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 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 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 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 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 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