and Halls Road at Boolarra (1949). The planting of trees had the major benefit of stabilising the highly erodible soils on the steep hillsides that had been cleared of forest cover by the early settlers. However, the big step came in 1961, when the Chairman of the Forests Commission, Alf Lawrence attended the World Forestry Conference in São Paulo Brazil and upon his return took a bold decision to commit Victoria to a massive Plantation Expansion (PX) program which initiated nearly four decades of rapid plantation establishment. At that stage, softwoods were still being imported in large quantities and it was also believed that softwoods could not only relieve the pressure on native forests but make Australia self-sufficient in timber resources. This overall State program, which commenced in 1949 and expanded in 1961, resulted in the area of State-owned plantations across Victoria increasing from 20,000 hectares to over 100,000 hectares. A new FCV nursery and workers camp was established at Olsens Bridge, at the head of the Morwell River in 1949, to grow mountain ash seedlings. The nursery and camp were later to become the Morwell River Prison Camp in May 1961, where inmates operated the nursery under the guidance of FCV employees. In the mid-1970s the nursery was producing in excess of one million seedlings each year. Another prison at nearby Yarram at Won Wron grew pines from about 1962. The Morwell River prison closed in 1997 while Won Wron prison closed in 2004. By June 1986 the FCV had purchased over 400 properties with a total area of 28000 ha. At the same time, APM held a similar estate of 24000 ha purchased land plus 8600 ha of crown land leasehold. The steep terrain and large size of some of the wattle regrowth on the purchased properties meant that large bulldozers were required to clear most of the land for planting, but some of the lighter scrub areas were cleared using hand tools by inmates from the Prison Camp, with crews of up to 40 people at a time. Much of this original planting work was successful, with large areas subsequently harvested and replanted. Significant areas of hardwood plantings on the steeper areas have been reserved for environmental purposes, particularly in the major gullies. Meanwhile, there was growing disquiet from environment and community groups about the clearing of native forests and conversion to pines, together with the use