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Fella's Coupe - A short story

Before

This is a photo of Fella's Coupe - the logging coupe that really brought the GFG community together.  The image shows the coupe before logging happened.  It is a large piece of crown land site licensed to Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP) for forestry - the white line on the image shows where the boundary roughly is.

The photo was taken in late 2023.  As you can see, it was heavily forested entirely with native species and lots of deep rainforest gullies .  It is hard to imagine how steep the terrain is and how beautiful it was to be there but you can listen to a short radio interview that will take you into the forest.

 

 

After

This is what it looks like after the logging stopped. This image was taken in mid 2025 when over 50 hectares had already been logged, with another 19 hectares in the south section that you can see have not yet been logged. We have shown an approximate distance across the coupe so you get an idea of the size - it's big.

 

 

 

Why get upset about this coupe being logged?
What's the big deal?

Well, there are two main reasons.

  1. The gullies are full of Cool Temperate Rainforest that should have been protected properly but were not.
    You can see what we mean by this if you look at the 'after' photo above.  If you 'zoom' in and look at the edge of the areas where the trees have been cut down, this is right next to where the trees met and joined in with the rainforest on very steep slopes.  This shouldn't have happened.  The rainforest should have been protected by making sure that the trees closest to the rainforest were not cut down.  In other words, HVP should have left 'buffers' of native vegetation to protect the rainforest.  How much buffer is needed?  Well way back in 2001 Biosis, a highly reputable environmental services company recommended a buffer zone of 250m for these areas. 
  2. The gullies have lots of Slender Tree-ferns in them that should have been protected properly but were not.
    Slender Tree-ferns are 'Critically endangered' and are meant to be protected from logging operations by having a 200m Special Management Zone buffer placed around them.  This didn't happen.  Now they are in danger of dying a slow death due to wind and exposure or a quick death from trees falling onto them.  Listen to our interview about Slender Tree-Ferns with Amy Mullins RRR or watch our short documentary we made with Film Maker Cam Myers.

 

What did our community do?

Strong and direct advocacy for almost two years.

  • We tried to engage with HVP at the time logging was happening - no luck
  • We counted and mapped the Slender Tree-ferns - We found over 70 within Fella's Coupe
  • We tried to get the Conservation Regulator to protect the Slender Tree-ferns - no luck
  • We had amazing ecologists survey and map all the special plants in the neighbouring properties and reserve to show how special the area is.  Read the two reports here and here. Spoiler alert, the ecologists found Cool Temperate Rainforest in EVERY gully they walked and over 12 different rare and threatened species. 
  • We made a short (4min) fun documentary about Slender Tree-ferns.
  • We made complaints to the South Gippsland Shire Council - some traction.
  • We made complaints to the Forest Stewardship Council about the situation - some traction. Listen to an interview about serious findings of non conformance.

 

 

 

HVP announce decision to regenerate the site to native forest

In October 2025, HVP announced that they will no longer manage the site for timber production, and instead will regenerate the site to native forest.  This news has been extremely well received by the community.  As key stakeholders we are now being consulted about the regeneration plans and next steps.  

Although we strongly believe that the site should never have been logged, the decision to now regenerate it back to native forest is a great outcome for the future of all the plants and animals at Fella's Coupe.

 

 

 

What is the history of this land? 

In the 1970's, it was shown on government maps as being 'Protected Forest'.  Look at the blue section of land toward the lower left corner of the map.

It's hard to understand how this area of State Forest ended up being called 'plantation', but that's another story.

 

 

Rainforest and Mountain Ash have been here for thousands of years.

 

This precious crown land is now going to be regenerated back to native forest.

 

Thank you to our community for all the advocacy and support that helped make this happen.