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 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 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 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. Early settlers After McMillian and Strzelecki opened the way, it did not take long for settlements to develop along 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 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 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