John La Gerche
Between 1857 and 1862 he attended Victoria College for boys and excelled at his studies, winning prizes for proficiency in languages, (English, French and German), as well as mathematics.
[1] Elizabeth Nora Bendixon, also of Jersey, immigrated to Australia with her widowed mother and four sisters in 1859, and she worked as a housemaid to a wealthy family at Gisborne.
[3] However, the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s combined with widespread and indiscriminate land clearing for mining, agriculture and settlement became one of the major causes of forest loss and degradation.
[6] Ironically it was the timber needs of the mining industry, on which much of the colony's wealth was founded, that led the Government to finally act and set aside forest reservess.
[5] At the urging of the Governor of Victoria, Lord Henry Brougham Loch, who had served in Bengal cavalry and maintained an interest in forests, the Government invited Conservator Frederick D'A.
Fierce competition from neighbouring sawmills like James Wheeler who had powerful political connections claimed an area of 640 acres where La Gerche and Dodd had been operating and a shortage of trees was partially to blame.
In 1871, Hodkinson introduced local Forest Boards in a vain attempt to exercise control, but the task of regulating wasteful clearing proved formidable.
[1] Aged thirty-six and with a growing family La Gerche chose a more secure job in 1881 with the Public Works Department as a timekeeper.
His particular assignment was to supervise the Ballarat and Creswick State Forest, an area almost the third the size of his native Jersey and his principal focus was to enforce regulations against illegal cutting of timber.
[1] Part of John La Gerche responsibilities required him to grow and nurture a new crop of trees and to restore the landscape scared by mining but he complained he couldn't achieve that until he controlled illegal cutting.
[7] However, Vincent's withering report in 1887 proved a watershed moment and John La Gerche's responsibilities shifted more to managing forests and plantations and less towards enforcement as a bailiff.
[7] Without any formal forestry training or guidance, La Gerche initiated a pioneering thinning experiment on 100 acres of Creswick forest to remove scrub and crooked trees but retain the healthy straight saplings.
Earlier in 1872, a government nursery had been established at Macedon by Victoria's first “Overseer of Forests and Crown Land Bailiff", William Ferguson.
[5] In 1887, John La Gerche established a small plantation in Sawpit Gully north of Creswick by enclosing a 2-acre plot and transplanting over 700 seedlings.
Aided by Albert Wade, a retired miner, the enormous task of fencing, digging holes and planting seedlings had the adjoining plantation reaching its largest size ten year later in 1899, covering 300 acres with 24,000 trees.
The forester in charge of the Ballarat Water Commission, Christopher Mudd, also supported La Gerche by exchanging seeds, plants and ideas.
Between 1856 and 1907 the responsibility for administration of Victoria's forest estate shunted back and forth at least eleven times between three Government Departments including Lands and Survey, Agriculture and Mines.
Later in 1908, La Gerche's original nursery was moved back to its present site further down the gully to coincide with the opening of the Victorian School of Forestry.
La Gerche was largely forgotten until the 1960s when his detailed pocket books turned up at the Victorian School of Forestry (VSF) at Creswick and then later in the 1980s his letters were found in a dusty cupboard in the old forest office at Melbourne.
The walking trail was established by a senior lecturer from the nearby Forestry School, Ron Hateley, and students of the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with Victorian Landcare Centre which was based at the old nursery at that time.
