Brief Background to the Pine Plantation Controversy in the Strzelecki Ranges

Many groups and individuals have serious concerns about the planting of pine plantations in the Strzelecki Ranges. While some pine plantations were planted on cleared farmland by both the State and APM, many of these have been established inappropriately on steep slopes, and within  natural forest areas with detrimental ecological effects. Many of these pine plantations were planted after logging of native forest. These mistakes of the past should not be repeated.

This is not a recent concern. During the 1970s there were many protests regarding the Forests Commission practice of logging native forest and establishing pine plantations. In 1983 the Yarram & District Conservation Group called for a ‘full and open public inquiry into the timber industry in Victoria’. Many local and state organisations supported an inquiry into the conversion of native forest into plantation. In 1984, the government initiated an inquiry.  One welcome outcome for conservationists statewide was the Government’s acceptance of the recommendation that from 1986 the conversion of public forest into plantation would cease in Victoria. 

In 1993 the State’s pine plantations were vested in the Victorian Plantations Corporation (VPC), a state-owned enterprise. In 1998 the timber rights to the pine plantations across the state were sold to Hancock Victorian Plantations. This included the pine plantations in the Strzelecki State Forest, and tragically, despite intensive lobbying and protest, 7,000 hectares of so-called hardwood plantations in the Strzeleckis were also included in the deal.  The community was also devastated by an additional 20,000 hectares of public native forest being given to HVP for ‘management purposes’. 

The inclusion of the so called hardwood plantations was highly controversial as what was being classed as plantation seemed to be anywhere that had been logged and regenerated by the Forest Commission and areas that had been restored under the Mountain Ash Reforestation Scheme. The DCE brochure "welcome to the Strzelecki Forest Drive" (undated, but circa 1990) states: "In any one year wood is harvested from about 100 ha (0.9%) of the native Strzelecki forests. It goes on to say "Forests are regenerated following harvesting". The aim of the Mountain Ash Reforestation Scheme was to regenerate Mountain Ash in degraded areas in the hills bringing about ‘the restoration of a forest that will eventually have a similar structure to the original’ (Land Conservation Council Final Recommendations SG Area 2 1982).

Leasing these areas to HVP for plantation purposes is an ecological disaster. In state forests the promise was to not log an area again or give it at least 80-100 years before logging again. Under HVP this changed to short term industrial scale logging. Clearfelling is known to have detrimental effects on biodiversity, water quality and production, soil, and scenic values— and in the Strzeleckis it was set to increase.

 In 2008 a long suppressed 1993 report from the Land Conservation Council, the Government’s advisory body on environmental matters, came to light. The 1993, Review of Victorian Plantations Corporation (VPC) Vested Lands confirmed the community’s concerns about native forest areas being treated as plantation. The review had informed the Victorian Government that vested lands included ‘extensive areas of mountain ash reforestation in the Strzelecki Ranges…’ and stated, ‘that the objective of the hardwood planting was to restore the forest so that it will eventually have a similar structure to the original forest.  A range of uses was to be provided and no differentiation was made (by the LCC) between reforested areas and areas retaining the original forest cover’.  It referred to the vesting process as ‘a major change of use and is unclear whether major changes in silvicultural practice and the provision for non-timber uses is envisaged.’

The public outcry about leasing the non-pine areas of the Strzelecki State Forest was supported by the main advisory body of the day and yet the report was not made public. Had the government heeded these concerns and the advice and only leased the pine plantations (as happened in the rest of the state), the rest of the Strzelecki State Forest would have continued to be managed under the Forests Act, and would now have protection from logging when native forest logging in Victoria ceased in 2024. Instead we have short rotation industrial scale logging and the conversion of native vegetation into pine plantation with the threat of this exotic and invasive species spreading into our native forest and Cool Temperate Rainforest. This practice subverts the gains made by environmentalists in the 1970s and 80s to have conversion of native forest into plantation cease — gains which originated from opposition to pine plantations in the Strzeleckis. This practice is totally unacceptable in our remaining areas of the Great Forest of Gippsland in the Strzelecki Ranges.

The Forest Stewardship Council is the body which at present certifies Hancock Victorian Plantations business. Recently the Gippsland Forest Guardians who are opposing pines being planted in a sensitive cool temperate rainforest area supporting a large population of  rare Slender Tree Ferns discovered that under FSC Principle 10 Implementation of Management Activities, there is the requirement that after harvesting the site shall be regenerated to pre-harvesting or more natural conditions. This is a much needed guideline for preserving the character of the forest in the Strzelecki ranges and its ecological integrity (although no harvesting at all would be more desirable in contentious areas). In the context of making the forest more natural HVP should also cease removing old habitat trees from these areas.

It would be pleasing to see the FSC work towards the restoration of the native forest areas incorrectly leased to HVP as hardwood plantation and stop the high rotation rates of logging. Many of these so-called plantations are native forest, with mountain ash regenerated from seed trees or planted from locally sourced seed. The Forest Commission insisted that after logging they would restore the forest to its original condition. These areas are adjacent to  rainforest which needs large buffers and minimal interference. Wet Forest is also depleted in the Ranges. If these areas are allowed to mature they will provide the hollowed habitat trees for the future. If HVP would retire these areas and just utilise the areas which were pine at time of sale of assets, there would be less community alarm and friction into the future.

J Constable, June 2025 on behalf of  SOS Save Our Strzeleckis

Some newspaper articles. (More to come)