Fifth-generation cattle grazier Christa Treasure still often catches herself in awe of the beauty that surrounds her isolated home in Victoria's High Country.
"It's just gorgeous and we don't want this lost," she lamented while leaning on her sun-drenched verandah, preparing for a day ahead in the bush just south of Hotham Heights.
It was the fear of seeing the nearby unburnt Little Dargo River catchment logged by VicForests that prompted her to open up her family's property of 140 years to an unlikely group of allies — environmentalists.
The groups put aside their longstanding differences on how best to manage the High County as they united to push for 10 untouched coupes in the Little Dargo River catchment to be removed from Victoria's Timber Release Plan (TRP).
Another nearby coupe they wanted off the TRP had already been logged.
Victoria is set to stop native timber harvesting by 2030.
Treasure's natural treasure
On a cool but brilliantly sunny autumn morning in the Alps, Ms Treasure's weatherboard home — which has withstood decades of snowdrift and dodged bushfire — was a hive of activity.
About a dozen environmentalists milled around a campfire, boiling water for their morning tea over open flames.
They were preparing for a five-hour trek into the steep and dense catchment to see the coupes that will be logged.
There are no roads in or out of the catchment, Ms Treasure explained, so they would follow the old mailman's track that was used to deliver post from Harrietville across the Dargo High Plains to the mining town of Grant.
Ms Treasure is not often surrounded by the company of inner-city "greenies" but welcomed the opportunity to show them her backyard.
"I think the government is doing the right thing by stopping native logging. I think we should have plantations on private property so that we can leave the forest as natural as possible."
Friends of the Earth campaigns coordinator Cam Walker is thrilled to have been invited onto the Treasures' property.
He fears the impact of building a road into the steep catchment to harvest timber, which he predicts will be of lower quality, is not worth the environmental compromise.
"It's really important we protect these little pockets of unburnt treasures that still do exist in the High Country."
Mr Walker also welcomed the unusual alliance with the Treasure family.
"This is a fantastic collaboration. Environmental groups working with mountain cattle people is not what you would expect, but we have really found ground on this issue.
"Obviously both groups really care about the High Country and we are working together to see the Little Dargo protected."
Towns reliant on native timber
At the foot of the Alps that Ms Treasure calls home, some communities are relying on native timber for their local industries.
"I think it's critical that the state government listen to what's happening in small rural communities and not just listen to the Greens and the activists," said Karen Stephens, Timber Towns Victoria president.
She said native timber harvesting was a sustainable practice, with the state government outlining that five in six milled logs were taken from plantations.
"This is really impacting on these rural communities," she said.
"There's a common fallacy that everybody wants natural timber products that are grown in Australia but they don't want us to cut the trees down."
She met last month with community leaders and industries concerned about the move to end native timber harvesting.
Transitioning away
Mary-Anne Thomas, the Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development, said planning was underway in relation to the remaining Little Dargo River catchment coupes and no decision had been made.
She said the government was, in the meantime, active in helping ensure communities were prepared for the end of native timber harvesting.
Last month, the government announced a further nine towns would join Noojee, Orbost, Yarram and Heyfield in accessing the Local Development Strategy program that supported timber towns to diversify.
"The strategy enables towns and communities that are most affected by these changes to plan their own future," Ms Thomas said.
"The $100 million that was announced in December includes funding to support those communities with those aspirations for the future of their townships."
