Editing Strzelecki Ranges (section)

== Early settlers ==
After McMillian and Strzelecki opened the way, it did not take long for settlements to develop along the river flats in the more favourable grazing lands of [[Gippsland]].<ref name=":1" />

In the same way that the Strzeleckis can be geographically described in two-halves, western and eastern, the early settlement of the land followed a similar pattern.<ref name=":4" />

[[File:Giant tree near Foster Victoria - circa 1900 - 1909.jpg|thumb|350x350px|Giant tree near Foster Victoria, {{circa|1900–1909}} |alt=]]The selection era began with the passing of a series of Land Acts in the 1860s, which by the end of that decade opened up almost the whole of Victoria for selection. By the mid-twentieth century, much of the land in the rolling hills of western Strzelecki Ranges had been taken up.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Latrobe City Heritage Study|last=Context Pty Ltd|year=2010}}</ref>

In west Gippsland near [[Warragul]] land settlement began from about 1862 while further south it was a bit later in 1870. People came from all points of the compass and spread out, with the final part being settled near the Tarwin Valley.<ref name=":4" />

However, the dense forests and steep terrain of the eastern Strzeleckis initially discouraged attempts to open up the hill country until later. Then in the early 1880s, selectors began penetrating the forest, selecting land in Jumbuk, Boolarra, Budgeree and Callignee. The rainfall was higher in the densely forested Strzelecki Ranges, and it was wrongly assumed the land was fertile because of the giant trees that grew there. In the aftermath of the end of the [[Victorian gold rush]] there was a severe [[Economic history of Australia|economic recession in the 1890s]]. Many Melbourne families believed the county offered a better life but with most of the easier grazing land in western Victoria and Gippsland already selected they moved into the remaining land in the eastern Strzeleckis.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=The settling of Gippsland. A regional history.|last=Morgan|first=Patrick|publisher=Gippsland Municipalities Association|year=1997|isbn=0646338579}}</ref> Ahead of them was the Herculean task of clearing the giant trees and of trying to get their produce to market.<ref name=":1" />

Under various acts of the Victorian State Parliament, smaller farms were developed, and the land was aggressively cleared for more intensive use. While most of the western Strzeleckis was transformed into productive farms, attempts to select land in the higher eastern parts of the Ranges largely resulted in failure.<ref name=":1" />

Clearing the vast forests was a formidable task that took the settlers years of back-breaking toil. The original selections were limited to 130 hectares, but some held less. Even to clear 40 hectares with an axe, saw and shovel was too big a task. The method they followed was to partly cut through the trees as they worked up the side of the steep slopes. At the top, they would fell a large tree that, by its own weight, brought down all the trees below into a giant tangled mess. The scrub and trees would be left to dry and then were lit on a hot day in January or February. The success depended on getting a clean fall and a good burn.<ref name=":0" /> And if left unchecked, the scrub and weeds quickly reoccupied the cleared ground before pasture could be established.

The trees were huge, some with a girth of 18 metres and giant buttresses running up 6 metres or more. Some of the larger stumps were used as dwellings.

Big trees were central to the culture of the early settlers in the Strzeleckis. In 1927 a local identity and axeman, Jack Pattinson cut 45 springboards into a tree to a height of 160 feet. He was ambidextrous, so the springboards went straight up the tree rather than spiraled around as usual. For a dare, he put a local Gunyah Football Club 'Dingos' jumper at the top. Legend has it that he bet any man a month's wages to climb up and get the jumper down. No one ever did; so it just rotted away. But over time the Pattinson Tree came to represent a totem in the local community and its remnants can still be found on the [[Grand Ridge Road]].<ref name=":4" />

In addition to the discovery of gold at [[Walhalla, Victoria|Walhalla]] in 1862, agriculture and forestry, the mining of large coal deposits in the [[Latrobe Valley|LaTrobe Valley]], at [[Wonthaggi]] as well as [[Gelliondale railway station|Gelliondale]] near [[Yarram, Victoria|Yarram]] from the 1920s strongly influenced the pattern of later settlement across Gippsland.<ref name=":5" />