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100-558: 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 , 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

200-620: 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 the highest point at Mount Tassie being 740 metres. The north

300-503: 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

400-619: 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

500-466: 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

600-525: A zone of 60 miles (97 km) around the Pribilof Islands within which the seals were not to be molested at any time, and from 1 May to 31 July each year they were not to be pursued anywhere in the Bering Sea. Only licensed sailing vessels were permitted to engage in fur sealing, and the use of firearms or explosives was prohibited. This marked the first attempt at establishing regulations on

700-941: Is a source of food for residents of small coastal communities. Meat is sold in the Asian pet food market; in 2004, only Taiwan and South Korea purchased seal meat from Canada. Seal blubber is used to make seal oil, marketed as a fish oil supplement. In 2001, 2% of Canada's raw seal oil was processed and sold in Canadian health stores. There has been virtually no market for seal organs since 1998. In 2005, three companies exported seal skin: Rieber in Norway, Atlantic Marine in Canada and Great Greenland in Greenland. Their clients were earlier French fashion houses and fur makers in Europe, but today

800-824: Is about twice the 2009 price and about 64% of the 2007 price. The reduced demand is attributable mainly to the 2009 ban on imports of seal products into the European Union. The 2010 winter was unusually warm, with little ice forming in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in February and March, when harp seals give birth to their pups on ice floes. Around the Gulf, harp seals arrived in late winter to give birth on near-shore ice and even on beaches rather than on their usual whelping grounds: sturdy sea ice. Also, seal pups born elsewhere began floating to shore on small, shrinking pieces of ice. Many others stayed too far north, out of reach of all but

900-642: 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,

1000-559: 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

1100-599: Is illegal in Canada to hunt newborn harp seals ( whitecoats ) and young hooded seals (bluebacks). When the seal pups begin to molt their downy white fur at the age of 12–14 days, they are called " ragged-jacket " and can be commercially hunted. After molting, the seals are called "beaters", named for the way they beat the water with their flippers. The hunt remains highly controversial, attracting significant media coverage and protests each year. Images from past hunts have become iconic symbols for conservation , animal welfare , and animal rights advocates. In 2009, Russia banned

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1200-438: Is in a relaxed condition." Reportedly, in one study, three out of eight times, the animal was not rendered either dead or unconscious by shooting, and the hunters would then kill the seal using a hakapik or other club of a type that is sanctioned by the governing authority. Seal skins have been used by aboriginal people for millennia to make waterproof jackets and boots, and seal fur to make fur coats. Pelts account for over half

1300-404: Is with a hakapik : a heavy wooden club with a hammer head and metal hook on the end. The hakapik is used because of its efficiency; the animal can be killed quickly without damage to its pelt. The hammer head is used to crush the seals' thin skulls, while the hook is used to move the carcasses. Canadian sealing regulations describe the dimensions of the clubs and the hakapiks , and caliber of

1400-529: The Ann . The sealers pursued their trade in a most unsustainable manner, promptly reducing the fur seal population to near extermination. As a result, sealing activities on South Georgia had three marked peaks in 1786–1802, 1814–23, and 1869–1913 respectively, decreasing in between and gradually shifting to elephant seals taken for oil. Following the discovery of the South Shetland Islands in 1819,

1500-474: The European Commission 's call in 2006 for a ban on the import, export and sale of all harp and hooded seal products. Ringed seals were once the main staple for food, and have been used for clothing, boots, fuel for lamps, as delicacy, containers, igloo windows, and in harnesses for huskies . Though no longer used to this extent, ringed seals are still an important food and clothing source for

1600-575: 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

1700-658: The Native Americans and First Nations People in Canada have been hunting seals for at least 4,000 years. Traditionally, when an Inuit boy killed his first seal or caribou , a feast was held. The meat was an important source of fat, protein, vitamin A, vitamin B 12 and iron, and the pelts were prized for their warmth. The Inuit diet is rich in fish, whale, and seal. There were approximately 150,000 circumpolar Inuit in 2005 in Greenland, Alaska, Russia, and Canada. According to Kirt Ejesiak, former secretary and chief of staff to then-Premier of Nunavut, Paul Okalik and

1800-553: The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention severely curtailed the sealing industry. Signed on 7 July 1911, by the United States, Great Britain , Japan and Russia, the treaty was designed to manage the commercial harvest of fur-bearing mammals. It outlawed open-water seal hunting and acknowledged the United States' jurisdiction in managing the on-shore hunting of seals for commercial purposes. It was

1900-585: The Pacific Ocean to become the first ship of any nation to conduct operations in the Southern Ocean . Emilia returned to London on 12 March 1790 with a cargo of 139 tons of sperm oil . By 1784, the British had fifteen ships in the southern fishery, all from London . By 1790 this port alone had sixty vessels employed in the trade. Between 1793 and 1799 there was an average of sixty vessels in

2000-705: The Princes Highway ) Drouin , Warragul and Trafalgar . Seal hunting Seal hunting , or sealing , is the personal or commercial hunting of seals . Seal hunting is currently practiced in nine countries: Canada, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Russia, the United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska), Namibia, Estonia, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Most of the world's seal hunting takes place in Canada and Greenland. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) regulates

2100-423: 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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2200-600: The "Canadian Seal Hunt", when in fact seal hunting also happens throughout the year all over the Canadian Arctic. In 2003, the three-year harp seal quota granted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada was increased to a maximum of 975,000 animals per three years, with a maximum of 350,000 animals in any two consecutive years. As of 2012, the population in Canada of the Northwest Atlantic harp seals is approximately 7.3 million animals, over three times what it

2300-415: The 'landsman seal fishery'. The hunt was mainly for the procurement of seal meat as a form of sustenance for the settlements in the area, rather than for commercial gain. From the early 18th century English hunters began to range further afield – 1723 marked the first time that hunters armed with firearms ventured forth in boats to increase their haul. This soon became a sophisticated commercial operation;

2400-469: The 1830s, and rose to 546,000 annually during the first half of the next decade, which led to a marked decline in the harp seal population that in turn adversely impacted profits in the sealing industry. Four hundred schooners carried 13,000 Newfoundland sealers on the annual hunts of the 1850s. An annual kill of 700,000 was estimated when sealing reached its peak in Newfoundland in the 1860s, with

2500-637: 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

2600-548: 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

2700-548: The 2007 quota by 20%, because overflights showed large numbers of seal pups were lost to thin and melting ice. In southern Labrador and off Newfoundland's northeast coast, however, there was extra heavy ice in 2007, and the coast guard estimated as many as 100 vessels were trapped in ice simultaneously. The 2010 hunt was cut short because demand for seal pelts was down. Only one local pelt buyer, NuTan Furs, offered to purchase pelts; and it committed to purchase less than 15,000 pelts. Pelt prices were about C$ 21/pelt in 2010, which

2800-464: 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

2900-580: The Eastern North Atlantic seal fishery as they replaced the hundreds of smaller sealing vessels owned by merchants in outports around Newfoundland with large and expensive steamships owned by large British and Newfoundland companies based in St. John's. Owned at first by the Scottish firm W. Grieve and Sons, she was acquired in 1880 by R. Steele Junior. Another famous sealing ship of the era

3000-672: The Island of South Georgia and the Magellan Strait area as many as 40,000 seal skins and 2,800 tons of elephant seal oil. More fur seals from the island were taken in 1786 by the English sealing vessel Lord Hawkesbury , and by 1791, 102 vessels, manned by 3,000 sealers, were hunting seals south of the equator. The first commercial visit to the South Sandwich Islands was made in 1816 by another English ship,

3100-541: 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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3200-457: 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

3300-662: 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

3400-658: 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

3500-597: The Whitneys of New York also became involved. By 1830, most Pacific seal-stocks had been seriously depleted, and Lloyd's Register of Shipping only showed one full-time sealing vessel on its books. In the North Pacific, the later 1800s saw large harvests of fur seals. These harvests decreased along with fur-seal populations. Growing from the international Grand Banks fishery, the Newfoundland hunt initially used small schooners . Kill rates averaged 451,000 in

3600-554: The adjacent islands, including the Pribilof Islands , the principal breeding-grounds of the seals in those waters. By Acts of Congress , the killing of seals was strictly regulated on the Pribiloff islands and in "the waters adjacent thereto". Beginning in about 1886, it became the practice of certain British and Canadian vessels to intercept passing seals in the open ocean (over three miles from any shore) and shoot them in

3700-474: The animal rights movement upon the culture and economy of the Canadian Inuit" was among the first to reveal how animal rights groups, "well-meaning people in the dominant society through misunderstanding and ignorance can inflict destruction" on a vulnerable minority. Inuit seal hunting accounts for the majority of the seal hunt, but just three percent of the hunt in southern Canada; it is excluded from

3800-532: The catch to 400 seals per day, and 2000 per boat total. A 2007 population survey conducted by the DFO estimated the population at 5.5 million. In Greenland, hunting is done with a firearm (rifle or shotgun) and young are fully protected. This has caused some conflicts with other seal-hunting nations, as Greenland also was hit by the boycotts that often were aimed at seals (often young) killed by clubbing or similar methods, which have not been in use in Greenland. It

3900-480: The claim, but was willing to negotiate on the question of international regulation. The issue was taken to arbitration, which concluded in favour of Britain on all points in 1893. Since the decision was in favor of Great Britain, in accordance with the arbitration treaty the tribunal prescribed a series of regulations for preserving the seal herds which were to be binding upon and enforced by both powers. They limited pelagic sealing as to time, place, and manner by fixing

4000-602: 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

4100-596: The commercial seal hunt dividend contributed about $ 6 million to the Newfoundland GDP, a fraction of the industry's former importance. The end of the 19th century was marked by the Bering Sea Controversy between the United States and Great Britain over the management of fur seal harvests. In 1867 the United States government purchased from Russia all her territorial rights in Alaska and

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4200-532: The discovery in 1798-1799 of Bass Strait , between mainland Australia and Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania ) saw the sealers' focus shift there in 1798, when a gang including Daniel Cooper landed from the Nautilus on Cape Barren Island . With Bass Strait over-exploited by 1802, commercial attention returned to southern New Zealand waters, where Stewart Island/Rakiura and Foveaux Strait were explored, exploited and charted from 1803 to 1804. Thereafter,

4300-663: 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

4400-452: 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

4500-475: 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

4600-473: 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

4700-559: 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

4800-500: The extinction of the harp seal. In 1971, the Canadian government responded by instituting a quota system. The system was competitive, with each boat catching as many seals as it could before the hunt closed, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans did when they knew that year's quota had been reached. Because it was thought that the competitive element might cause sealers to cut corners, new regulations were introduced that limited

4900-401: The family Phocidae were sometimes referred to as hair seals, and are much more adept for a fully aquatic lifestyle than the eared seals, though they have a more difficult time getting around on land. The fur seal yields a valuable fur; the hair seal has no fur, but oil can be obtained from its fat and leather from its hide. Seals have been used for their pelts, their flesh, and their fat, which

5000-574: The first Inuk from Nunavut to attend Harvard, for the c. 46,000 Canadian Inuit, the seal was not "just a source of cash through fur sales, but the keystone of their culture." Although Inuit harvest and hunt many species that inhabit the desert tundra and ice platforms, the seal is their mainstay. The Inuktitut vocabulary designates specific objects made from seal bone, sinew, fat and fur used as tools, games, thread, cords, fuel, clothing, boats, and tents. There are also words referring to seasons, topography, place names, legends, and kinship relationships based on

5100-628: The first commercial expedition to the South Atlantic Ocean in 1776, initially with the primary aim of whaling , although sealing began to play a prominent part in the operation as well. More expeditions were sent in 1777 and 1778 before political and economic troubles hampered the trade for some time. On 1 September 1788, the 270-ton ship Emilia , owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons and commanded by Captain James Shields, departed London. The ship went west around Cape Horn into

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5200-717: The first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues. The treaty was dissolved with the onset of hostilities between the signatories in World War II. However, the treaty set precedent for future national and international laws and treaties, including the Fur Seal Act of 1966 and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 . Today, commercial sealing is conducted by only five nations: Canada, Greenland, Namibia, Norway, and Russia. The United States, which had been heavily involved in

5300-639: 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

5400-404: 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

5500-530: The fur is mainly exported to Russia and China. In Canada, the season for the commercial hunt of harp seal is from 15 November to 15 May. While Inuit hunt seals commercially year-round, most sealing in southern Canada occurs in late March in the Gulf of St. Lawrence , and during the first or second week of April off Newfoundland, in an area known as the Front. This peak spring period is often mistakenly referred to as

5600-536: The hunting of harp seals less than one year old. The term seal is used to refer to a diverse group of animals. In science, they are grouped together in the Pinnipeds , which also includes the walrus , not popularly thought of as a seal, and not considered here. The two main families of seals are the Otariidae (the eared seals; includes sea lions , and fur seals ), and Phocidae (the earless seals); animals in

5700-539: The introduction of more powerful and reliable steamships that were capable of much larger range and storing capacity. Annual catches exceeded the 400,000 mark from the 1870s and smaller sealers were steadily pushed out of the market. The first modern sealing ship was the SS Bear , built in Dundee , Scotland in 1874 as a steamer for sealing . The ship was custom-built for sealing out of St. John's, Newfoundland , and

5800-627: The late 19th century, the sealing industry in Newfoundland was second in importance only to cod fishing . The seal hunt provided critical winter wages for fishermen, but was dangerous work marked by sealing disasters that claimed hundreds of lives, such as the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster involving the SS ; Southern Cross , the SS  Newfoundland , and SS Stephano . The rugged hulls and experienced crews of Newfoundland sealing vessels often led sealers such as Bear and Terra Nova to be hired for Arctic exploration and one sealer Algerine

5900-531: 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

6000-457: The markets of Seville . Newfoundland and Labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence were the first regions to experience large scale sealing. Migratory fishermen began the hunting from as early as the 1500s. Large-scale commercial seal hunting became an annual event starting in 1723 and expanded rapidly near the turn of the 18th century. Initially, the method used was to ensnare the migrating seals in nets anchored to shore installations , known as

6100-401: 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

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6200-409: The most determined hunters. Environment Canada, the weather forecasting agency, reported the ice was at the lowest level on record. The Fisheries Act established "Seal Protection Regulations" in the mid-1960s. The regulations were combined with other Canadian marine mammals regulations in 1993, to form the " Marine Mammal Regulations ". In addition to describing the use of the rifle and hakapik ,

6300-522: The north these hills become steeper as they merge into the Great Dividing Range. In the mountainous north around Noojee logging remains an important industry, while a small winter resort is located to the northeast at Mount Baw Baw . Further to the east are the small township of Erica and the historic gold mining town of Walhalla . Nature reserves in the region include Bunyip State Park , Mount Worth State Park and Baw Baw National Park . Principal towns of West Gippsland include (from west to east along

6400-541: 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

6500-405: The people of Nunavut . Called nayiq by the Central Alaskan Yup'ik people , the ringed seal is also hunted and eaten in Alaska . Various seal species were also hunted in northwest Europe and the Baltic Sea at least 8,000 years ago. The first commercial hunting of seals by Europeans, is said to have occurred in 1515, when a cargo of fur seal skins from Uruguay was sent to Spain for sale in

6600-508: The principal market for seal meat exports. One of Canada's market access priorities for 2002 was to "continue to press Korean authorities to obtain the necessary approvals for the sale of seal meat for human consumption in Korea." Canadian and Korean officials agreed in 2003 on specific Korean import requirements for seal meat. For 2004, only Taiwan and South Korea purchased seal meat from Canada. Canadian seal product exports reached C$ 18 million in 2006. Of this, C$ 5.4 million went to

6700-499: The processed value of a seal, selling at over C$ 100 each as of 2006. According to Paul Christian Rieber , of GC Rieber AS , the difficult ice conditions and low quotas in 2006 resulted in reduced access to seal pelts, which caused the commodity price to be pushed up. One high-end fashion designer, Donatella Versace , has begun to use seal pelts, while others, such as Calvin Klein , Stella McCartney , Tommy Hilfiger , and Ralph Lauren , refrain from using any kind of fur. Seal meat

6800-562: The quotas: 82,800 in 2007; 217,800 in 2008; 72,400 in 2009; and 67,000 in 2010. In 2007, Norway reported that 29,000 harp seals were killed, Russia reported that 5,479 seals were killed and Greenland reported that 90,000 seals were killed in their respective seal hunts. Harp seal populations in the northwest Atlantic declined to approximately 2 million in the late 1960s as a result of Canada's annual kill rates, which averaged to over 291,000 from 1952 to 1970. Conservationists demanded reduced rates of killing and stronger regulations to avert

6900-493: 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,

7000-410: The regulations state every person "who fishes for seals for personal or commercial use shall land the pelt or the carcass of the seal." The commercial hunting of infant harp seals ( whitecoats ) and infant hooded seals (bluebacks) was banned in 1987 under pressure from animal rights groups. Now, seals may only be killed once they have started molting (from 12 to 15 days of age), as this coincides with

7100-407: The rifles and minimum bullet velocity, that can be used. They state: "Every person who strikes a seal with a club or hakapik shall strike the seal on the forehead until its skull has been crushed", and that "No person shall commence to skin or bleed a seal until the seal is dead", which occurs when it "has a glassy-eyed, staring appearance and exhibits no blinking reflex when its eye is touched while it

7200-407: 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

7300-492: The seal hunt in Canada. It sets quotas (total allowable catch – TAC), monitors the hunt, studies the seal population, works with the Canadian Sealers' Association to train sealers on new regulations, and promotes sealing through its website and spokespeople. The DFO set harvest quotas of over 90,000 seals in 2007; 275,000 in 2008; 280,000 in 2009; and 330,000 in 2010. The actual kills in recent years have been less than

7400-528: The seal. One region of Canada's north is inhabited by the Netsilingmiut , or "people of the seal." The title of Ejesiak's article acknowledged the pivotal 1991 publication entitled Animal Rights, Human Rights by George Wenzel, a McGill University geographer and anthropologist who worked more than two decades with the Clyde Inuit of Baffin Island. Wenzel's "scholarly examination" of "the impact of

7500-951: The sealing grounds were expanded to what is now the Antarctic Treaty area. Commercial sealing in the Australasian region appears to have started with the London-based Massachusetts-born Eber Bunker , master of the William and Ann , who in November 1791 announced his intention to visit and hunt in New Zealand 's Dusky Sound . Captain William Raven of the Britannia stationed a party at Dusky from 1792 to 1793, but

7600-481: The sealing industry for environmental purposes. However, these regulations failed because the mother seals fed outside the protected area and remained vulnerable. A joint commission of scientists from Britain and the United States further considered the problem, and came to the conclusion that pelagic sealing needed to be curtailed. However, further joint tribunals did not enact new legal restrictions and, at this point, Japan also embarked upon pelagic sealing. Finally,

7700-401: The sealing industry that is [published] by international animal rights organizations". Warm winters in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence have led to thinner and more unstable ice there. In 2007, Canada's federal fisheries ministry reported that while the pups are born on the ice as usual, the ice floes have started to break up before the pups learn to swim, causing the pups to drown. Canada reduced

7800-506: The sealing industry, now maintains a complete ban on the commercial hunting of marine mammals, with the exception of indigenous peoples who are allowed to hunt a small number of seals each year. In the Canadian commercial seal hunt, the majority of the hunters initiate the kill using a firearm. Ninety percent of sealers on the ice floes of the Front (east of Newfoundland), where the majority of non-native seal hunting occurs, use firearms. An older and more traditional method of killing seals

7900-555: The sealing-industry focus shifted to the sub-Antarctic Antipodes Islands , 1805–1807, the Auckland Islands from 1806, the southeast coast of New Zealand's South Island , Otago Harbour and Solander Island by 1809, before focusing further to the south at the newly-discovered Campbell Island (discovered in January 1810) and Macquarie Island (discovered in July 1810) from 1810. During this period sealers were active on

8000-517: The seals were transported back to England, where the seal's meat, fur, and oil were sold separately. From 1749, the import of seal oil to England was being recorded annually, and was used as lighting oil, for cooking, in the manufacture of soap and for the treating of leather . It was in the South Seas that sealing became a major enterprise from the late 18th century. Samuel Enderby , along with Alexander Champion and John St Barbe organized

8100-518: 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

8200-492: 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

8300-641: 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

8400-831: The southern coast of mainland Australia, for example at Kangaroo Island . This whole development has been called the first sealing boom; it sparked the Sealers' War (1810–1821) in southern New Zealand. Australasian sealing measured its output in terms of skins. By about 1815, sealing in the Pacific had faded in importance. A brief revival occurred from 1823, but this proved very short-lived. Although highly profitable at times and affording New South Wales one of its earliest trade staples, sealing's unregulated character saw its self-destruction. Notable traders from Britain and based in Australia included Simeon Lord , Henry Kable , James Underwood and Robert Campbell . Plummers of London and

8500-592: 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

8600-509: The time when they are abandoned by their mothers. Canada's biggest market for seal pelts is Norway. Carino Limited is one of Newfoundland's largest seal pelt producers. Carino (CAnada–RIeber–NOrway) is marketing its seal pelts mainly through its parent company, GC Rieber Skinn , Bergen, Norway . Canada sold pelts to eleven countries in 2004. The next largest were Germany, Greenland, and China/ Hong Kong . Other importers were Finland, Denmark, France, Greece, South Korea, and Russia. Asia remains

8700-671: The trade. The average increased to seventy-two in the years between 1800 and 1809. The sealing industry extended further south to the South Georgia island , first mapped by Captain James Cook in HMS ; Resolution on 17 January 1775. During the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century, South Georgia was inhabited by English and Yankee sealers, who used to live there for considerable periods of time and sometimes overwintered. In 1778, English sealers brought back from

8800-460: 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

8900-683: The water (pelagic sealing). In the summer of 1886, three British Columbian sealers, the Carolena , the Onward , and Thornton , were captured by an American revenue cutter, the Corwin . The United States claimed exclusive jurisdiction over the sealing industry in the Bering Sea ; it also contended that the protection of the fur seal was an international duty, and should be secured by international arrangement. The British imperial government repudiated

9000-542: 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

9100-471: 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

9200-476: 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. West Gippsland The western part of the region around Western Port Bay and the Bunyip River is mostly flat (much of it having been reclaimed from the drained Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp ), while the eastern part consists of low rolling hills. To

9300-408: Was hired to recover Titanic bodies in 1912. Following World War I aircraft were used to find where the herds of seals had gathered on ice sheets. After World War II , the Newfoundland hunt was dominated by large Norwegian sealing vessels until the late 20th century, when the much diminished hunt shifted to smaller motor fishing vessels, based from outports around Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2007,

9400-437: Was in the 1970s. Although around 70% of Canadian seals killed are taken on the Front, private monitors focus on the St. Lawrence hunt, because of its more convenient location. The 2006 St. Lawrence leg of the hunt was officially closed on 3 April 2006; sealers had already exceeded the quota by 1,000 animals. On 26 March 2007, the Newfoundland and Labrador government launched a seal hunt website to counter "misinformation about

9500-458: 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

9600-423: Was often used as lamp fuel , lubricants , cooking oil , a constituent of soap, the liquid base for red ochre paint, and for processing materials such as leather and jute . Pinseal was fashioned into handbags , and seal livers were an early source of insulin . Early commercial sealers discarded most of the flesh, but might save seal hearts and flippers for an evening meal. Archeological evidence indicates

9700-585: Was the Terra Nova , originally built in 1884 for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet. She was ideally suited to the polar regions and worked for 10 years in the annual seal fishery in the Labrador Sea . Large and expensive ships required major capital investments from British and Newfoundland firms, and shifted the industry from merchants in small outports to companies based in St. John's, Newfoundland. By

9800-571: 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

9900-533: Was the most outstanding sealing vessel of her day and the lead ship in a new generation of sealers. Heavy-built with 15-centimetre-thick (6-inch) wooden planks, Bear was rigged as a sailing barquentine but her main power was a steam engine designed to smash deep into ice packs to reach seal herds. At the time of her arrival in St. John's, there were 300 vessels outfitted each season to hunt seals, but most were small schooners or old sailing barques . The new sealing ships represented by Bear radically transformed

10000-399: 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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