Gippsland

Gippsland Region Victoria
John Longstaff's Gippsland, Sunday night, 20 February 1898, depicting the "Red Tuesday" bushfires that ravaged Gippsland
Waterfront at Port Albert.
Gippsland Region The location of Bairnsdale, a town in Gippsland
Coordinates	37°51′S 147°35′E / 37.850°S 147.583°E / -37.850; 147.583Coordinates: 37°51′S 147°35′E / 37.850°S 147.583°E / -37.850; 147.583
Population	255,718 (2011 census)[Note 1]
• Density	6.15358/km2 (15.93769/sq mi)
Area	41,556 km2 (16,044.9 sq mi)
Time zone	AEST (UTC+10)
• Summer (DST)	AEDT (UTC+11)
Location	120 km (75 mi) E of Melbourne
LGA(s)	(by population) Latrobe Baw Baw East Gippsland Wellington Bass Coast South Gippsland
State electorate(s)	Bass Gippsland East Gippsland South Morwell Narracan
Federal Division(s)	Flinders (part) Gippsland McMillan
Localities around Gippsland Region: Hume Hume New South Wales Greater Melbourne Gippsland Region Tasman Sea Bass Strait Bass Strait Bass Strait

Gippsland is an economic rural region of Victoria, Australia,^[1] located in the south-eastern part of that state. It covers an area of 41,556 square kilometres (16,045 sq mi), and lies to the east of the eastern suburbs of Greater Melbourne, to the north of Bass Strait, to the west of the Tasman Sea, to the south of the Black-Allan Line that marks part of the Victorian/New South Wales border, and to the east and southeast of the Great Dividing Range that lies within the Hume region and the Victorian Alps.^[2] Gippsland is generally broken down into the East Gippsland, South Gippsland, West Gippsland, and the Latrobe Valley statistical divisions.

As at the 2011 Australian census, Gippsland had a population of 255,718, with the principal population centres of the region, in descending order of population, being Traralgon, Moe, Warragul, Morwell, Sale, Bairnsdale, Drouin, Leongatha, and Phillip Island. Gippsland 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, and the Strzelecki Ranges.

History

The area was originally inhabited by Indigenous Australians of the Gunai nation and part of West Gippsland by the Bunurong nation. Before permanent European settlement, the area was visited by sealers and wattle bark gatherers, but who did not settle. Samuel Anderson (1803-1863),^[3][4] a Scottish immigrant from Kirkudbright Scotland, agriculturist and explorer, arrived in Hobart, Tasmania in 1830, and in 1835 established a squatter agricultural settlement on the Bass River in Gippsland, the third permanent settlement in Victoria (then called the Port Phillip District). His business partner Robert Massie joined him in 1837. Both had worked for the Van Diemen's Land Company at Circular Head, Tasmania. Samuel's brothers Hugh (1808-1898) and Thomas (1814-1903) arrived at Bass shortly after, where they established a successful farming venture.^[3]

Further European settlement followed two separate expeditions to the area. Angus McMillan led the first European expedition between 1839 and 1840, naming the area "Caledonia Australis".^[5] He was followed in March 1840 by Polish explorer Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, who unknowingly led his expedition across the same terrain already traversed by McMillan, and gave his own names to many natural landmarks and places.

Following these expeditions, the area was officially named "Gippsland", a name chosen by Strzelecki in honour of the New South Wales Governor, George Gipps, his sponsor.^[6]

The township of Bass was surveyed and settled in the early 1860s.

Geography

Old growth forests in East Gippsland

Gippsland is traditionally subdivided into four or five main sub–regions or districts:

• West Gippsland (roughly equivalent to the Shires of Cardinia and Baw Baw)
• South Gippsland (Bass Coast and South Gippsland Shires)
• the Latrobe Valley (Latrobe City and areas of Baw Baw to the north)
• East Gippsland (Shires of Wellington and East Gippsland).
• Sometimes a fifth region, Central Gippsland (corresponding approximately to the Shire of Wellington), is added to refer to the drier zone between the Gippsland Lakes and Yarram.

Climate

On the Avon River near Stratford

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 in). In the Strzelecki Ranges annual rainfall can be as high as 1,500 millimetres (59 in), while 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 River, mean annual rainfall is typically about 900–950 millimetres (35–37 in) 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 15 °C (59 °F) in July. In the highlands of the Baw Baw Plateau and the remote Errinundra Plateau, temperatures range 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.

Natural resources

Potato farming in the Thorpdale region

The soils in Gippsland are generally very infertile, being profoundly 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. Despite 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.

Gippsland possesses very few deposits of metallic minerals (gold rushes in the nineteenth century around Foster, Buchan petered out quickly). However, the deep underground gold mines operated at Walhalla for a fifty-year period between 1863-1913. Gippsland has no deposits of major industrial nonmetallic minerals, but it does feature the world's largest brown coal deposits and, around Sale and offshore in the Bass Strait, some of the largest deposits 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.

Administration

Political representation

For Australian federal elections for the House of Representatives, the electoral divisions of Flinders,^[7] McMillan,^[8] and Gippsland^[9] lay entirely or partly in the Gippsland region. Flinders and McMillan are currently held by the Liberal Party, while Gippsland is held by the Nationals.

For elections for the Victorian Legislative Assembly, the electoral districts of Bass, Narracan, Morwell, Gippsland South and Gippsland East lay entirely or partly in the Gippsland region. Bass and Narracan are currently held by the Liberal Party, while the other electorates are held by the Nationals.

Local government areas

Gippsland contains six local government areas:

Environmental protection

The Gippsland region contains the Alfred National Park, Baw Baw National Park, Coopracambra National Park, Croajingolong National Park, Errinundra National Park, Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park, Kinglake National Park, Lind National Park, Mitchell River National Park, Morwell National Park, Snowy River National Park, Tarra-Bulga National Park, The Lakes National Park, and Wilsons Promontory National Park.

See also

• Geography of Victoria
• Regions of Victoria
• Giant Gippsland earthworm
• Gippsland massacres
• White woman of Gippsland
• Old Gippstown

Notes

References

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