Goolengook

The Goolengook valley is a remote forested region of south-eastern Australia, located near Orbost in the far eastern corner of Victoria. It contains a number of forest types including a rare warm temperate/cool temperate "Overlap Rainforest".

Goolengook is approximately 90 km2 of forest. Some of the forest has been logged but there is over 20 km2 of mature and old growth forest remaining. Some of the best stands of temperate rainforest for this part of Australia occur there.

It is the traditional land of the Bidawal Aboriginal people.

Goolengook was the centrepiece of a campaign to protect all of the regions old growth and high conservation value forests during the Regional Forest Agreement process established by the State and Federal Governments. It is one of many contentious sites for logging in the region, as well as a focal point for community opposition to logging old growth forest in Victoria. Goolengook was also the site of Australia's longest running forest blockade, which ran from 1997 to 2002. Many arrests were made during forest protests and blockades in Goolengook.

In 2006 the State Government suspended logging while an independent (but government appointed) assessment was initiated to determine if it should be added to the Victorian Conservation Reserve System.

After ten years of campaigning the protection of Goolengook, the Victorian State election of November 2006 saw the Australian Labor party returned, with a promise to protect the Goolengook block within a new National Park.[1]

Ecology

It is home to several endangered species such as the long-footed potoroo, sooty owl and spot-tailed quoll. Goolengook area is one of a limited number of critical sites for the conservation of threatened treeferns – specifically slender tree-fern (Cyathea cunninghamii) and skirted tree-fern (Cyathea × marcescens|Cyathea × marcescens). This is due in large part to the general infrequency of prescribed fire and wildfire within the forest block and the low levels of logging disturbance across the upper Goolengook River catchment.

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Ashley Gardiner, Old growth forests protected, Herald Sun, 18 November 2006

Coordinates: 37°27′18″S 148°48′56″E / 37.45500°S 148.81556°E / -37.45500; 148.81556


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