Research, laws and standards

Our snapshot reports set out what the published research says on a single topic, quoted and referenced so readers can check every source.

Rainforest in the Strzelecki Ranges: A community review of published research

Coming soon.... Gippsland Forest Guardians, October 2026. A community review of published research on Cool Temperate and Warm Temperate Rainforest in the Strzeleckis: what it is, where it grows, how to identify it, what harms it, and measure for its protection.

State of Victoria

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act  1988

The Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act requires the preparation of "Action Statements" for the protection of all listed taxons.  Taxons are species that are considered under threat and include many species that are found in Gippslands Forests.  Action Statements include information that is 'Best Available Information'. 
This website lists and provides access to all Action Statements. 

Threatened Species and Communities Risk Assessment: Tranche 1 Permanent Protections

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, September 2022. The State's risk assessment for the first tranche of permanent protections for threatened species and communities, including the Slender Tree-fern. It notes that Cool Temperate Mixed Forest is likely to be recorded as Wet Forest and may be overlooked for protection.
Original source

This document outlines the interim protections provided under the second tranche of species that were assessed.

Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 (as amended 2022)

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, 2022. The rules for timber harvesting in Victoria, including requirements for rainforest in State forest, private native forest and plantations.
GFG copy | Original source

Code of Practice for Timber Production: Schedule 1, Management Standards and Procedures

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, 2022. Detailed standards for harvesting in State forests. We regard it as a minimum standard; other expert sources may recommend more.
GFG copy | Original source

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Threatened List: July 2026

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, 2026. The current list of threatened species and communities in Victoria. Our copy is the July 2026 edition; the original is updated regularly.
GFG copy | Original source

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Potentially Threatening Processes List: July 2026

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, 2026. Lists processes that threaten species and communities, including human activity that raises levels of Myrtle Wilt in rainforest.
GFG copy | Original source

Commonwealth of Australia (Federal Government)

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) is Australia’s central environmental law. It provides a legal framework to protect nationally significant flora, fauna, ecological communities, and heritage places. The Act regulates actions that may have a significant impact on Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES), such as threatened species, World Heritage areas, wetlands, and the Great Barrier Reef. It requires environmental impact assessments, approvals for controlled actions, and supports recovery plans and biodiversity conservation strategies.

The Australian Government’s Conservation Advice is an official document prepared under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). It provides the scientific and management guidance for protecting and recovering a threatened species or ecological community once it is listed under the Act.

Key points:

• The Conservation Advice outlines the main threats, habitat requirements, and recovery actions needed to support the survival of the species or community.

• It is prepared by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) and approved by the Minister for the Environment.

• It often serves as the basis for decision-making, including approvals, recovery planning, and prioritisation of conservation funding.

• Unlike a full Recovery Plan, it is shorter and quicker to prepare, focusing on immediate and practical actions.

• It identifies priority management actions, such as controlling invasive species, protecting habitat, restoring ecosystems, and managing fire or disease threats.

Here is a link to the conservation advices for listed species and communities.

Extensions to EPBC Act Listing Assessment and Decision Timeframes

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, updated September 2026. Lists national listing assessments whose deadlines have been extended, including the assessment of Mountain ash forests of central and eastern Victoria, now due by 30 April 2027.
Original source

Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The Commonwealth's page on the Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement, with links to the agreement and its supporting documents.
Original source

Forestry Certification Standards

Forest Stewardship Council Australian Country Standard

GFG copy | Original source  

High Conservation Values Assessment and Management Plan

HVP Plantations, April 2026. HVP's plan for identifying and managing high conservation values across its Victorian estate, including rainforest under HCV 3.1.
Original source

FSC FM/COC Compliance Assessment of SCS Global Services at Hancock Victorian Plantations Pty Ltd, Australia, 2025

Assurance Services International, August 2025. The assessment by ASI, which accredits certification bodies for FSC, of SCS Global Services' certification of the HVP estate. It raised a major non-conformity against SCS.
GFG copy | Original source 

* Action Statements may not have been completed or published by government experts for each taxon however there is additional best available information available from scientists and specialist groups working to research these taxons.  In addition to the recommended protections offered by the FFGA and the EPBC, we have included the protections detailed in ‘Schedule 1: Management Standards and Procedures for timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s State forests’, which forms part of the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 (as amended).  This information, even if not forming a legal requirement for FSC certificate holders, does meet the definition of Best Available Information within the FSC Standard.  In our view, the Code is potentially the lowest possible agreed standard for protection, not the highest.  There may well be taxon experts and groups who have a much more scientific and up to date understanding of what effective protections like.

Overview

The Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Action Statement for Rainforest is very out of date (2009) but even at the time it was produced, all Rainforest communities were noted to be ‘In a demonstrable state of decline, likely to result in extinction’.  Since then, major bushfires ‘have further impacted threatened species and their unique habitats, including approximately 78% of the remaining Warm Temperate Rainforest in Victoria ‘. (see below)   One report states that 45% of Victoria’s rainforests burned in the 2019/20 fires.(ARI)

These are catastrophic findings; especially in the context of climate change are expected to increase temperature and change humidity in the future. a number of major fire events having taken place, leading to a dramatic decline in remnant Cool Temperate Rainforest and Warm Temperate Rainforest across the eastern seaboard.    Even without an updated Action Statement for Rainforest, a ‘precautionary approach’ is, we think, appropriate.  In our view, ANY remnant rainforest should be considered as precious.

Identifying and mapping rainforest

A Field Guide to Rainforest Identification in Victoria: Differential Species Keys for the Delineation of Rainforest Boundaries

Cameron D, Department of Sustainability and Environment, 2008. The main method used in Victoria for finding the boundary between rainforest and the surrounding eucalypt forest. Out of print and not available from the government website.
GFG copy

Guideline: Identifying and Assessing Rainforest in Victoria (draft for comment)

McCaffrey N, Ecological Consultants Association of Victoria, 2024. A draft guideline for ecologists on the data and methods to use when assessing rainforest, including a case study from the Strzelecki Ranges.
Original source

Fact Sheet 2: Mapping Victoria's Rainforests

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, 2019. Explains why Victoria's rainforest maps needed updating and why accurate mapping matters for setting buffers.
GFG copy | Original source

West Gippsland Native Vegetation Plan

West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, 2003 (conservation status information updated 2008). Rates the conservation status of each vegetation type in the region, including Cool and Warm Temperate Rainforest in the Strzelecki Ranges bioregion as Endangered, and says that for Endangered vegetation all remaining areas need to be protected.
GFG copy | Original source

West Gippsland Regional Catchment Strategy

West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority. The catchment strategy's page on the Strzelecki local area, which describes it as a fragmented landscape with a low proportion of habitat protected.
Original source

Strzelecki Studies

Strzelecki Ranges Biodiversity Study

Biosis Research, 2001. A study of the conservation values of the plantation estate and surrounding land in the central Strzeleckis, including rainforest mapping and recommended protection zones.
GFG copy | Original source

Vegetation Survey of Cool Temperate Rainforest Occurring Within the Turtons Creek Scenic Reserve

Just K and Osler D, 2024. A survey prepared for the Friends of Turtons Creek, recording over 7.5 km of Cool Temperate Rainforest and the largest known population of Slender Tree-ferns in Australia.
GFG copy

Vegetation Survey of Cool Temperate Rainforest Occurring on Trust for Nature Properties at Turtons Creek

Just K and Osler D, 2024. A survey prepared for the Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group of rainforest on three Trust for Nature properties.
GFG copy

Listing and protection

Action Statement No. 238: Victorian Rainforest Communities and Myrtle Wilt

Department of Sustainability and Environment, 2009. The State's action statement for rainforest, including minimum buffers on public land, monitoring and research priorities.
GFG copy | Original source

Final Recommendation on a Nomination for Listing: Cool Temperate Mixed Forest Community (Nomination No. 825)

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Scientific Advisory Committee, 2012. The assessment that led to the listing of Cool Temperate Mixed Forest, rainforest with an emergent canopy of eucalypts such as Mountain Ash. It says the community may be present in the Strzelecki Ranges and has not been mapped statewide.
GFG copy | Original source

Final Recommendation on a Nomination for Listing: Warm Temperate Rainforest Community (Nomination No. 898)

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Scientific Advisory Committee, 2023. The assessment that led to the statewide listing of Warm Temperate Rainforest, including Strzelecki stands.
GFG copy | Original source

Rainforests and Cool Temperate Mixed Forests of Victoria

Peel B, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 1999. A detailed account of Victoria's rainforest types, including Strzeleckis Warm Temperate Rainforest. Held by the National Library of Australia; not available online.

Myrtle Wilt

Myrtle Wilt and its Possible Management in Association with Human Disturbance of Rainforest in Tasmania

Kile GA, Packham JM and Elliott HJ, New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science, 1989. A study of how roading, logging and wounding of trees increase Myrtle Wilt, and the protection zones that may limit its spread.
GFG copy | Original source

Rainforest and fire

Post-fire dynamics of Cool Temperate Rainforest in the O'Shannassy Catchment 2019, Arthur Rylah Institute 
A. Tolsma, R. Hale, G. Sutter and M. Kohout
GFG copy

Victoria's bushfire emergency: Biodiversity response and recovery 2020 
DEECA
GFG copy 

Supporting rainforest recovery after bushfires 2021
DEECA
Original source

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act: Action Statement for Rainforest 2009
DEWLP
GFG copy | Original source

Rainforests: Will They Cope with a Changing Fire Regime?

Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research. A research summary on how fire shapes where rainforest grows, including rainforest lost after high-severity fire in the O'Shannassy catchment.
Original source

Action Statement: Slender Tree-fern (Cyathea cunninghamii)

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, 2023. The State's action statement for this critically endangered tree-fern, which grows in rainforest gullies.
GFG copy | Original source

Distribution, Habitat Preferences and Population Sizes of Two Threatened Tree Ferns, Cyathea cunninghamii and Cyathea x marcescens, in South-eastern Australia

Peacock RJ et al., Cunninghamia, 2013. A study of where Slender Tree-ferns grow, their habitat needs and population sizes across south-eastern Australia.
GFG copy | Original source

IUCN Red List of Ecosystems: Mountain Ash Forest in the Central Highlands of Victoria

Assessment by Burns EL et al., last assessed 2015. The formal listing of Central Highlands Mountain Ash forest as a Critically Endangered ecosystem.
GFG copy | Original source

Ecosystem Assessment of Mountain Ash Forest in the Central Highlands of Victoria, South-eastern Australia

Burns EL et al., Austral Ecology, 2015. The published assessment behind the IUCN listing, which found a high risk of ecosystem collapse.
GFG copy | Original source

The Case for Listing Mountain Ash Forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria as a Threatened Ecological Community

Lindenmayer D et al., Pacific Conservation Biology, 2023. Includes figures on Mountain Ash in the Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement area, mostly in the Strzelecki Ranges, and how much of it is on plantation land.
GFG copy | Original source

Extensions to EPBC Act Listing Assessment and Decision Timeframes

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, updated September 2026. Shows that the national assessment of Mountain ash forests of central and eastern Victoria, which includes the Strzelecki Ranges, is now due by 30 April 2027.
Original source

First Naation

Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation. The Corporation's account of the Gunaikurnai people and their Country.
Original source

Review of Victorian Plantations Corporation Vested Lands

Land Conservation Council, 1993. A review of the land vested in the Victorian Plantations Corporation, noting the native forest included in it and the original purpose of the Strzelecki reforestation.
GFG copy

Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Legislative Council, 26 May 1993 (Pages 1347-1356)

Parliament of Victoria. Debate on the Victorian Plantations Corporation Bill, including the Minister's undertaking to have the Land Conservation Council review the maps of vested land. See pages 1347 to 1356.
Original source

Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Legislative Assembly, 29 April 1998 (Pages 1399 - 1418)

Parliament of Victoria. Debate on the sale of the Victorian Plantations Corporation, including Treasury figures on native vegetation in the Strzelecki estate. See pages 1399 to 1418.
Original source

Gippsland Comprehensive Regional Assessment Report

Commonwealth and Victorian Regional Forest Agreement Steering Committee, 1999. The assessment behind the Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement, including the history of the Strzeleckis and how much rainforest remained and was reserved.
GFG copy | Original source

Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement Consultation Paper

Joint Commonwealth and Victorian Regional Forest Agreement Steering Committee, 2000. Records the 1998 sale of the State's plantations and explains why the plantation estate was left out of the reserve system.
GFG copy | Original source

Tarra-Bulga National Park

Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation. The Corporation's page on Tarra-Bulga National Park, which it jointly manages.
Original source

Private Forestry Guidance Materials, Information Sheet 10: Gippsland Forestry Hub

Greenwood Strategy Solutions for Forest and Wood Products Australia, October 2023. An industry information sheet on plantation forestry in Gippsland, including the share of the plantation area managed by HVP.
Original source

Brataualung Forest Park

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. The State's page on the forest park created in 2018 from land returned from the plantation estate. Our copy is a dated snapshot.
GFG copy | Original source

Victoria Government Gazette No. G41: Declaration of Reserved Forest to be a Forest Park

Victoria Government Gazette, 8 October 2026. The Order in Council declaring 2,156 ha of reserved forest in the parishes of Gunyah Gunyah, Binginwarri and Bulga a forest park.
GFG copy | Original source

These databases provide species distribution, observation and other mapping data relating to species and can be considered Best Available Information. 

Victorian Biodiversity Atlas
Victorian State Government
Original source 

Atlas of Living Australia
Provides open access to Australia's Biodiversity Data
Original source

Rainforest Mapping for State-wide Victoria (dataset)

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, 2024. The current statewide rainforest map.
Original source Metadata

Native Vegetation: Modelled 2005 Ecological Vegetation Classes (dataset)

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. The State's modelled vegetation map, with the conservation status of each vegetation type by bioregion.
Original source Metadata

Public Land Management (PLM25) (dataset)

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. The State's map of public land and how it is managed.
Original source. Metadata

Victorian Bioregions: Mapped at 1:100,000 (VBIOREG100) (dataset)

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, version 3.0, 2004. The State's map of bioregions, used to define the Strzelecki Ranges bioregion in our report.
Metadata

Our team have made observations about the impact of Pine Trees in South Gippsland. 

Environmental list of weeds in Victoria, 2018 Arthur Rylah Institute

M. White, D. Cheal, G.W. Carr, R. Adair, K. Blood and D. Meagher
GFG copy