Kathleen Dacey, "So Tall the Trees" by John D. Adams, FRHSV (published by Narracan Shire Council in 1978) is "a centenary history of the southern districts of the Shire of Narracan" -the area between the Latrobe Valley and McDonalds Track, including the Moe, Trafalgar, Yarragon, Thorpdale and Allambee districts, Copies of the book were still available a few years ago at the Narracan Shire Office, Trafalgar. However, the Victorian shires were recently rearranged and renamed and I do not know the names or boundaries of the new shires or the location of the shire offices. "So Tall the Trees" is widely regarded as an excellent publication. It includes a description of the herculean efforts of the early selectors in converting a large part of the heavily forested Strzelecki hill country into farms. One presumes that the name given to the book reflects the fact that when the first selectors arrived in about 1874 much of the district was covered by a forest of huge trees. A Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus Regnans) tree which once grew beside Mcdonalds Track at Thorpdale South is acknowledged in the Guinness Book of Records to have been the world's tallest tree. "So Tall the Trees" complements an earlier publication "The Land of the Lyre Bird" (Shire of Korumburra, 1920) - "a Story of Early Settlement in the Great Forest of South Gippsland", relating to settlement in the mid to late 1870s of the area south of McDonalds Track. This classic work includes chapters written by the selectors themselves. Walter Savige