Gippsland
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For the electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, see Division of Gippsland.
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, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south. Named after New South Wales 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. It was discovered by Polish discoverer Paweł Strzelecki.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2001 Census reported a population of 277,579 for the region, spread across its seven municipalities (all figures are for "usual resident" population): Cardinia Shire 46,079; Baw Baw Shire 35,219; Bass Coast Shire 24,774; South Gippsland Shire 25,241; Wellington Shire 40,012; East Gippsland Shire 38,102; and Latrobe City 68,152.
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[edit] Geography
Gippsland is traditionally subdivided into at least five main regions - West Gippsland (roughly equivalent to Cardinia Shire and Baw Baw Shire), South Gippsland (Bass Coast Shire and South Gippsland Shire), the Latrobe Valley (Latrobe City and areas of Baw Baw Shire to the north), and East Gippsland (Wellington Shire and East Gippsland Shire). Sometimes a fifth region, Central Gippsland (corresponding approximately to the Wellington Shire), is added to refer to the drier zone between the Gippsland Lakes and Yarram.
[edit] West Gippsland
West Gippsland extends from the southeastern limits of metropolitan Melbourne and Western Port Bay in the west to the Latrobe Valley in the east, and is bounded by the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau in the Great Dividing Range to the north. The western part of the region around Western Port Bay and the Bunyip River is mostly flat (much of it having been reclaimed from the drained Bunyip Swamp), while the eastern part consists of low rolling hills. To the north these hills become steeper as they merge into the Great Dividing Range. Relatively fertile, the lowland areas are mainly given over to dairy farming, but are also noted for their outstanding niche agricultural produce (giving rise to the term "Gourmet Deli Region").[citation needed] In the mountainous north around Noojee logging remains an important industry, while a small winter resort is located to the northeast at Mount Baw Baw. Nature reserves in the region include Bunyip State Park, Mount Worth State Park and Baw Baw National Park. Principal towns of West Gippsland include (from west to east along the Princes Highway) Pakenham, Drouin, Warragul and Trafalgar. Due to its proximity to the Melbourne metropolitan area, the westernmost region around Pakenham has experienced significant residential growth in recent years.
[edit] South Gippsland
South Gippsland is a well-watered region consisting of low, rolling hills descending 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 and mainland Australia. 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 dairy farming, and the principal towns include Cowes (on Phillip Island), Leongatha, Korumburra, Wonthaggi 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. Linked to mainland South Gippsland via a bridge at San Remo, Phillip Island is also a major tourist destination, noted particularly for its surf beaches, nightly Penguin Parade and Grand Prix track.
[edit] Towns in South Gippsland
[edit] Latrobe Valley
While the Latrobe River flows into Lake Wellington to the east of Sale and includes in its drainage basin a significant part of central Gippsland, the region conventionally known as the Latrobe Valley occupies a smaller area centred on the three major towns of Moe, Morwell and Traralgon, between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the westernmost reaches of the Australian Alps to the north. 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 a major electricity industry supplying most of Victoria's electricity needs. Each of the Latrobe Valley's three main towns boasts about 20,000 people, while the smaller town of Churchill to the south hosts a campus of Monash University. Logging is also an important industry in the hills to the north and south, with a major paper mill located at Maryvale, near Traralgon. In the rugged north of the region is located the historic gold-mining town of Walhalla, amid mountains forming the west of Alpine National Park and nearby Baw Baw National Park, a minor winter ski resort.
[edit] Central Gippsland
The area known as Central Gippsland (roughly corresponding to Wellington Shire, although often this region is considered part of a larger "East Gippsland") occupies a broad stretch of plains between the Latrobe Valley to the west and the Gippsland Lakes to the east and between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait (Ninety Mile Beach) to the south. Near the mouth of the Latrobe River is the main town Sale, which has a population of about 12,000, noted for butter manufacture, a nearby air force base, and as a centre for the offshore gasfields in Bass Strait. It was one of the earliest settled areas of Gippsland, whose early economy was aided by the presence of a river port. Other main towns in Central Gippsland include Rosedale, Maffra and Stratford on the Avon River. Smaller towns include Heyfield, Coongulla, Cowwarr and Newry.
[edit] East Gippsland
East Gippsland (excluding Central Gippsland) covers 21,300 km², or nearly 10% of Victoria, but is home to only 38,000 people. As noted above there is sometimes some confusion over the naming of these regions, with Central and East Gippsland as termed in this article referred to overall as East Gippsland, and the East Gippsland Shire discussed in this section distinguished roughly as Far East Gippsland. East Gippsland's major towns include, from west to east, Bairnsdale (the largest town and administrative centre), Lakes Entrance, Orbost and Mallacoota. Smaller, but significant, towns in the more mountainous northern areas include Swifts Creek, Omeo, and Buchan.
East Gippsland extends from the western watershed of the Mitchell and Thomson River catchments east and north to the New South Wales border. Rugged terrain makes farming difficult, even with fertilisers, and the major industry of the region 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, which in turn empty into the sea through an artificially maintained opening at Lakes Entrance.
The area is a major tourist destination, especially for watersports, and is noted for its mild climate. The Great Alpine Road leads north from Bairnsdale into the Australian Alps via Swifts Creek and Omeo, and onto the major ski resorts of Dinner Plain and Mt Hotham. This area is also very popular for bushwalking in the summer. The Buchan district is popular with tourists for its limestone caves. Further east, the Snowy River and several smaller stream catchments, including the Thurra, Wingan, Genoa, Bemm River and Cann Rivers, enter the Tasman Sea.
More than 17,000 km² of East Gippsland is public land with 2,680 km² being national parks, two of the largest being Snowy River National Park and Errinundra National Park. Both are remote and inaccessible, but they are otherwise entirely different. Snowy River National 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. Errinundra National Park is much wetter - inaccessible from June to October in most years - and features some of the most ancient forests in Australia, a matter of controversy as employment in the remote areas east of the Snowy is mainly 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 temperate rainforest in Victoria. The 4,193 km² of privately owned land is mainly red gum plains, coastal plains, mountain plateaux and fertile river valleys.
[edit] Climate
The climate of Gippsland is temperate and generally humid, except in the central region around 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 temperatures 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 °C (64°F) to a minimum 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 likely a reflection of the enhanced greenhouse effect altering the position of anticyclones over and around Australia in such a way that the formerly reliable rain-bearing southwesterly winds have been much weakened.
[edit] Natural resources
The soils in Gippsland are generally 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 around 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 and offshore in the Bass Strait, 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.
