97-586: Leongatha / ˈ l iː n ɡ æ θ ə / is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges , South Gippsland Shire , Victoria , Australia , located 135 kilometres (84 mi) south-east of Melbourne . At the 2021 census , Leongatha had a population of 5,869. Canadian dairy company Saputo which trades in Australia under the Devondale label, among others, has a dairy processing plant on
194-720: A Polish explorer, who with the assistance of Charley Tarra the small party's Aboriginal guide, led an expedition through this region in 1840. They also form a biogeographic subregion of the South Eastern Highlands . "Land of the Lyrebird" is also a common alternative name for the Strzelecki Ranges based on a popular 1920s book. The Strzelecki Ranges generally run east-west and extend for roughly 100 km. They are composed of deeply dissected sandstone and mudstone, rising from 300 to 500 metres, with
291-408: A ball on a single break , while handicap versions give weaker players chances to continue play after making an error. The extra turns, called "bisques" are effective in levelling the odds of winning. Golf croquet is played between two individuals or teams, each playing with two balls. The object of the game is to reach a certain number of points, typically seven, earned by being the first to run
388-500: A ball traverses its prior wicket in the opposite direction, this now becomes its current wicket; exceptions: (1) a rover cannot be reverted; (2) until the ball remakes that wicket, it cannot be reverted again. • Nosering Rule (an admittedly stupid name, the origin lost to history): Once per game, or sometimes once per half, at the end of one's turn, one may move one's ball exactly one mallet head, except not into or thru any wicket in either direction, and not to be touching either stake. In
485-828: A community theatre company, the "Lyric Theatre Company" that regularly stages theatrical productions. The town has a medieval society, the "Leongatha Medieval Society", which re-enacts 14th-century weapons, armour and fighting styles. The Medieval Society can be seen each month at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum at Korumburra. Leongatha offers a range of sports including: athletics, basketball, badminton, cricket, croquet , cycling ( BMX , road and track ), equestrian , football ( Australian rules , association and indoor soccer ), golf, gymnastics, hockey ( field and underwater ), lawn bowls , martial arts (karate and taekwondo), netball, shooting, skateboarding , softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball ( indoor and beach ). The town's Australian Rules football club,
582-430: A croquet-like ground billiards game (balls on the ground, hoop, bats, and peg) being played over a short , garden-sized distance. The image's caption describes the game as "a curious ancient pastime", confirming that croquet games were not new in early-19th-century England. In Samuel Johnson 's 1755 dictionary, his definition of "pall-mall" clearly describes a game with similarities to modern croquet: "A play in which
679-504: A good burn. 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
776-656: A high arch of iron, which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed upon, wins. It is to be observed that there are two of these arches, that is, one at either end of the alley. The game of mall was a fashionable amusement in the reign of Charles the Second, and the walk in Saint James's Park, now called the Mall, received its name from having been appropriated to the purpose of playing at mall, where Charles himself and his courtiers frequently exercised themselves in
873-416: A hoop. The game opens by playing each ball into the lawn from the fourth (south-eastern) corner of the lawn. Balls must be played in order (for the primary ball colours, this is blue, red, black, and yellow), and this order of play is maintained throughout the game. Hoops are contested in a fixed order, with a point awarded to the owner of the first ball to pass through the hoop in the correct direction. After
970-524: A large YMCA complex (including pool, gym and basketball courts) plus a four theatre complex. Strzelecki Ranges The Strzelecki Ranges ( / s t r ɛ z ˈ l ɛ k i / strehz- LECK -ee ) is a set of low mountain ridges located in the West Gippsland and South Gippsland regions of the Australian state of Victoria . The Ranges are named after Paweł Edmund Strzelecki ,
1067-417: A player might choose to avoid staking out (becoming a Rover ) in order to help a lagging teammate. Each time a ball is roqueted, the striker gets two bonus shots. For the first bonus shot, the player has four options: The second bonus shot ("continuation shot") is an ordinary shot played from where the striker ball came to rest. An alternative endgame is "poison": in this variant, a player who has scored
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#17327720003411164-453: A player's ball is relocated by an unleashed dog, it shall be played from the location the dog released the ball. If the ball is released out of bounds, then the ball shall be played from the point (after adjusting for a mallet width from the boundary) it was removed from the field. • Dynamic Starting Order: After lagging to the stake for starting order, the players exercise the option to go or not go in order of closeness; after each player goes,
1261-517: A point is awarded, all players move on to contest the next hoop. Balls that are played more than halfway to the next hoop before a point is scored are considered offside, and are moved to penalty areas. Golf croquet is the fastest-growing version of the game, owing largely to its simplicity and competitiveness. There is an especially large interest in competitive success among players in Egypt . By comparison with association croquet, golf croquet requires
1358-620: A result of clearing for agriculture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and of some logging activity, the native vegetation of the overall Strzelecki Ranges bioregion is highly depleted, with only 19% of its original extent remaining, mostly in the east. Most of the remaining forest is in the eastern ranges, with the Tarra-Bulga National Park , Gunyah Rainforest Reserve, the Morwell National Park , Mount Worth State Park , Mirboo North Regional Park and
1455-529: A smaller variety of shots and emphasises strategic skills and accurate shot-making. Games are shorter, balls are more likely to be hit harder, and 'jump' shots are more likely to be witnessed, where a ball is played to deliberately jump off the ground and over another ball. The American-rules version of croquet is the dominant version of the game in the United States and is also widely played in Canada . It
1552-409: A team game, one may use a teammate's unused nosering move. • Alzheimer's Rule: Before or after hitting the ball, if that player or anyone else realizes that the player forgot their current wicket, stake, or other mandatory objective, the hit is retaken (if in fact it has been taken), except when croqueting another ball; all players have the obligation to point this out before the hit. • Act of Dog: If
1649-466: 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
1746-721: Is governed by the United States Croquet Association . Its genesis is mostly in association croquet, but it differs in a number of important ways that reflect the home-grown traditions of American "backyard" croquet. Official rules were first published in 1894 by the Spalding Athletic Library, as adopted by the National American Croquet Association. American six-wicket uses the same six-wicket layout as both association croquet and golf croquet, and
1843-490: Is a major educational hub for South Gippsland, and contains several schools, including: The town also has two kindergartens (Allora and Hasset Street), and two childcare centres (Brown Street and Leongatha Children's), which both have kindergarten rooms. The Great Southern Rail Trail is in the process of procuring finance to extend the trail as far as Yarram . At the present time the Wellington Shire have financed
1940-642: Is also in the east, whereas most of the western Strzeleckis is privately owned farmland. The Ranges are very similar in formation and appearance to the Otway Ranges southwest of Melbourne. The eastern Strzelecki Ranges fall within the territory of the Gunai or Kurnai people and part of the western Ranges within the territory of the Bunurong nation. In the Aboriginal Boonwurrung language,
2037-498: Is also played by two individuals or teams, each owning two balls. Like association croquet, the object of the game is to be the first to pass each of their balls through all six hoops in both directions and to strike the central peg, for a total of 26 points. Unlike association croquet, balls are always played in the same sequence (blue, red, black, yellow). The limitation of roqueting each ball once between hoop points is, unlike in association croquet, carried over from turn to turn until
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#17327720003412134-410: Is arranged in a double-diamond pattern, with one stake at each end of the course. Players start at one stake, navigate one side of the double diamond, hit the turning stake, then navigate the opposite side of the double diamond and hit the starting stake to end. If playing individually ( Cutthroat ), the first player to stake out is the winner. In partnership play, all members of a team must stake out, and
2231-560: Is moderate (averaging 970.4 mm (38.20 in) per annum), and is frequent (spread between 174.8 precipitation days). The town is located on the South Gippsland Highway which links Leongatha to Melbourne . Leongatha was formerly situated along the South Gippsland railway corridor that operated to its terminus at Yarram in the early 1980s and Leongatha in the mid 1990s. A V/Line road coach service replaced
2328-492: Is no coincidence that the game became popular at the same time as the cylinder lawn mower , since croquet can only be played well on a lawn that is flat and finely-cut. By the late 1870s, however, croquet had been eclipsed by another fashionable game, lawn tennis , and many of the newly created croquet clubs, including the All England Club at Wimbledon, converted some or all of their lawns into tennis courts . There
2425-626: Is the MacRobertson International Croquet Shield . It is contested every three to four years between Australia, England (formerly Great Britain), the United States, and New Zealand. Other nations compete in Tier 2 and Tier 3 World Team Championships. Teams are promoted and relegated between the lower tiers, but there is no relegation to or promotion from the MacRobertson Shield. The current holders of
2522-657: Is the booklet The Game of Croquet, its Laws and Regulations , which was published in the mid-1860s for the proprietor of Eglinton Castle, the Earl of Eglinton . On the page facing the title page is a picture of Eglinton Castle with a game of "croquet" in full swing. The croquet lawn existed on the northern terrace, between Eglinton Castle and the Lugton Water. The 13th Earl developed a variation on croquet named Captain Moreton's Eglinton Castle croquet, which had small bells on
2619-613: The British colonies in its recognizable form, croquet is, like pall-mall and trucco , among the later forms of ground billiards , which as a class have been popular in Western Europe back to at least the Late Middle Ages , with roots in classical antiquity , including sometimes the use of arches and pegs along with balls and mallets or other striking sticks (some more akin to modern field hockey sticks). By
2716-576: The Holey Plains State Park set aside as formal conservation reserves. There are also significant areas of State Forest, including Won Wron and Mullungdung , as well as other conservation reserves inside the Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP) estate, such as the "Cores and Links". Much of the land was degraded, covered with weeds and infested with rabbits after it was abandoned by the early settlers. During
2813-669: The Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. By no later than the early 15th century, the game jeu de mail (itself ancestral to pall-mall and perhaps to indoor billiards ) was popular in France, including in the courts of Henry II in the 16th century and Louis XIV of the 17th. At least one version of it, rouët ('wheel'), was a multi-ball lawn game. Records show a game called "crookey", similar to croquet, being played at Castlebellingham in County Louth, Ireland, in 1834, which
2910-467: The United States ) embedded in a grass playing court. In all forms of croquet, individual players or teams take turns striking the balls, scoring points by knocking them through a hoop. The game ends when a player or team reaches a predetermined number of points. Several variations exist that differ in when and how a stroke may be legally played, when points are scored, the layout of the lawn, and
3007-424: The reforestation and plantation establishment, considerable effort went into controlling weeds like blackberry and ragwort. While not able to fully eradicate these pests, the biodiversity of the eastern Ranges has slowly been restored as tree cover increases and the understorey recovers to smother some of the weeds. After McMillian and Strzelecki opened the way, it did not take long for settlements to develop along
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3104-459: The 12th century, a team ball game called la soule or choule , akin to a chaotic version of hockey or football (depending on whether sticks were used), was regularly played in France and southern Britain between villages or parishes; it was attested in Cornwall as early as 1283. In the book Queen of Games: The History of Croquet , Nicky Smith presents two theories of the origin of
3201-400: The 1900 Olympic croquet events, France claimed victory in all three competitions. Gaston Aumoitte won the one-ball singles, Chrétien Waydelich won the two-ball singles, and the doubles event was won by the pair of Gaston Aumoitte and Georges Johin, securing all the medals as all 10 participants were French. The oldest document to bear the word croquet with a description of the modern game is
3298-581: The 1920s, there were advances with kiln drying mountain ash and it became highly sought after as a building timber. Small sawmills such as the Duff sawmill operated in the higher part of the Strzeleckis until the timber became too difficult to extract. In what is believed to be the largest, most sustained and expansive reforestation project of its type in Australia the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) began purchasing farming properties in
3395-550: The 1930s and promoted as a tourist drive. The other hope was the timber industry but Melbourne's timber was being adequately supplied from the Central Highlands until the mid-1950s. Often in the higher rainfall areas, once the forest had been removed, large chunks of the hillsides began to move and slump down the steep slopes, causing deep erosion scars that sometimes blocked streams and roads with tonnes of saturated topsoil and sticky clay. Bushfires also swept through
3492-467: The Crown … every acre of this land has passed into the hands of private selectors." But high rainfall, steep hills, the lack of an adequate road system and long distances to markets ultimately caused farming to fail in many of these areas, particularly in the eastern Ranges. In winter, the roads degenerated and became boggy channels of mud. Corduroy tracks were built with small logs laid cross ways along
3589-481: The Earl even launched his own Cassiobury brand croquet set. By 1867, Jaques had printed 65,000 copies of his Laws and Regulations of the game. It quickly spread to other Anglophone countries, including Australia , Canada , New Zealand , South Africa , and the United States . No doubt one of the attractions was that the game could be played by both sexes; this also ensured a certain amount of adverse comment. It
3686-580: The European Golf Croquet championship, and in October, Hanan Rashad of Egypt beat Yasser Fathy (also from Egypt) to win the World over-50s Golf Croquet championship. Croquet was an event at the 1900 Summer Olympics . Roque , an American variation on croquet, was an event at the 1904 Summer Olympics . Croquet is recognized as the first Olympic sport to include female participants. In
3783-840: The Leongatha Football Club ("The Parrots"), competes in the Gippsland Football League . Golfers play at the course of the Leongatha Golf Club on Inverloch-Koonwarra Road, Leongatha South, or at the course of the Woorayl Golf Club at the Recreation Reserve. Community services include CFA , SES , Police , ambulance. Other community organisations include Scouts (cubs, scouts, venturers and rovers), Girl Guides , and Salvation Army Youth Corps. The town also boasts
3880-866: The MacRobertson Shield are England, who won the title in 2023. At the Golf Croquet World Team Championships, eight nations contest the Openshaw Shield. There is promotion and relegation between Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. The current holders of the Openshaw Shield are New Zealand, who won in 2020. The world's top 10 association croquet players as of October 2023 were Robert Fletcher (Australia), Robert Fulford (England), Paddy Chapman (New Zealand), Jamie Burch (England), Reg Bamford (South Africa), Matthew Essick (USA), Mark Avery (England), Simon Hockey (Australia), Harry Fisher (England), and Jose Riva (Spain). In April 2013, Reg Bamford of South Africa beat Ahmed Nasr of Egypt in
3977-541: The Strzelecki Ranges was Angus McMillan , who came in search of pastures from New South Wales in 1839. However, the Strzelecki Ranges are named after the Polish explorer, Paweł Edmund Strzelecki (also known as Paul Edmund de Strzelecki). In 1840, after climbing and naming Australia's highest mountain Mount Kosciuszko , he journeyed further south into Gippsland. Heading towards Port Phillip Bay, his party entered
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4074-457: The Strzeleckis and railway construction beginning in the hills, the timber industry developed. The railway line to Boolarra opened in 1885 and the line extended to Mirboo North in 1886. At Boolarra and Mirboo North several sawmills operated and paling splitting was also widespread. The palings and blackwood logs were transported out by rail. The sawmills operating at Darlimurla from the 1880s also produced significant numbers of sawn logs. Sawmilling
4171-608: The Strzeleckis. The company then proceeded to establish a plant at Maryvale in LaTrobe Valley for the manufacture of Kraft papers which came into production in October 1939. Before the end of the Second World War, the Forests Commission began making additional plans to reforest and rehabilitate the Strzeleckis and establish a timber supply. It was joined in the venture by APM. The company announced
4268-733: The UK, US, New Zealand, Australia, and Egypt; many other countries also play. Every four years, the top countries play in the World Team Championships in AC (the MacRobertson Shield ) and GC (the Openshaw Shield). The current world rankings show England in top place for AC, followed by Australia in second place, and New Zealand in third place, with the United States in fourth position. The same four countries appear in
4365-659: 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. 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
4462-516: The ball is struck with a mallet through an iron ring". However, there is no evidence that pall-mall involved the croquet stroke, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the modern game. The second theory is that the rules of the modern game of croquet arrived in Ireland during the 1850s, perhaps after being brought there from Brittany , where a similar game was played on the beaches. Regular contact between Ireland and France had continued since
4559-520: The ball scores the next hoop. In American six-wicket, this is termed "deadness", and a separate board is required to keep track of the deadness for all four balls. A further difference is the more restrictive boundary-line rules of American croquet. In the American game, roqueting a ball out of bounds or running a hoop so that the ball goes out of bounds causes the turn to end, and balls that go out of bounds are replaced only nine inches (23 cm) from
4656-509: The boundary rather than one yard (91 cm) as in association croquet. "Attacking" balls on the boundary line to bring them into play is thus far more challenging. Nine-wicket croquet, sometimes called "backyard croquet", is played mainly in Canada and the United States and is the game most recreational players in those countries call simply "croquet". In this version of croquet, there are nine wickets, two stakes, and up to six balls. The course
4753-499: The categorical statement, "One thing only is certain: it is from Ireland that croquet came to England and it was on the lawn of the late Lord Lonsdale that it was first played in this country." John Jaques apparently claimed in a letter to Arthur Lillie in 1873 that he had himself seen the game played in Ireland, writing, "I made the implements and published directions (such as they were) before Mr. Spratt [mentioned above] introduced
4850-602: The coast to the south of the Strzeleckis was visited by sealers and wattle bark gatherers, but they did not settle. Samuel Anderson (1803–1863), a Scottish immigrant from Kirkcudbright , agriculturist and explorer, established a squatter agricultural settlement on the Bass River in 1835, the third permanent settlement in Victoria (then called the Port Phillip District ). The first European to explore
4947-666: The early 1930s, and increasingly through the 1940s and into the 1950s, reaching a peak between 1944 and 1951. However, it seemed not all the community was pleased about the acquisition of farmland. The project ran for over 60 years with fluctuations of investment but essentially ended with the creation of the Victorian Plantations Corporation in 1993. Albert Lind was the Minister for Forests and local Member in Legislative Assembly for
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#17327720003415044-452: 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
5141-476: The eastern Strzeleckis, the worst being on Red Tuesday 1898 when 50 homesteads were destroyed. The fires are dramatically illustrated by the paintings "The homestead saved" by James Alfred Turner and "Gippsland, Sunday Night, February 20, 1898" by John Campbell Longstaff . Other bushfires followed between 1899 and 1944 , but the Ranges largely escaped the Black Friday bushfires of 1939. As
5238-473: The eastern portion is mostly within the City of LaTrobe and Shire of Wellington . In the east towards Sale , there are substantial tracts of state forest, including Won Wron and Mullungdung , Tarra-Bulga National Park and the Holey Plains State Park . Agnes Falls at Toora which cascades over a series of rocks on a 59-metre drop are probably the best known. The large Hancock Victorian Plantation (HVP) estate
5335-577: The eight hoops "to ring the changes", two pegs, a double hoop with a bell, and two tunnels for the ball to pass through. In 1865, the 'Rules of the Eglinton Castle and Cassiobury Croquet' was published by Edmund Routledge . Several incomplete sets of this form of croquet are known to exist, and one complete set is still used for demonstration games in the West of Scotland. Croquet is popularly believed to be viciously competitive. That may derive from
5432-561: The end of the Victorian gold rush there was a severe 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. Ahead of them was the Herculean task of clearing the giant trees and of trying to get their produce to market. Under various acts of
5529-467: The fact that (unlike in golf) players will often attempt to move their opponents' balls to unfavourable positions. However, purely negative play is rarely a winning strategy; successful players (in all versions other than golf croquet) will use all four balls to set up a break for themselves, rather than simply making the game as difficult as possible for their opponents. The way croquet is depicted in paintings and books says much about popular perceptions of
5626-780: The final of the Golf Croquet World Championship in Cairo, becoming the first person to simultaneously hold the title in both association croquet and golf croquet. As of 2023, the Golf Croquet World Champion was Matthew Essick (USA), and the Women's Golf Croquet World Champion was Jamie Gumbrell (Australia). In 2018, two international championships open to both sexes were won by women: in May, Rachel Gee of England beat Pierre Beaudry of Belgium to win
5723-525: The first portion of the trail from Yarram to Alberton with the present Committee of Management intending to manage that portion in the foreseeable future. The Rail Trail commences at the end of Parr Street with a car park planned for the future to assist with access to the trail. Walkers can access the trail from the children's park next to the old rail bridge in Leongatha at the end of Bair Street, or by parking anywhere along Greenwood Parade. Leongatha has
5820-643: The foothills of the western Strzeleckis. In 1976, a monument was unveiled by the Hon Jim Balfour to the "World's Tallest Tree" near Thorpdale , which in 1881 was measured by a surveyor, George Cornthwaite, at 375 feet (114.3 metres) after it had been chopped down. This account was reported in the Victorian Field Naturalist many years later in July 1918 and is often considered the most reliable record of Victoria's tallest tree. As
5917-405: The formation of a subsidiary company, APM Forests Ltd, in 1951 and planned an enormous reforestation scheme to supply softwood and hardwood pulp to the mill. They also began purchasing properties to establish plantations that would eventually supply the new mill. Meanwhile, research indicated that the best softwood to plant in dryer areas was Pinus radiata and the best hardwood in the wet sites
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#17327720003416014-623: The highest point at Mount Tassie being 740 metres. The north is bounded by the Latrobe River and the south by the coast dominated by Wilsons Promontory , Corner Inlet and the Ninety-Mile beach . The Strzelecki Ranges presents a diverse range of landscapes that are difficult to simply categorise, but they are essentially in two parts: western and eastern. The western ranges have been successfully cleared for agriculture and feature green rolling hills with small farms and settlements in
6111-458: The last wicket but not hit the starting stake becomes a "poison ball", which may eliminate other balls from the game by roqueting them. A non-poison ball that roquets a poison ball has the normal options. A poison ball that hits a stake or passes through any wicket (possibly through the action of a non-poison player) is eliminated. The last person remaining is the winner. The Richmond Virginia Extreme Croquet Club has these rules: • Revert Rule: If
6208-402: The lawn from one of two "baulk lines" defined as one yard into the lawn on the western half of the south boundary and the eastern half of the north boundary. After this, players elect at the start of each turn which of their two balls to play for the duration of that turn. During a turn, a player may earn extra shots in two ways. A player earns a single extra shot by scoring a hoop point (hitting
6305-417: The line to the local railway station ceased in 1993. The Leongatha Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1990. The town made international media headlines in 2023, when four people were taken to hospital after consuming beef Wellington suspected to have contained death cap mushrooms . Three of the four guests subsequently died, and one survived, later receiving a liver transplant . The woman who cooked
6402-533: The local community and its remnants can still be found on the Grand Ridge Road . In addition to the discovery of gold at Walhalla in 1862, agriculture and forestry, the mining of large coal deposits in the LaTrobe Valley , at Wonthaggi as well as Gelliondale near Yarram from the 1920s strongly influenced the pattern of later settlement across Gippsland. By 1887 the Minister for Lands, Mr John Lamont Dow , expressed regret that "the magnificent blue gum ridges throughout south Gippsland have been alienated from
6499-398: The meal, Erin Patterson, was charged with murder in November 2023 . Leongatha has an oceanic climate ( Köppen: Cfb), with warm summers and cool winters. Average maxima vary from 24.9 °C (76.8 °F) in February to 13.0 °C (55.4 °F) in July, while average minima fluctuate between 12.3 °C (54.1 °F) in February and 4.8 °C (40.6 °F) in July. Precipitation
6596-403: The mid-twentieth century, much of the land in the rolling hills of western Strzelecki Ranges had been taken up. 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. However, the dense forests and steep terrain of
6693-450: The modern game of croquet, which took England by storm in the 1860s and then spread overseas. The first explanation is that the ancestral game was introduced to Britain from France during the 1660–1685 reign of Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland and was played under the name of paille-maille (among other spellings, today usually pall-mall ), derived ultimately from Latin words for 'ball and mallet' (the latter also found in
6790-401: The name of the earlier French game, jeu de mail ). This was the explanation given in the ninth edition of Encyclopædia Britannica , dated 1877. In his 1801 book The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England , Joseph Strutt described the way pall-mall was played in England at the time: "Pale-maille is a game wherein a round box[wood] ball is struck with a mallet through
6887-440: The north side of the town producing milk-based products for Australian and overseas markets. First settlement of the area by Europeans occurred in 1845. The Post Office opened as Koorooman on 1 October 1887 and renamed Leongatha in 1891 when a township was established on the arrival of the railway. The railway line from Melbourne reached the town in 1891, and stimulated further settlement. Regular V/Line passenger operations on
6984-542: The north-eastern end of the Strzelecki Ranges and struggled through the rugged and thick forest for 22 days, before finally emerging starved and exhausted at Corinella on Western Port Bay . The eastern Ranges were originally covered by a mosaic of wet forest, dominated by 90-metre-tall mountain ash ( Eucalyptus regnans ) and cool temperate rainforest of myrtle beech and tree ferns. Drier mixed forest of messmate ( Eucalyptus obliqua ), peppermint ( E. radiata ) and mountain grey gum ( E. cypellocarpa ) were more common in
7081-404: The player has a single further shot, known as the "continuation". During a turn, each of the other three balls may only be croqueted once between hoop points, but by stringing together a series of roquets, croquets, and scored hoops, several points may be scored in a single turn. Advanced variants of association croquet give further penalties to dissuade skilled players from running every hoop with
7178-519: The practice of this pastime." While the name pall-mall and various games bearing this name also appeared elsewhere (France and Italy), the description above suggests that the croquet-like games in particular were popular in England by the early 17th century. Some other early modern sources refer to pall-mall being played over a large distance (as in golf); however, an image in Strutt's 1801 book shows
7275-537: The rail service on 24 July 1993, running between Melbourne and Yarram. A second service runs from Traralgon to Wonthaggi. There was also a third bus service running from Venus Bay , through Tarwin Lower and Koonwarra connecting with the V/Line services that depart from Leongatha. This was a trial service and no longer operates. The Leongatha Airport is located south of the town and serves general aviation. Leongatha
7372-495: The range is called Tolone. Stone axes, grinding stones and bush ovens provide evidence of Aboriginal use of the tall dense forests of the ranges. It is believed that Aboriginal people did not permanently occupy the wet forested mountain ranges because of uncertain food supplies and the harsh climate. During summer and spring short trips were common. The Ranges were a source of lyrebird tail feathers, which were used for ornamentation and for trade. Before permanent European settlement,
7469-611: The remaining players re-choose who goes next in the same order. • McKlintock Start, an option to start the game: A ball still on start 1-out or 2-out cannot be used to roquet another ball, nor can it be roquet'd without its owner's permission. Nevertheless, such a ball may hit any other ball or be hit by any other ball; however, the hitter's go is over and no deadness is established. As well as club-level games, county-level tournaments, and leagues, there are regular world championships and international matches between croquet-playing countries. The sport has particularly strong followings in
7566-409: The river flats in the more favourable grazing lands of Gippsland . 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. 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
7663-518: The seat of Gippsland East from 1920 to 1961 and was instrumental in advocating for State Government funding of the reforestation program. Around the same time, and with the support of Lind, the Forests Commission Chairman A.V. Galbraith and Sir Herbert Gepp from Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd (APM) finalised a pioneering legislated agreement for pulpwood supply from State forests and from softwood plantations including
7760-732: The set of rules registered by Isaac Spratt in November 1856 with the Stationers' Company of London . This record is now in the Public Record Office . In 1868, the first croquet all-comers meet was held at Moreton-in-Marsh , Gloucestershire , and in the same year, the All England Croquet Club was formed at Wimbledon, London . Regardless of when and by what route it reached the British Isles and
7857-492: The south like Korumburra , Foster , and Leongatha and towns like Yarragon , Trafalgar , Warragul , Morwell , and Traralgon in the north that extend along the Princes Highway. The eastern Strzeleckis remain heavily forested with steep dissected ridges and valleys with high rainfall. The settlements that encircle the Ranges include Boolarra , Churchill , and Gormandale in the north and Toora and Yarram in
7954-641: The south, while the eastern boundary is identified by Longford and Sale . The township of Mirboo North sits between the two parts, straddling the main ridge. The average annual temperature in Mirboo North ranges between a cool 12.8 °C in winter and a temperate 26.6 °C in summer, with annual rainfall averaging 1040 mm. The Strzelecki Ranges are so expansive they overlap five Local Government Areas. The western section primarily sits within Baw Baw , South Gippsland and Bass Coast shires while
8051-400: The striker's ball through a hoop), or two extra shots by causing their ball to contact another ball-an action called a "roquet". When a roquet is made, the player may pick up their ball and place it in contact with the roqueted ball. The next shot must move both the player's ball and the roqueted ball, and it is the "croquet" stroke that gives the game its name. After a successful croquet stroke,
8148-490: The subject to me." Whatever the truth of the matter, Jaques certainly played an important role in popularising the game, producing editions of the rules in 1857, 1860, and 1864. Croquet became highly popular as a social pastime in England during the 1860s. It was enthusiastically adopted and promoted by the Earl of Essex , who held lavish croquet parties at Cassiobury House , his stately home in Watford , Hertfordshire , and
8245-504: The target score. Commonly, social games adopt further non-standard variations to adapt play to the conditions. In all versions, players of all ages and genders compete on equal terms and are ranked together. Two versions of the game are directly governed by the World Croquet Federation , which organises individual and team World Championships. Other regional variants which developed in parallel remain common in parts of
8342-594: The timber industry was haphazard and it was not until the establishment of the Forests Commission of Victoria (FCV) in 1918 that a more coordinated approach to harvesting and management of forest resources was initiated. The FCV played an important role in the development of the forest industry by providing infrastructure and capital to support activities such as sawmilling and, perhaps more importantly, developing long term strategies to manage and sustain Victoria's forest resources. With selectors moving into
8439-533: The top six of the GC country rankings, below Egypt in top position, and with Spain at number six. Individual World Championships usually take place every two or three years. The 2023 AC World Championships took place in London; the winner was Robert Fulford . The current Women's Association Croquet World Champion (2023) is Debbie Lines of England. The most prestigious international team competition in association croquet
8536-461: The understanding grew among people that the clearing of the eastern Strzeleckis had been a tragic mistake, a slow blight settled. The first world war broke out, and many young men left their farms to serve, leaving older people confronted with the reality and hardships of the land. Farms were ill-equipped and when the soldiers returned butterfat prices collapsed and never recovered, the steep hills were not suited to agricultural machinery and later there
8633-411: The world. Association croquet is played between two individuals or teams, each playing with two balls. The object of the game is to be the first to strike each of their balls through all six hoops in both directions, in a fixed order, and to strike the central peg. Each of these actions scores a point, with the maximum score being 26 points. The first four turns must be taken to play the four balls onto
8730-544: The worst stretches. The hill farmers believed that Government investment in a major roads program would be their salvation. The Grand Ridge Road was built by the Country Roads Board in the 1920s joining all the local north-south roads in one long east-west strip but proved little practical use. However, the road was progressively improved in unemployment relief works during the Great Depression of
8827-562: Was a revival in the 1890s, but going forward croquet was always a minority sport, with national individual participation amounting to a few thousand players. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club still has a croquet lawn, but has not hosted any significant tournaments. Its championship was won 38 times by Bernard Neal . The English headquarters for the game is now in Cheltenham . The earliest known reference to croquet in Scotland
8924-472: Was also an important industry at Yinnar . The mills were located in the forest and tramways linked them to the railway station. Henry Collins set up his mill in Mill Road south-east of Yinnar around 1911 and built a tramline along Whitelaw's Track. Higher in the Strzeleckis, where mountain ash forests grew, settlers burnt the trees they had ringbarked and felled, although some were split for palings. During
9021-416: Was expanded after the Second World War to meet the unprecedented demand for sawn timber that was a result of the severe housing shortage experienced at that time. Croquet Croquet ( UK : / ˈ k r oʊ k eɪ , - k i / or US : / k r oʊ ˈ k eɪ / ) is a sport which involves hitting wooden, plastic, or composite balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in
9118-494: Was introduced to Galway in 1835 and played on the bishop's palace garden, and in the same year to the genteel Dublin suburb of Kingstown (today Dún Laoghaire ) where it was first spelled as "croquet". There is, however, no pre-1858 Irish document that describes the way the game was played; in particular, there is no reference to the distinctive croquet stroke, which is described above under " Variations: Association ". The noted croquet historian Dr. Prior, in his book of 1872, makes
9215-459: Was mountain ash, Eucalyptus regnans and shining gum E. nitens . One of the first initiatives was to establish softwood and hardwood plantations and during the 1930s Depression and considerable planting work was carried out as part of unemployment relief measures. At the same time, programs were developed to reforest previously cleared land in the Strzelecki Ranges that had been abandoned by failed settlement schemes. This plantation program
9312-573: Was the Great Depression of the 1930s. Over the next fifty years, farmers and their families progressively sold their land and moved on or simply abandoned them and walked away. The scrub, blackberries, rabbits and weeds then took over, and the area became known locally as the Heartbreak Hills. Today there are many place names on a map that are names only – all the homes are gone, leaving little trace. The early development of
9409-454: 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
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