Gippsland

From Freepedia

Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border. Named after Governor George Gipps, it is best known for its primary production such as mining, power generation and farming as well as its tourist destinations—Phillip Island, Wilsons Promontory, the Gippsland Lakes, Walhalla, the Baw-Baw Plateau, the Strzelecki Ranges and the Gourmet Deli Region.

Geography

Gippsland is often divided into four main regions - West Gippsland, South Gippsland, the Latrobe Valley, and East Gippsland. Sometimes a fifth region, Central Gippsland, is used for the drier zone between the Snowy River and Yarram.

West Gippsland is regarded as a dairy farming and niche agriculture centre which lies between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau to the north in the Great Dividing Range. Its principal towns are Warragul and Drouin.

South Gippsland is a well-watered region consisting of low, rolling hills desecending to the coast in the south and the Latrobe Valley in the north. Low granite hills continue into Wilson's Promontory, the southernmost point of Victoria. Rivers are generally very short and impossible to dam owing to the lack of potential storage sites, but groundwater of good quality is readily available. The major industries are forestry and dairying, and the principle towns include Cowes, Leongatha, Korumburra and Foster. Wilsons Promontory National Park features eucalypt forests and rainforests as well as its famous beaches, and is one of the most popular holiday areas in Victoria.

The Latrobe Valley extends north from South Gippsland into the westernmost reaches of the Australian Alps. The valley is moderately broad though not fertile despite the damp climate (because of the age of the soil), yet the region is the most densely settled part of Gippsland owing to the vast deposits of brown coal, which have given rise to major electricity producing centres like Traralgon, Moe and Morwell, all of which are home to over 10,000 people. Near the mouth of the Latrobe is Sale, which has a population of about 12,000 aided by butter manufacture and the offshore gasfields in Bass Strait. Further up the river dairy country returns, with Warragul and Drouin being the major towns. In the north of the region are mountains forming the west of Alpine National Park and Baw Baw National Park, a minor winter ski resort. Fruit is grown in the area around Neerim and Noojee.

East Gippsland covers 21,300 square kilometres, or nearly 10% of Victoria, but is home to only 38,000 people. The major towns include Sale, Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance, Orbost, Stratford, Tyers and Mallacoota. East Gippsland extends from the western watershed of the Mitchell and Thomson River catchments eastward to the New South Wales border. Rugged terrain makes farming even with fertilizers difficult and the major industry is thus forestry, which has caused a lot of controversy because of the unique species found in areas east of the Snowy River. The major river basins of the Mitchell, Tambo and Nicholson drain into the Gippsland Lakes. Further east, the Snowy River and several smaller stream catchments, including the Thurra, Wingan, Genoa, Bemm and Cann Rivers, enter the Tasman Sea.

More than 17,000 square kilometres are public land with 2,680 square kilometres being national parks, the largest being Snowy River National Park and Errinundra National Park. Both are remote and inaccessible, but they are otherwise entirely different. Snowy River Nationa l Park features dramatic gorges and powerful rapids formed by the descent of the Snowy River. Apart from gorges and southern slopes, this park is in a rain-shadow area forming the southern border of the Monaro Tableland. Consequently, many species more typical of inland New South Wales and Victoria are found here. Errinudra National Park is much wetter - inaccessible from June to October in most years - and features some of the most ancient forests in Australia, which have become controversial because employment in the remote areas east of the Snowy is dependent upon timber milling. Croajingolong National Park between Marlo and Mallacoota features extensive coastal heathlands and tea tree scrub, as well as the only major area of warm t emperate rai n forest in Victoria. The 4,193 square kilometres of privately owned land is mainly red gum plains, coastal plains, mountain plateaux and fertile river valleys.

Climate

The climate is temperate and generally humid, except in the centra l region arou nd Sale, where annual rainfall can be less than 600 millimetres (24 inches). In the Strzelecki Ranges, annual rainfall can be as high as 1500 millimetres (60 inches), whilst on the high mountains of East Gippsland it probably reaches similar levels - much of it falling as snow. In lower levels east of the Snowy, mean annual rainfall is typically about 900-950 millimetres (35-37 inches) and less variable than in the coastal districts of New South Wales. Mean maximum temper atures in lower areas range from 24°C (75°F) in January to a pleasant 15°C (59°F) in July. In the highlands of the Baw Baw Plateau and the remote Errinundra Plateau, temperatures are very pleasant in summer, ranging from a maximum of 18 &d eg;C (6 4°F) to a minumum of 8°C (46°F). However, in winter, mean minima in these areas can be as low as -4°C (25°F), leading to heavy snowfalls that often isolate the Errinundra Plateau between June and October. Recent years have seen persistent drought over most of Gippsland - regarded as one of the most reliable rainfall areas in Australia - with annual rainfall over the Latrobe Valley and South Gippsland since 1997 being 20 percent lower than the average between 1885 and 1996. This is most l ikely a reflection of the enhanced greenhouse effect altering the position of anticyclones over and around Australia.

Natural Resources

The soils are very infertile, being heavily deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium. Apart from frequently flooded areas, they are classed as Spodosols, Psamments and Ultisols. Consequently, heavy fertilisation is required for agriculture or pastoral development, but with this parts of Gippsland have become highly productive dairying and vegetable-growing regions: the region supplies Melbourne with most of its needs in these commodities. A few alluvial soils (chiefly near the Snowy) have much better native fertility, and these have always been intensively cultivated. In the extreme northeast is a small section of the Monaro Tableland used for grazing beef cattle.

Though Gippsland possesses very few deposits of metallic minerals (gold rushes in the nineteenth century a round Foster, Buchan and Walhalla petered out quickly), and no deposits of major industrial nonmetallic minerals, it does feature the world's largest brown coal deposits and, around Sale, some of the largest desposits of oil and natural gas in Australia. Like the rest of Australia, the seas around Gippsland are of very low productivity as there is no upwelling due to the warm currents in the Tasman Sea. Nonetheless, towns such as Marlo and Mallacoota depended for a long time on the fishing of abalone, whose shells could fetch very high prices because of their use for pearls and pearl inlays.