WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.879 Imagine a pocket of land that just completely 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:07.660 ignores the rules of nature and history. Yeah, 00:00:07.820 --> 00:00:09.919 totally plays by its own rule. Right. Like we're 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:12.080 talking about a mountain range that somehow operates 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:15.300 like a secluded island, an ancient forest that 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:18.760 quietly hid an entire human civilization from 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:23.440 colonial record keepers. And a geological fortress 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.219 that just magically repels the kind of catastrophic 00:00:26.219 --> 00:00:28.940 megafires that routinely devastate the surrounding 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:30.600 continent. I mean, it sounds like a setting from 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:32.740 a fantasy novel, right? It really does. But this 00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:35.740 is a very real place. When you look at the topography 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:38.659 of Victoria, Australia, you expect the landscape 00:00:38.659 --> 00:00:40.840 to make a certain kind of sense. You expect mountain 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:43.539 ranges to be these massive, unbroken chains. 00:00:43.659 --> 00:00:46.200 Like giant walls of rock that dictate the weather, 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:48.640 act as inescapable barriers, all that. Exactly. 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:51.820 But today we are bringing you a deep dive into 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:54.600 the Strath bogey ranges Yes, which is a region 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.719 that just shatters all of those expectations 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:00.479 It really does and for this deep dive We're pulling 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:03.280 from a really detailed a Wikipedia article covering 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.159 the geography the history and the ecology of 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:09.219 this incredibly specific area and the kicker 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:12.090 for you listening This place is sitting just 00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:14.829 150 kilometers northeast of Melbourne, which 00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:16.909 is what? Barely a couple of hours drive from 00:01:16.909 --> 00:01:19.930 a major global metropolis. Yeah, exactly. You 00:01:19.930 --> 00:01:22.170 would naturally assume an area that close to 00:01:22.170 --> 00:01:25.530 a capital city would be completely integrated, 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:28.310 fully mapped out, tamed by modern infrastructure. 00:01:28.370 --> 00:01:30.269 You'd think so, yeah. But our mission today is 00:01:30.269 --> 00:01:33.469 to explore how this geographically isolated pocket 00:01:33.469 --> 00:01:36.129 has managed to quietly play by its own rules 00:01:36.129 --> 00:01:38.739 for millennia. We are going to look at how it 00:01:38.739 --> 00:01:41.700 shaped a completely unique ecology, how the physical 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:44.500 landscape itself corrects colonial history, and 00:01:44.500 --> 00:01:47.340 how its violent geological past is actively protecting 00:01:47.340 --> 00:01:49.579 it today. So, okay, let's unpack this. Let's 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.359 do it. To understand any of the strange phenomena 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.439 happening in the Strathboegies, you first have 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:56.319 to understand the ground you're standing on. 00:01:56.620 --> 00:01:59.859 Technically, this region is a part of the Great 00:01:59.859 --> 00:02:02.540 Dividing Range, that massive continental mountain 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:05.430 chain we were just talking about. But the Strathbogies 00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:07.010 are fundamentally different because of their 00:02:07.010 --> 00:02:09.770 bedrock. Okay, the bedrock. Yeah. The foundation 00:02:09.770 --> 00:02:13.870 of this entire story is Devonian rock. Specifically, 00:02:14.349 --> 00:02:16.530 a formation known as Strathbogie granodierite. 00:02:16.849 --> 00:02:19.729 Okay, I have to say, Strathbogie granodierite 00:02:19.729 --> 00:02:22.090 sounds like something a supervillain uses to 00:02:22.090 --> 00:02:24.469 build a laser. It does. It really does sound 00:02:24.469 --> 00:02:26.110 like comic book science. Right. But what are 00:02:26.110 --> 00:02:28.069 we actually looking at when we talk about this 00:02:28.069 --> 00:02:31.110 specific type of rock? Well, granodierite is 00:02:31.110 --> 00:02:34.479 a type of coarse -grained rock. It forms deep 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:38.479 underground when magma cools very, very slowly. 00:02:38.740 --> 00:02:41.960 It's incredibly hard, dense, and uncompromising. 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:44.419 But it's how that rock was brought to the surface 00:02:44.419 --> 00:02:47.280 that makes this region so fascinating. The southern 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:49.580 part of the range is this uplifted granite plateau. 00:02:50.419 --> 00:02:53.259 But the northern part, that topography was formed 00:02:53.259 --> 00:02:56.340 by a cauldron volcano. A cauldron volcano. I 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:58.919 was reading that in the source material and the 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:01.199 scale of it is almost impossible to comprehend. 00:03:01.379 --> 00:03:03.560 The source describes a cauldron volcano that 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:07.400 is like 20 to 30 kilometers wide. Yeah, massive. 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:09.560 And I kept trying to picture a normal mountain 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:12.020 blowing its top, but that doesn't fit a 30 kilometer 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:14.740 crater, does it? Not at all. A cauldron volcano 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:18.039 or a caldera doesn't form from a cone blowing 00:03:18.039 --> 00:03:21.120 its peak outward. It's an implosion. Oh, an implosion. 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:25.590 OK. Right. Imagine a massive reservoir of magma 00:03:25.590 --> 00:03:28.469 deep beneath the Earth's crust. When that magma 00:03:28.469 --> 00:03:31.110 violently erupts and empties out, the structural 00:03:31.110 --> 00:03:33.389 support for the ground above it simply vanishes. 00:03:33.490 --> 00:03:35.610 So the ground just, it just falls in? Exactly. 00:03:36.110 --> 00:03:38.370 The Earth's crust essentially gives way and swallows 00:03:38.370 --> 00:03:40.930 itself. It collapses inward into the empty chamber 00:03:40.930 --> 00:03:43.599 below. Oh, wow. I mean, it's like a collapsed 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.280 geological souffle, like a sinkhole the size 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:49.219 of a city. Exactly like that. But on a geological 00:03:49.219 --> 00:03:52.340 scale, accompanied by unimaginable heat and force, 00:03:53.020 --> 00:03:55.099 you're looking at the aftermath of a massive 00:03:55.099 --> 00:03:57.680 collapsed geological event. Which makes the contrast 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:00.599 with the modern landscape so wild. Oh, absolutely. 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:03.180 Because if you go to the Strathbogie ranges today, 00:04:03.259 --> 00:04:07.319 you don't see a terrifying smoking crater. The 00:04:07.319 --> 00:04:10.020 topography has smoothed out over millions of 00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:13.210 years into these quiet undulating plateaus that 00:04:13.210 --> 00:04:15.069 are dissected by little stream. Right, it's very 00:04:15.069 --> 00:04:17.110 peaceful now. You do have some prominent peaks. 00:04:17.230 --> 00:04:19.350 I mean, the source mentions Mount Strathboogie 00:04:19.350 --> 00:04:22.430 stands out as the highest point at a 1 ,033 meters. 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:26.569 And then you have Mount Barrenhead at 832 meters. 00:04:26.889 --> 00:04:29.470 Mount Wombat as well. Yeah, Mount Wombat at 791 00:04:29.470 --> 00:04:32.930 meters and Sugarloaf at 691 meters. But mostly 00:04:32.930 --> 00:04:35.730 it's this rolling granite high country. Right, 00:04:35.730 --> 00:04:37.850 but having a high elevation doesn't automatically 00:04:37.850 --> 00:04:40.629 make a place an island. What turns the Strathboogie 00:04:40.490 --> 00:04:43.629 into an isolated fortress is what borders those 00:04:43.629 --> 00:04:46.689 plateaus. Okay. The range sits to the north of 00:04:46.689 --> 00:04:48.910 the main Great Dividing Range and what completely 00:04:48.910 --> 00:04:51.829 separates it is water, specifically the deep 00:04:51.829 --> 00:04:53.689 valleys of the Goldburn River and the Broken 00:04:53.689 --> 00:04:56.329 River. Now I've heard people compare rivers to 00:04:56.329 --> 00:04:58.990 a moat, but that feels a bit too passive, you 00:04:58.990 --> 00:05:01.569 know? A moat is just standing water. These river 00:05:01.569 --> 00:05:03.970 valleys seem far more structural. That is a really 00:05:03.970 --> 00:05:06.550 crucial distinction. These aren't just streams 00:05:06.550 --> 00:05:10.189 you can casually wade across. These valleys represent 00:05:10.189 --> 00:05:13.850 deep geographic trenches carved over millennia. 00:05:14.029 --> 00:05:16.410 So they're actual physical barriers. Exactly. 00:05:16.910 --> 00:05:19.129 Because the Strathpookies are elevated on this 00:05:19.129 --> 00:05:22.230 granite plateau and entirely bounded by these 00:05:22.230 --> 00:05:25.370 deep river valleys, the ecosystem is physically 00:05:25.370 --> 00:05:27.790 cut off. from the rest of the continent's mountain 00:05:27.790 --> 00:05:30.750 ranges. Wow. A flora and fauna on the plateau 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:33.649 couldn't easily migrate down across the river 00:05:33.649 --> 00:05:35.709 valleys and up into the Great Dividing Range. 00:05:35.850 --> 00:05:37.870 So the plants and animals were effectively trapped 00:05:37.870 --> 00:05:40.649 on this elevated granite raft. Which forces them 00:05:40.649 --> 00:05:44.310 to evolve in a semi -closed system. The physical 00:05:44.310 --> 00:05:47.910 separation produced completely unique biogeographic 00:05:47.910 --> 00:05:51.120 and ecological patterns. It really is an ecological 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:53.019 island stranded on the mainland of Victoria. 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:56.120 So we have this isolated, fortress -like plateau. 00:05:56.579 --> 00:05:59.860 To European eyes in the 1800s, an elevated, heavily 00:05:59.860 --> 00:06:02.120 forested region like that looked like an impenetrable, 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:04.819 empty wilderness. But the geography was actually 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:07.040 hiding a completely different reality, one that 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:09.199 brings us to the first humans to navigate this 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:11.920 landscape. And this is where the physical environment 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:14.519 directly challenges the written historical record. 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:18.790 Oh yes. The Strathbogie Ranges are located squarely 00:06:18.790 --> 00:06:22.269 in Tongarung country. The Tongarung people have 00:06:22.269 --> 00:06:24.189 a history with this landscape that stretches 00:06:24.189 --> 00:06:26.410 back into deep time. Right, and here's where 00:06:26.410 --> 00:06:29.009 it gets really interesting, because the sources 00:06:29.009 --> 00:06:32.089 point out a massive glaring contradiction. They 00:06:32.089 --> 00:06:36.250 do. If you go back and read the documented white 00:06:36.250 --> 00:06:39.910 history of the area, the colonial logs, the diaries, 00:06:40.189 --> 00:06:43.500 the early maps, Those written records generally 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:45.779 asserted that the mountain range was not often 00:06:45.779 --> 00:06:48.100 frequented by indigenous people. Yeah, the official 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:50.519 narrative was essentially, there's nothing up 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:52.740 there, it's too dense, it's too difficult, nobody 00:06:52.740 --> 00:06:55.100 was using this land. And if you only look at 00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:57.240 history through the lens of a colonial record 00:06:57.240 --> 00:06:59.899 keeper, you might believe that. Because the European 00:06:59.899 --> 00:07:02.800 model of habitation relied on highly visible 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:05.480 markers of ownership. You know, cleared fields, 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:08.300 permanent wooden structures, fenced off grazing 00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:09.779 land. Right, the stuff they were used to seeing 00:07:09.779 --> 00:07:13.060 back home. Exactly. When early settlers looked 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:16.259 at the dense, heavily forested table land of 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:18.660 the Strathbogi's, they didn't see those European 00:07:18.660 --> 00:07:20.740 markers, so they assumed it was a void. But they 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:23.459 were completely spectacularly wrong. Because 00:07:23.459 --> 00:07:25.819 the physical evidence on the ground tells the 00:07:25.819 --> 00:07:28.819 exact opposite story. The source notes that stone 00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:31.800 artifacts are widely distributed all across the 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.240 Strathbogi table land. Widespread distribution 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.420 is the key phrase there. We aren't talking about 00:07:36.420 --> 00:07:38.980 a single isolated campsite near the edge of the 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:41.439 range. We are talking about a vast footprint 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:44.500 of stone tools scattered across the plateau. 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:46.420 Wow. And you have to picture the environment. 00:07:46.459 --> 00:07:49.040 At the time, this entire table land was once 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:51.720 a dense, formidable forest. So if you were to 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:53.360 walk through that table land today and brush 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:55.620 away the topsoil, you wouldn't find emptiness. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:58.220 You would find the silent, physical proof of 00:07:58.220 --> 00:08:01.060 a civilization. Exactly. But how does a colonial 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:03.920 historian completely miss an entire population 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:06.319 utilizing a landscape? How does that happen? 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:09.220 Well, it is a profound example of historical 00:08:09.220 --> 00:08:11.879 bias coming up against hard archaeological evidence. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:14.019 The colonists just couldn't read the landscape. 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:16.120 They were looking for the wrong things. Right. 00:08:16.220 --> 00:08:18.660 They didn't understand the nuanced, complex ways 00:08:18.660 --> 00:08:20.759 the Tungurung people were interacting with that 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:23.480 forested environment. The widespread presence 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:26.759 of those stone tools provides irrefutable evidence 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:30.339 of regular and highly likely seasonal utilization 00:08:30.339 --> 00:08:33.299 of the region. The Tungurung were navigating 00:08:33.299 --> 00:08:36.500 that terrain, utilizing its resources and managing 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:38.820 the forest in ways the settlers simply couldn't 00:08:38.820 --> 00:08:41.279 perceive. It makes you wonder how much of our 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:43.679 accepted historical record is just someone looking 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:46.279 at a complex system and mistakenly writing down 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:49.600 the word empty. A lot of it, probably. But as 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:51.980 we move forward chronologically in the sources, 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:55.220 that supposed emptiness suddenly becomes a very 00:08:55.220 --> 00:08:58.360 loud, very crowded scramble for land. Oh, the 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:00.700 squatter era. Yes. Once the European settlers 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:03.220 realized the agricultural potential of the region, 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:06.159 the isolation of the strath bogeys didn't stop 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:09.340 them at all. Starting from about 1842, we see 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:12.320 a massive influx of squatters aggressively pushing 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.580 into the ranges. And the names of these early 00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:16.879 pastoral stations feel like they were pulled 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:19.059 straight out of a frontier novel. They really 00:09:19.059 --> 00:09:23.029 do. You had Bailey Hill, Strathbogie, Springsay, 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:25.769 Wombat Hill. Most of those were set up in the 00:09:25.769 --> 00:09:28.129 Rough Hill country. And then you had stations 00:09:28.129 --> 00:09:30.570 like St. Field and Borodoman stretching into 00:09:30.570 --> 00:09:32.929 the edges of the ranges. They were driving in 00:09:32.929 --> 00:09:35.309 sheep and hundreds of cattle trying to force 00:09:35.309 --> 00:09:38.289 this rugged, granite environment to yield a profit. 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:41.559 There were a few who stayed, like John Gall at 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:43.740 Wombat Hill, and John Kissick arrived a bit later, 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:46.779 around 1847. But to give you a sense of the sheer 00:09:46.779 --> 00:09:49.399 audacity and the scale of the greed during this 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:51.559 period, you really only have to look at the land 00:09:51.559 --> 00:09:55.059 holdings of a single man. William Forlong. Yes. 00:09:55.460 --> 00:09:58.840 By the early 1850s, Forlong had acquired Strathbogie 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:00.840 and several other pastoral stations in the area. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:02.940 Okay, the numbers on this absolutely blew my 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:05.980 mind. How much land did Forlong actually control? 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.440 According to the records between the early 1850s 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:12.860 and 1867, William Forlong owned 75 ,000 hectares 00:10:12.860 --> 00:10:15.879 of the Strathbogie region. Wait, 75 ,000 hectares? 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:17.759 For those more familiar with the imperial system, 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:20.480 what is that? That is 185 ,000 acres of land. 00:10:20.899 --> 00:10:24.480 185 ,000 acres. For one person in this incredibly 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:27.659 rugged, steep granite terrain. How do you even 00:10:27.659 --> 00:10:30.259 physically comprehend a property the size of 00:10:30.259 --> 00:10:33.799 a small European nation in the 1850s? You could 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:36.039 ride a horse for days and never leave your own 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:37.940 backyard. It's staggering. He really is like 00:10:37.940 --> 00:10:40.899 a modern corporate monopoly. He essentially looked 00:10:40.899 --> 00:10:43.360 at this isolated ecological island and bought 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:45.620 the entire thing. It was a monopolistic land 00:10:45.620 --> 00:10:49.899 grab, yeah. And it kicked off a brave but incredibly 00:10:49.899 --> 00:10:52.919 intense period of industrialization. The settlers 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:54.840 were determined to tame the landscape. Right, 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:56.639 they were building it up. Oh yeah, by the late 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:59.360 1800s, infrastructure was desperately trying 00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:01.340 to keep pace with the agricultural ambitions. 00:11:02.220 --> 00:11:04.950 A post office opened in Strathbogie. on July 00:11:04.950 --> 00:11:08.789 10th, 1878. And then the ultimate symbol of trying 00:11:08.789 --> 00:11:10.750 to force a landscape to do what you want, the 00:11:10.750 --> 00:11:13.350 dueling butter factories. Oh, yes. I found this 00:11:13.350 --> 00:11:16.870 detail so fascinating. In 1891, a butter factory 00:11:16.870 --> 00:11:19.470 is built at Strathbogie South. And then literally 00:11:19.470 --> 00:11:23.070 the very next year in 1892, a second factory 00:11:23.070 --> 00:11:25.450 is constructed at Strathbogie North. It perfectly 00:11:25.450 --> 00:11:28.129 illustrates the boom mentality of the era. They 00:11:28.129 --> 00:11:30.149 were treating dairy production like a gold rush. 00:11:30.590 --> 00:11:32.690 They were hauling heavy industrial equipment 00:11:32.690 --> 00:11:35.240 up into these gran - Highlands convinced they 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:38.039 could conquer the topography and turn the region 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:41.220 into a permanent agricultural powerhouse. But 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:43.580 the landscape always has the final say, doesn't 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:46.279 it? It does. Always. Look at the Strathbogie 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:49.240 region today. A place that once hosted these 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:54.580 massive 185 ,000 acre pastoral empires and competing 00:11:54.580 --> 00:11:57.320 19th century dairy factories. What is left of 00:11:57.320 --> 00:11:59.750 all that ambition? Very, very little. According 00:11:59.750 --> 00:12:02.350 to the source, today there are no major towns 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:04.909 in the ranges. There are very few major roads. 00:12:05.450 --> 00:12:08.190 The Strathbogie Township boasts a single general 00:12:08.190 --> 00:12:11.250 store and the nearby Ruffy Township has a place 00:12:11.250 --> 00:12:14.049 called The Pantry. Yep, that's it. That is the 00:12:14.049 --> 00:12:15.950 extent of the metropolis they tried to build. 00:12:16.009 --> 00:12:18.129 It's almost funny. It is, but it brings us right 00:12:18.129 --> 00:12:19.830 back to the geology we discussed at the start. 00:12:19.889 --> 00:12:22.929 How so? The uncompromising geography. You know, 00:12:22.970 --> 00:12:25.210 the steep ridges, the deep river trenches, the 00:12:25.210 --> 00:12:28.429 acidic granite soil ultimately dictated the region's 00:12:28.429 --> 00:12:31.059 fate. It simply wasn't conducive to sustaining 00:12:31.059 --> 00:12:33.379 a sprawling industrialized center. So it pushed 00:12:33.379 --> 00:12:36.759 them out. Exactly. The agricultural boom briefly 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.840 flared up, but the terrain pushed back. It reverted 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.679 to being a quiet, isolated pocket. The landscape 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:45.960 ultimately tames the settlers, not the other 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.860 way around. Okay, so what does this all mean? 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:52.500 We have a rugged, isolated plateau that thwarted 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:55.080 the ambitions of 19th century industrialists. 00:12:55.539 --> 00:12:58.139 But that same uncompromising geography doesn't 00:12:58.139 --> 00:13:01.100 just dictate where humans can build towns. According 00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:03.559 to the sources, it actively protects the region 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:07.559 from total ecological annihilation. You're referring 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:10.220 to the fire paradox of the Strathboki's. I am. 00:13:10.419 --> 00:13:12.080 Now, the sources make it clear that the region 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:15.000 is not somehow magically immune to fire. Given 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:17.019 the climate, the type of vegetation, and the 00:13:17.019 --> 00:13:19.620 topography, the area likely experienced periodic 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:22.179 bushfires long before European settlement. Right. 00:13:22.299 --> 00:13:24.360 Fire is a fundamental part of the Australian 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:26.779 ecology. And there's a documented history of 00:13:26.779 --> 00:13:29.679 more localized fires in recent decades. The sources 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:31.860 specifically highlight a fire in Strathbogie 00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:34.820 in 1990 and the Longwood East Creighton's Creek 00:13:34.820 --> 00:13:37.980 fire in 2014. So the environment certainly can 00:13:37.980 --> 00:13:40.639 burn. It can. But, and this is the part that 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.039 genuinely stopped me in my tracks. When you look 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:45.559 at the historical record of the major Victorian 00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:49.220 bushfires, the truly catastrophic, century -defining 00:13:49.220 --> 00:13:52.419 mega -fires that reshaped the entire state, The 00:13:52.419 --> 00:13:55.580 Strathboki ranges just, they dodge them. They 00:13:55.580 --> 00:13:58.179 do. The source lists the years of these mega 00:13:58.179 --> 00:14:03.220 fires, 1851, 1939, 1983, 2003, 2006, and 2009. 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:05.960 None of those catastrophic events penetrated 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:08.960 the Strathboki ranges. It is a phenomenal statistical 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:11.620 anomaly. Right. To survive over a century and 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:13.820 a half of the most intense fire conditions on 00:14:13.820 --> 00:14:16.639 Earth without suffering a direct hit from a mega 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:19.460 fire requires more than just luck. That is exactly 00:14:19.460 --> 00:14:21.539 what I'm trying to wrap my head around. How does 00:14:21.539 --> 00:14:24.320 a heavily forested elevated area surrounded by 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:26.460 some of the most fire prone country on the planet 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:29.059 manage to evade destruction time and time again? 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:31.159 Like what is the actual mechanism protecting 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:33.200 this place? It all comes back to the architectural 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:35.080 layout of the terrain we established earlier. 00:14:35.139 --> 00:14:37.419 Yeah. Think about what a catastrophic mega fire 00:14:37.419 --> 00:14:39.879 requires to maintain its momentum. Fuel and wind. 00:14:40.379 --> 00:14:43.659 Exactly. It needs continuous unbroken fuel and 00:14:43.659 --> 00:14:46.059 it needs wind funnels to drive that heat forward. 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:49.139 Now, place that fire into the context of the 00:14:49.139 --> 00:14:51.460 Strathbogie topography. Right, the river valleys. 00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:55.799 The moat. Precisely. A fire raging across the 00:14:55.799 --> 00:14:58.480 plains suddenly hits the deep, sheer trenches 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:01.679 of the Gulburn or Broken River valleys. Those 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:04.379 valleys act as massive physical breaks in the 00:15:04.379 --> 00:15:06.899 continuity of the vegetation. Oh, I see. The 00:15:06.899 --> 00:15:09.059 radiant heat struggles to jump that gap with 00:15:09.059 --> 00:15:12.220 the same intensity. And even if embers do cross 00:15:12.220 --> 00:15:15.000 over, they are met with the steep, erratic granite 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:17.519 ridges of the plateau, which actively disrupt 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:19.659 the wind patterns that drive the fire forward. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:21.980 That makes perfect sense. Yeah, the very geological 00:15:21.980 --> 00:15:24.220 features that created an isolated ecological 00:15:24.220 --> 00:15:26.620 island and frustrated the colonial farmers, they 00:15:26.620 --> 00:15:29.220 act as a structural fortress wall against fire 00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:31.399 behavior. The momentum of the fire is broken 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:33.820 by the train itself. That is incredible. The 00:15:33.820 --> 00:15:36.340 violence of a collapsing 30 kilometer cauldron 00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:39.519 volcano millions of years ago is quite literally 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.779 acting as a physical shield for the forest today. 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:44.360 It really is. And speaking of how that ancient 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.320 geology shapes the present, those ancient rocks 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:49.940 are providing a totally different kind of bounty 00:15:49.940 --> 00:15:52.740 in the modern era. The region might have lost 00:15:52.740 --> 00:15:54.879 its butter factories, but it gained something 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:57.580 far more sophisticated. the Scraft Bogey wine 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:00.100 region. Yes. Which compared to the deep time 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:02.360 we've been discussing is a very recent development. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:05.639 It really began taking shape in the mid 1970s. 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:08.779 Right. The sources credit a pioneer named Dr. 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:11.340 Peter Tisdall, who planted a new vineyard at 00:16:11.340 --> 00:16:14.460 a location called Ment Helen. And from that initial 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:18.000 planting, the industry has just flourished. Today, 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:20.480 there are over 25 vineyards operating in the 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:22.620 region. And the specific placement of these vineyards 00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:25.100 is key. They're situated at altitudes ranging 00:16:25.100 --> 00:16:29.259 from 100 up to about 650 meters. But altitude 00:16:29.259 --> 00:16:31.620 is only half the equation for a successful cool 00:16:31.620 --> 00:16:33.580 climate vineyard. You have to look at the soil 00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:36.279 profile. The source specifies that these plantings 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:39.200 are thriving on acidic sandy loams. And where 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:41.600 do acidic sandy loams come from in an elevated 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.320 plateau? They are the direct result of decomposed 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:47.340 granite. It all connects perfectly, the Strathoggy 00:16:47.340 --> 00:16:49.740 granotierite we discussed in the very first segment. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.259 Exactly. Millions of years of that ancient hard 00:16:53.259 --> 00:16:56.120 rock slowly weathering, breaking down, and decomposing 00:16:56.120 --> 00:16:58.639 under the elements until it turns into acidic 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:02.080 sandy loam. Wow. And that specific soil profile 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:05.440 is highly sought after by winemakers. Sandy loam 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:07.779 drains incredibly well, which forces the roots 00:17:07.779 --> 00:17:10.420 of the vines to dig deep and struggle just enough 00:17:10.420 --> 00:17:13.920 to produce highly concentrated, flavorful grapes. 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:17.339 that unique mineral profile, combined with the 00:17:17.339 --> 00:17:20.319 cooler temperatures at that altitude, is exactly 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:22.960 what you need to grow the region's main varieties. 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:26.380 You have Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:29.059 and Shiraz. There's something so poetic about 00:17:29.059 --> 00:17:31.400 that. You have this incredibly violent explosive 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:34.640 geological origin story, a cauldron volcano collapsing 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:36.799 in on itself. Right. And the end result millions 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:39.259 of years later is the perfect soil drainage required 00:17:39.259 --> 00:17:41.740 to sit back and enjoy a world class glass of 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:44.460 local Pinot Noir. The geology created the island, 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:46.500 the island preserved the soil and the soil produces 00:17:46.500 --> 00:17:49.380 the wine. It is a perfect synthesis. It forces 00:17:49.380 --> 00:17:51.440 you to realize that the earth beneath our feet 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:54.279 is never just an inert background stage for human 00:17:54.279 --> 00:17:57.059 events. No, not at all. The bedrock is an active 00:17:57.059 --> 00:17:59.480 participant. It dictates the boundaries of what 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:02.460 is possible. It truly does. So to wrap up our 00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:05.180 journey today, we started with a Devonian cauldron 00:18:05.180 --> 00:18:08.160 volcano imploding to form a granite island in 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:11.799 the sky. We looked at how that dense forested 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:14.279 island held the unwritten history of the Tongarung 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:16.859 people, proving their presence through thousands 00:18:16.859 --> 00:18:19.140 of scattered stone tools, while the colonial 00:18:19.140 --> 00:18:21.740 record books claim the land was empty. Exactly. 00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:24.539 We watched 19th century squatters attempt to 00:18:24.539 --> 00:18:28.339 conquer that terrain with 185 ,000 acre monopolies 00:18:28.339 --> 00:18:31.299 and dueling butter factories only to be politely 00:18:31.299 --> 00:18:34.000 rejected by the landscape and reduced to a single 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.900 general store in the pantry. And we saw how those 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:40.779 exact same geological walls act as an impenetrable 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:43.119 shield against century -defining mega -fires 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:46.299 while quietly decomposing into the perfect soil 00:18:46.299 --> 00:18:49.099 for cool climate wines. It is a landscape that 00:18:49.099 --> 00:18:51.579 has consistently refused to conform to expectations, 00:18:51.799 --> 00:18:54.160 which leaves you with a pretty profound thought 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:56.549 to walk away with. We often look at mountain 00:18:56.549 --> 00:18:58.549 ranges and assume we understand them. We think 00:18:58.549 --> 00:19:01.589 of them as these highly visible, permanent, heavily 00:19:01.589 --> 00:19:04.589 mapped things, just giant rocks doing exactly 00:19:04.589 --> 00:19:07.390 what we expect rocks to do. But when you examine 00:19:07.390 --> 00:19:09.990 the Strathbogie Ranges, an ecological island 00:19:09.990 --> 00:19:12.589 that hid an entire civilization's footprint in 00:19:12.589 --> 00:19:15.049 stone and somehow magically deflects catastrophic 00:19:15.049 --> 00:19:18.390 megafires, you have to wonder, what other quiet 00:19:18.390 --> 00:19:20.569 pockets of the world are secretly playing by 00:19:20.569 --> 00:19:22.690 their own rules just waiting for you to look 00:19:22.690 --> 00:19:23.430 a little closer?