Up Into The Hills


The Post Office in the historic South Gippsland township of Toora is the starting point of a scenic 62-km self-guided tour of the Strzelecki State Forest. From Toora, the tour travels along the Toora-Gunyah Road, via the Mount Fatigue lookout, to the magical Gunyah forest - cool, ferny, tall Victorian forest at its most gorgeous. The tour then turns west along the Grand Ridge Road with its historic sites. A left turn at Gunyah junction onto the Foster-Boolarra Road leads back to the South Gippsland Highway near Foster. The tour was researched and developed by staunch forest defenders Kim Devenish and Julie Constable of Grassy Spur who wish to see the forest declared as a national park. Currently the bulk of the forest is leased by the Victorian Government to the State’s two biggest timber concerns, Hancock Victorian Plantations and Amcor. Kim and Julie have prepared and circulated a detailed proposal for a 30,000-hectare Strzelecki National Park, which seeks to protect what little remains of the old-growth forest. A petition supporting the proposal was signed by 6,500 people and was presented to the Victorian Parliament. The proposal may be seen at http://members.dcsi.net.au/kimjulie/

FOREST TOUR TIPS Before you begin the tour: • Check you have enough petrol, drinking water and food, and make sure you have a map of the district. There’s not much in the way of telephones or shops or facilities in them there hills. • Don’t count on your mobile telephone working. • Treat the forest like it is a National Park. • The roads are narrow and winding and are pot-holed in sections - just drive slowly under 30 kilometres an hour and keep well to the left. • Watch out for logging trucks. They are big and they go fast. Expect them any day except Sunday. THE HILLS TOUR Drive to the Toora Post Office in Stanley Street. Set your car’s trip meter to zero and follow the directions below to find your way through the awesome tall forests lying just north of Foster and Toora in the lush, steep Strzelecki State Forest. The forest is ideal in warm or cold weather and the roads are no problem. Spend a day exploring our hills and stay another night in one of our little towns. Underlined text gives specific travel directions. 0 km. From the Toora Post Office head north up Stanley Street and turn left onto the South Gippsland Highway and then straight away turn right onto Creamery Valley Road (virtually opposite Stanley Street) toward Mount Best. 4.8 km. Franklin River Road on left. Follow the bitumen as it veers right and crosses Tin Mine Creek. 5.0 km. Intersection. Turn left onto Toora-Gunyah Road. This is the road you need to follow. Bitumen ends. 10.3 km. Mount Best. Turn right to stay on the Toora Gunyah Road then veer left onto the low road. Keep following the signs that point to Mount Fatigue and Gunyah. Nearby is the site of Mount Best State School, closed in the 1980s. 10.6 km. The peak straight ahead is Mount Fatigue, at the southern edge of the Strzelecki State Forest. 12.6 km. The edge of the Strzelecki State Forest. Wind down the windows, and slow down to 30 kmph or less. You have entered the shelter of the forest microclimate. Treeferns, mountain pepper, epiphytes, blackwood. 12.9 km. Beautiful deep gully on left. 13.4 km. A nice patch of mountain correa on right. 15.1 km. Good spot to pull over and explore. Musk daisy bush, Christmas bush, austral mulberry, rough treeferns, tree lomatia, mountain pepper, prickly currant bush, blanket leaf. Messmate and blackwood overstorey. 15.4 km. Smooth trunked mountain ash start to appear amidst the bark covered messmate trees. Purple flax lily, epiphytic ferns. 16.5 km. Mt. Fatigue turnoff. Turn right onto the Mt Fatigue lookout road. (1 km each way). Musk daisy bush, kangaroo fern, messmate. 17.5 km. Mt. Fatigue Lookout. Best view in the district. Picnic table in rotunda. Looking south, see Mount Best, Silcocks Hill (with the radio tower), Corner Inlet and the Prom. Looking south-east, see the forest-covered Hedley Range, site of the smaller Alberton West State Forest. The strange black structure beside you is a survey marker. Tarra-Bulga National Park is to the north east. Retrace your steps to Toora-Gunyah Road. 18.5 km. Mount Best turnoff again. Turn right, back onto the Toora-Gunyah Road, heading north through deep mountain forest. The Franklin River catchment is on the left, while on the right is the catchment of the Agnes River. 19.2 km. Good spot to park on the left and explore on foot. Austral mulberry, musk daisy bush, dogwood, bootlace bush, hazel pomaderus, clematis vines, ferns, wire grass, mountain ash. 19.9 km. Devils Pinch Road is on right. Good for a walk. 20.65 km. Lower Devils Pinch Rd. Good for a walk. 21.5 km. 1997 logging track on left. Replanted with non-local blue gum. 21.8 km. Another track leading to a 1997 logging coup on left.











22.1 km. Red Hill Track on left. Another 1997 logging area where a mixture of old-growth, 1914 regrowth and 1977 regrowth mountain ash along with blackwood and wattle trees were cut, the area bulldozed and burnt and replanted with non-local blue gum and shining gum - the kind they use for paper. These areas are now claimed as “plantation”. If you wish to explore any of these tracks, park the car and walk. 22.85 km. Evans Track on left leads to more 1997 logging coupes. Amid the young blue gums can be found the dead “toe hold tree” with toeholds cup up the trunk, thought to be made by Aborigines in order to reach a hollow which may have contained possums, gliders or honey. It is hard to find and involves a three km walk. 23.5 km. On a bend, which curves to the right, there is a semi-hidden short walking track on the left which leads to the “Big Tree”. Please treat this marvellous old treasure with the utmost respect and avoid the temptation to climb over its roots or into its hollows. On the track, see tender brake, mountain pepper, young stands of mountain ash, muttonwood trees, hazel, myrtle beech, prickly currant bush, hard water fern, dogwood and blackwood trees. 23.9 km. Space to park car near big hollow mountain ash on right. The rainforest spreads across the road. Myrtle beech, ferns, mosses and fungi. This is ancient cool temperate rainforest, ranked amongst the four most significant rainforest sites in Victoria. 24.6 km. Stronachs Road to the left leads to more 1997 logging coups. 25.5 km. Mixture of mountain ash old growth, regrowth from 1914 fires and regrowth from 1997 logging. 25.9 km. Gunyah Gunyah. You have reached the Grand Ridge Road. Veer left along Grand Ridge Road and continue through wonderful bush. The Grand Ridge is the backbone of the Strzelecki Ranges. North of the ridge, creeks and rivers flow down toward the LaTrobe River, and on to the Gippsland Lakes. Some water is diverted into the LaTrobe Valley power stations and paper mill at Maryvale. Alternatively, a right turn back leads to Rytons Junction, English’s Corner, and on to Tarra-Bulga, etc. 26.0 km. On the left, the site of the Gunyah Central State School (1907 - 1941). Adjacent to the site was once a paddock where pupils would leave their horses during classes. Through the trees on the right, a large logging coup can be seen. 27. 1 km. Another recent logging track on right. 27.2 km. Hatchery Road. Another track leading to large logging coupes from 1997 to 1998. 27.3 km. On right, the site of the old Gunyah Hotel which burnt down in 1941. 27.8 km. West Branch Track on right. Listen for lyre birds going through their incredible vocal gymnastics. 29.6 km. “The Springboard Tree” on right. An old tree, which Jack Patterson climbed to a height of 50 metres in 1927. The grooves where he wedged his boards into the tree can still be seen. On the left is the site of the old rifle range. Rifle shooting was a popular sport early last century and was subsidised by the government. 30.6 km. The site of the Gunyah Gunyah State School which operated from 1907 to 1925. 30.8 km. Gunyah Junction. Turn left down the Boolarra-Foster Road toward Foster. Stay on this road for its full length. 31.0 km. To the left is the Turtons Creek catchment. This creek meets the Tarwin River which flows to Anderson’s Inlet, near Inverloch. The left side of the road is the Franklin River catchment. Human disturbance becomes more apparent the further south you get. Young stands of mountain ash regrown after logging in the late 1970s, wattle forests, dogwood forests, blackwoods, grey gums, pine plantations. The road has been recently upgraded to handle 90 log trucks per day. Most pine and ash logs head north to Morwell, which has Australia’s biggest and newest hardwood sawmill, as well as a large pine sawmill. Near Morwell is Australia’s biggest paper and cardboard mill, which consumes large amounts of both pipe and native ash logs. Only a few small sawmills are left in the district. 36.4 km. Site of the Boolarong State School 1906 - 1940. Blackwood and silver wattle. 42 km. Introduced basket willows, blackberries, scotch thistle and ragwort to the left. 44.2 km. Turtons Creek turnoff on right. 44.5 km. Wonga-Square Top turnoff on left. 46 km. Small clearing on left suitable for a picnic. 50.5 km. T intersection. Turn right onto the Foster-Mount Best Road towards Foster. 50.6 km. Strzelecki warm temperate rainforest on right (private property). Sweet pittosporum. 52.0 km. Turn left onto South Gippsland Highway to return to Toora, (turn right to go to Foster). 53.2 km. Port Franklin turnoff on right. At Port Franklin, the Franklin River meets Corner Inlet. 58.3 km. Bridge over the Franklin River. This short but sweet river begins up at Gunyah and ends at Port Franklin. Our trip has more or less circled the Franklin River upper catchment. On the left, a picnic area with public toilets. The Franklin is just one of the many river valleys that wind down from this State Forest. 62.0 km. Back to Toora.