Recent ride through a lesser known low mountain range and rain forest, called the Strzelecki Ranges, about an hours ride east of me.
The interesting part is in that forested area with the red marker.
I find the history fascinating. Many of todays pretty areas with thriving farms were once heavy forest, and it took three generations of back breaking labour to clear the land and establish productive farms. It got a nickname, “the heartbreak hills”, because many farms failed due to difficult conditions and a lack of road infrastructure to get the produce to the markets on time.
In 1976 a monument was erected for Victoria’s tallest tree, measured at 114m after it was felled in 1881 in this area.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strzelecki_RangesMount Tassie is the highest point of the Strzelecki Ranges, and is not very high at 740m asl...
The privately owned Loy Yang coal power station can be seen on the horison. It is the largest power station in Aus (6 units, for a total of 3280 MW). It produces 50% of Victoria’s electricity using brown coal mined close by. The coal doesn’t ever seem to get wet enough to cause a breakdown...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loy_Yang_Power_StationComms infrastructure on the summit:
I was hoping to get a view of Tasmania from here, but I don’t think that’s possible, even on a clear day... Tasmania is about 300 km away, way over the horizon.
The valley is beautiful! It has a cool rain forest climate, with huge tree ferns (that one is at least 15m tall), and huge mountain ash trees (I understand it’s a type of gum tree).
The windy road follows the Tarra River downstream, with picnic areas along the river. There are also two caravan parks, which I will put on the list for a visit one day.
Another interesting feature along the way is the wooden bridges. With that I mean the actual road surface of the bridges are made from wooden sleepers, probably a technique from years gone by from the logging industry.
Topic: Exploring the Victorian country side, east of Melbourne Aus (Read 8164 times)
