page_title: Redwoods of the Otway Ranges
section_title: Aire Valley settlement
hierarchical_section_title: Redwoods of the Otway Ranges / Aire Valley settlement
caption_attribution_description: von Guérard wrote: "The journey is about as difficult as the physical features of the declivitous and thickly-wooded ranges are grand and romantic; and it is only at rare intervals that the tourist obtains such a glimpse of the mountain slopes, and wide-spreading forests as the artist has succeeded in doing at the spot which forms the foreground of the accompanying landscape. Lying about a hundred miles from Melbourne, as the crow flies, this tract of country is comparatively a terra incognita; so impenetrable is the jungle, and so vast the scope of the boundless forests, filled with battalions upon battalions of towering trees, the more eminent of which rise to an altitude of 300 feet."
context_page_description: A small sheltered grove of Coast Redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, can be found about 5 km south of Beech Forest in the Otway Ranges in southwestern Victoria.
  The trees, known by some as Californian Redwoods, were one of many conifer species planted experimentally at different locations in what was to become the fledgling Aire Valley Plantation.
  The trees, planted in 1936 by the Forests Commission Victoria, were initially slow to establish but have thrived and grown to a height of over 60 metres. Measurements in 2004 show the trees have the potential to reach as tall as their Californian counterparts if left undisturbed from bushfire, pests and disease, or trampling by tourism.
  The site has become a popular tourist destination in the Great Otway National Park and has also been classified as a site of Biological and Cultural Significance.
context_section_description: Following the occupation of most of the fertile plains and foothills around Melbourne by early squatters, the forests of the Otways hinterland were progressively cleared and settled for agriculture beginning in the 1830s, and with a second wave of settlement into the higher and wetter mountain forests during the 1880s.
  This region of the Otways is meteorologically famous, with an average 235 wet days per year, and nearby Weeaproinah recording an average rainfall of 2010 mm to make it one of the wettest places in Australia. The climate has favoured the growth of the Redwoods in suitable topographic site in the Aire Valley.
  Clearing by John Gardiner began around Beech Forest in 1885, followed by settlers moving south into the upper reaches of the Aire Valley. Brothers Edward and Thomas Hall together with Charles Farrell took possession of heavily forested blocks in 1887.
  Construction of the narrow gauge railway from Colac to Beech Forest commenced in 1900 and opened on 26 February 1902. The primary traffic was sawn timber and firewood, with many sawmills located adjacent to the railway.
  Farming families toiled to clear the huge trees and sow pasture. Many had given up by the 1920s and 1930s because of wet weather, weeds, rabbits, scrub regrowth, difficult access to markets, impacts of the Great Depression and repeated and destructive bushfires in 1886, 1919, 1932 and finally Black Friday in 1939. It was a similar story in the Strzelecki Ranges over in eastern Victoria which became known as the Heartbreak Hills.
  Much of the abandoned and degraded farmland was purchased by the Forests Commission Victoria and replanted from the late 1920s with either native species or exotic conifers to become the Aire Valley Plantation.
caption: The dense Otway forests confronted early settlers - Eugene von Guérard. 1860s.
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