The Forest

The forest at Gunyah like much of the Strzelecki Ranges is a mosaic of Wet Forest and Cool Temperate Rainforest. Six of Victoria’s biggest Mountain Ash trees are found here. The Big Tree off the Toora Gunyah Road is the widest girthed Mountain Ash in Victoria. The Gunyah forest contains nationally significant rainforest with ancient Myrtle Beech, Southern Sassafras and an understorey which includes hazel, musk daisy-bush, blanketwood, mountain pepper, mountain correa, treeferns, slender tree ferns, climbers, epiphytes, mosses, fungi and myriad of ferns. The forest resounds with Superb Lyrebird song and is home to diverse fauna including Powerful Owls, koalas, echidnas and Greater & Yellow Bellied Gliders.

In 1882 a timber reserve in the Mt. Fatigue area was proclaimed by the Victorian Government on the recommendation of the Shire of Alberton Council. The reserve covered an area of 25, 280 acres (about 16,000 hectares).

A reserve at Gunyah Gunyah was announced in the 1908 Gazette, adjoining and to the north of the Mt. Fatigue reserve. This reserve abutted the small township of Gunyah.

Size 2000 acres (about 809 hectares).

While some of the forest in the upper catchments of the Franklin and Agnes Rivers was cleared for houses and farms, much of the forest remained. The upper reaches of the Strzelecki Ranges proved difficult for farming. The area was heavily forested with old growth Mountain Ash and the slopes were steep and the soil poor. Many blocks reverted back to the Crown in the early years and by the 1940s very few people remained in the Gunyah area. Some houses were moved, some were burned, and the forest grew and filled the small clearings and the township. Hill pioneer, W. E. McNaughton wrote — ‘The bush has reclaimed its own’ Gunyah 1894 - 1940

The forest in the reserve at Gunyah survived the settlement period and aftermath. However in 1964, the Victorian Government rescinded most of the reserve leaving only a 100 metre wide strip either side of the Toora Gunyah Road and the Grand Ridge Road. This strip is officially known as the Gunyah Gunyah Scenic Reserve. It had taken just one Minister's advice to the Governor to have 1748 acres of a 2000 acre reserve removed from the reserve and management handed to the Forests Commission. The area contained Cool Temperate Rainforest and old growth Mountain Ash forest, including a giant Mountain Ash known as The Big Tree. At the time the Forests Commission controlled most of the southern fall of the Eastern Strzelecki headwaters and yet this small reserve was not maintained.

The Forests Commission came under much criticism in regards to their management of the entire Strzelecki State Forest. Briefed with a Mountain Ash reforestation Scheme to restore beauty and productivity to areas that had been cleared or partially cleared, on the ground, forest was removed for the establishment of pine plantations and old growth and regrowth forests were logged.

In the late 1970s, conservationists formed plans to have more of the Strzelecki forests protected through the Land Conservation Council investigations. In South Gippsland proposals focused on a reserve at Gunyah and links through to a larger Tarra Bulga National Park.

In 1979, there was outrage over the logging of areas in the former Gunyah reserve. The local paper, The Mirror, wrote ‘Another area in our shire, which for many years has been compared with Bulga and Tarra Valley Parks for its natural beauty is the Gunyah Forestry Reserve. However, a large area near Mt. Fatigue has recently been denuded by the Forests Commission…’ (April 11, 1979) The paper still called the area the Gunyah Reserve. Public meetings, demonstrations, and protests occurred locally over this logging.

In 1997 further logging occurred in the former Gunyah reserve, despite the area being part of a Deferred Forest Area, a temporary reserve until the Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement was completed. The logged areas were also part of a site of botanical significance. The logging took place along the Toora Gunyah Road taking out a large area of 1914 regrowth after fire and older trees in a Mixed Age Mountain Ash Forest. A section of the 1986 Gunyah Rainforest Reserve was also logged — under ministerial exemption. This is evidence of the vulnerability of these types of reserves.

During the Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement Process which began in 1998, the Gunyah Rainforest Reserve was coloured purple on Departmental maps, signifying it was available for timber harvesting. This highlights the failure of these type of reserves to protect forests. Section 50 reserves do not prohibit logging.

In 1998, conservation groups supported a proposal to create a 30,000 hectare national park in the Strzelecki Ranges. The Strzelecki Ranges Bioregion had less than 2% of the forest formally reserved. National park status was seen as vital to avoid a minister of the day revoking section 50 reserves. National parks require Parliament to approve changes to reserve status. Later that year, the Victorian Government (Liberal - National Party Coalition) leased 20,000 hectares of public native forest in the Strzeleckis to Hancock Victorian Plantations. The areas logged along the Toora-Gunyah Road in the southern section of the former Gunyah Reserve were included in this lease. These areas which had never been alienated from the Crown, had not been cleared or partially cleared for farming were relabelled as plantation in the deal. This occurred in the middle of the Gippsland RFA, without public consultation, in the middle of a native title claim and without dealing with the lack of forest reserves.

After more years of public lobbying, the Victorian Government (Labor) made a deal with HVP to buy back 8,000 hectares of leases in the areas known as the high biodiversity Cores and Links by 2028. Tragically, this deal allowed the company to log areas within the Cores and Links prior to the handback.

In 2008 and in 2018, some areas of the Strzelecki Forest leased to HVP were returned. These have been included in a new Forest Park — Brataualung Forest Park, named for the GunaiKurnai clan of the Corner Inlet and Eastern Strzelecki Ranges. This park is a Section 50 reserve. This means that it is vulnerable to being overturned. The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has placed a Special Protection Zone (SPZ) overlay which prohibits logging for the present. However, an SPZ can also be revoked by the Government Minister of the day.