@sailorgirl; in my younger days and as a very active bushwalker and cross country skier I lived in the Latrobe Valley for almost a decade and have walked over almost every square foot of it and the mountains ringing it - Mt Tassie and nearby Tarra Bulga NP used to be some of the most fantastic wet sclerophyllous forest / rainforest you could ever hope to experience.
It's where Victoria's highest rainfall readings have been experienced these last couple of days and is a roughly circular drainage basing that feeds into streams including the somewhat misnamed Traralgon Creek - in times of high flooding it's more like the River Murray.
The impact of many decades of heavy air pollution from the Latrobe Valley's coal-fired power stations have certainly impacted the region's forests and without doubt have impacted the region's 'microclimate'. But other factors have also played a significant role, including deforestation and widespread logging:
