FORGING THE EMERALD LINK
East Gippsland is the only place on mainland Australia where continuous, intact ecosystems run uninterrupted from alpine environments to the coast. The undamaged status of these habitats makes East Gippsland a stronghold for nature, and its unique geography has given rise to an astonishing diversity of plants and animals.
Primordial forests that lived through ice ages in protected refuges persist in East Gippsland. One such place, the Errinundra Plateau, maintains a sense of grandeur rivalling that of Tasmania’s Tarkine. Close relatives of ancient plant species once found thriving on the supercontinent of Gondwana—like the southern sassafras, Errinundra pepper and mountain plum pine—are commonly encountered in such spots. In others, sub-tropical plants that evolved in Indo-Malayan
