s I e g p I t 'l Hardy, The Forests of Victoria. 71 



walls, the demand for some kind of forest control became 

 more insistent : but nearly half a century of devastation 

 passed before the people placed this priceless heritage in the 

 keeping of a department — a department whose undivided' 

 attention was to be devoted to the conservation of the forest 

 wealth. 



Prior to 1907 forest control was thought to be sufficiently 

 assured by administration by one of many branches of a 

 department, and, like a shuttlecock, it was tossed about — 

 from Lands to Mines, from Mines to Agriculture — each of these 

 having had a turn as foster-mother. The expert officers had 

 limited control and restricted initiative. The following refer- 

 ence to the usages of the Lands Department of many years ago 

 will suffice to show how black was the outlook for the future 

 of forestry, in view of the antagonistic interests existing within 

 a department administering both forestry and land settle- 

 ment : — Settlers were required to effect, in the first stage of 

 their tenures, improvements to the value of ten shillings per 

 acre before acquiring better tenures and finally the Crown 

 grant. " Improvements " frequently comprised the fol- 

 lowing : — Dwelling (often a log and bark or slab and bark hut), 

 a little cultivation, fencing, ringbarking. and clearing. The 

 chock-and-log fences were composed of some of the finest prop 

 and pole and spar timber, and when axe and fire had played 

 their part some of the finest milling timber was in places hauled 

 into line by bullock teams to form log fences, and. later, 

 magnificent cover for rabbits. The ringing of the timber was 

 not only allowed, but was at times necessary to obtain grazing. 

 In recent years the Lands Department made provision for the 

 planting of trees by new selectors in the north-west part of 

 the State. 



In iSqy a Royal Commission was appointed, and. after much 

 travel in this and other countries, presented a comprehensive 

 fourteenth report in 1901. But it was not till 1907 that a 

 Forests Act was passed and a Department of State Forests 

 created, with a Minister and Conservator, with greal powers 

 of control and initiative. Consequently, in January, 1908, 

 there began a new era in the history of Victorian forestry. 



[I.— Area and Nature of Reserves. 



The more or less permanently reserved forest area is about 

 4,000,000 acres — a fourteenth part, or 7 per cent, of the total 

 area of the State. The remaining woodland area is alienable, 

 and amounts to nearly twice as much as the lands reserved 

 under the Forests Act. But the total woodland area oi timber 

 value is. perhaps, not much more than -.000.000 acres. 



The following are the various kinds of reserve: 1. Forest 



