Central Highlands (Victoria)

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Central Highlands Region
Victoria
Australia Victoria Central Highlands region.svg
LGA(s)
Region Grampians
Victoria's Central Highlands 1939 Regrowth 01 Pengo.jpg
Victoria's Central Highlands
A log dump in the Central Highlands Victorian Central Highlands log dump 01 Pengo.jpg
A log dump in the Central Highlands

The Central Highlands subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes the municipalities of Rural City of Ararat, City of Ballarat, Golden Plains Shire, Shire of Hepburn, Shire of Moorabool, Shire of Pyrenees. [1]

Contents

The term is mainly used in a geological context to describe that part of the Great Dividing Range that is west of its alpine areas but does not extend to its western end in Victoria's west. The area is situated east of Ballarat, south of Bendigo, north and east of Melbourne, and west of the alpine areas. Major towns of the Central Highlands include Castlemaine, Creswick, Daylesford, Gisborne, Kyneton and Woodend. All these towns are located in what is usually referred to as the West Central Highlands. The more mountainous and more sparsely populated eastern part of the Central Highlands is referred to as the East Central Highlands and has extensive areas of temperate rainforest. [2]

Rainforests

The East Victorian Central Highlands, including some of Melbourne's water catchments, contain cool temperate rainforests; dominated by myrtle beech and southern sassafras, [2] with an understorey of ferns and mosses. They may also contain eucalypt trees and blackwood. [3]

Logging and environmental impact

Toolangi State Forest 20124-01-04 Toolangi tree house 600 2810 1 2 (Soft 4).jpg
Toolangi State Forest

The Central Highlands Regional Forest Agreement protects approximately 43.84% of rainforest stands in the Central Highlands of Victoria within dedicated reserves. Any rainforest that is not within these dedicated reserve is susceptible to the impacts of clearfell logging. [4] A paper published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that the world's most carbon dense forest is found in the Central Highlands of Victoria. [4]

Logging is proceeding in very significant regions of the Toolangi State Forest, including forest that provides habitat for the endangered Leadbeater's possum such as Nolan's Gully, and forest adjacent to Sylvia Creek Road. [5]

2013-07-09 Mount Beenak summit panorama.jpg
Mount Beenak panorama looking towards Yarra Valley showing extensive logging of summit, July 2013

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Strzelecki Ranges is a set of low mountain ridges located in the West Gippsland and South Gippsland regions of the Australian state of Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Gippsland</span> Region of Victoria, Australia

East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres (14%) of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballan, Victoria</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

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Toolangi is a locality in Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Toolangi and the surrounding area had a population of 344. It is situated on the edge of the Toolangi State Forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon, Victoria</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Victoria</span> Overview of the geography of Victoria

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The regions of Victoria vary according to the different ways that the Australian state of Victoria is divided into distinct geographic regions. The most commonly used regions are those created by the state government for the purposes of economic development.

Victoria, Australia contains approximately 32,000 hectares of temperate rainforest in various regions, which represents 0.14% of the State's total area. The areas with rainforest include: East Gippsland, Strzelecki Ranges, Wilsons Promontory, Central Highlands, and Otway Ranges. The rainforests vary between cool temperate, warm temperate, and mixed cool temperate.

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The Southeast Australia temperate forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of south-eastern Australia. It includes the temperate lowland forests of southeastern Australia, at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range. Vegetation ranges from wet forests along the coast to dry forests and woodlands inland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasmanian Central Highland forests</span> Terrestrial ecoregion in Tasmania, Australia

The Tasmanian Central Highland forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in Australia. It covers Tasmania's Central Highlands region.

References

  1. Victoria, Regional Development (17 May 2018). "Grampians' Central Highlands Region". Regional Development Victoria.
  2. 1 2 "Victorian Rainforest Network".
  3. 7 November 2003. "Rainforest Fact Sheet" Archived 13 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine . State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Retrieved on 4 August 2009
  4. 1 2 16 June 2009. "Australia: Scientists call for Protection of world’s most carbon dense Forests". San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, Retrieved on 4 August 2009
  5. Toolangi's forest sanctuary disappears, The Wilderness Society

37°04′42.3″S144°12′43.8″E / 37.078417°S 144.212167°E / -37.078417; 144.212167