Section E. 

 GEOGRAPHY. 



1.— NOTES ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTH 

 GH^PSLAND. 



By JAMES STIRLING. 



INTEODUCTORY. 



South Gippsknd presents a charming field for physiographic 

 research. It has been named the Eden of Victoria, and certainly 

 is the most densely vegetated portion of south-east Australia. In 

 previous papers on the Physiography of Gippsland, I have en- 

 deavored to present an outline of the leading physiographic features 

 of the icy solitudes of the Australian Alps,-'' the terra incocjnifa 

 known as Croajingalong, f and the sub-alpine regions along the 

 Tambo Valley. J In the present paper reference is made to the south- 

 western portions of Gippsland, or, as it is better known, South 

 Gippsland, which includes the most southerly region in Australia. 

 The area is intersected by the 146th meridian, and lies between 

 the 38th and 39th parallels of south latitude. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



The Latrobe River Valley, which traverses the northern part 

 of the area, and whose northern affluents find their source 

 runnels among the snowy altitude of the south-western extension 

 of the Australian Alps, as at Mount Baw Baw, separates the 

 main dividing range from a mass of ranges known as the 

 Strzelecki and Hoddle, whose spurs trend towards the coast- 

 line, and after being depressed between Waratah Bay and Corner 

 Inlet, rise to form the rocky-crested heights of Wilson's Promon- 

 tory, the most southerly point in the Australian Continent, and 

 which is apparently connected by a chain of islands in Bass 

 Strait with Tasmania. The area to be described may be said to 

 be bounded on the north by the Latrobe Valley ; on the west by 

 the watershed of the Tarago River and Koo-wee-rup Swamp, and 

 Western Port Bay; on the south hy the coast line from Cape 

 Woolamai to Port Albert ; and on the east by the plains bordering 

 the Gippsland lakes. The principal streams draining the area are 

 the southern tributaries of the Latrobe, as the Moe, Narracan, 

 Morewell, Traralgon, and Flynn's Creek, which rise in the 



• Trans., A.A.A.S., vol. i. pp. 359-385. + Trans., Gt-ol. Soc. Australasia, toI. i. 

 i Trans., Roy. Soc. Victoria, vol. i., 1889, pp. 84-108. 



