and Won Wron State Forest. The long straight stretch of coast line is the Ninety Mile Beach.


Here is the intersection of the Toora-Gunyah Road and Devil's Pinch Road

The Strzelecki Ranges are one of the few sites of mountain ash forest.  Mountain ash (eucalyptus regnans) is the largest flowering plant in the world.  They require a particular combination of climate and altitude, etc to grow.  The map below shows where mountain ash grows.

Roaming around the Strzeleckis in an old Blitz truck in 1974



The RACV road map pictured below shows the Strzelecki State Forest coloured in black.
It is 2 to 3 hours drive from Melbourne.

The map below shows the Strzelecki State Forest boundaries in
closer detail and local Shire boundaries.

 

Remaining Native Vegetation in the Strzeleckis:-


 

A proportion of this State Forest has been converted to pine plantations.  The map below, from the Land Conservation Council in 1982 identified the softwood zones as grey.  The area coloured brown and most of the stripy area is classified as a hardwood zone.  The majority of this is mountain ash forest overlapping with cool temperate rainforest.

Management of the public Land in the Strzeleckis is carved up between Hancock Victorian Plantations(Black - 48,600ha.), Parks and reserves(dark yellow) totailing around 5000 hectares managed by either DSE or Parks, and a further 5000 ha. of non-leased State Forest (pink) is managed by DSE.

Continue to page 2 of this overview 
 

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