Why South Gippsland?

I hadn't even heard of our district before going to see what was to become our farm.
We had been hoping to find a place between Gembrook and Warragul and quickly realised that we were priced out of this geographic range. We had gone to see a block in Strzelecki that had great potential, and I had gone alone to inspect a place in Mountain View, both south of Warragul, along the Warragul-Korumburra Road. I have family friends who live in Warragul on this road, and, in fact, my first horse lived on their property and it was where my horse owning journey began.
Not wanting to put in any offers too quickly on the Strzelecki place, we kept looking. Nothing was coming up in the listings, and the two places just mentioned had been on the market in various forms for months, so there was no rush.
One Wednesday night, whilst home from brigade training, I found a block that had just been listed and it sounded really ideal. I had to run it by Tom because it was further south than I had entertained. The listing said it was 5km from the nearest main town, which was attractive because the other blocks were at least 25 minutes from anywhere. So, I asked Tom what he thought of this location; "Hmmm, yeah?". So, the next morning I made us an inspection time with the real estate agent, who was so helpful and a genuine gentleman.
That Sunday we drove out, in the morning heat and drove down to park at the creek line to meet the agent. The further we got in the wider our eyes grew...only on the inside...I THINK we had our poker faces on...
By the end of it, and after parting with the agent, we hardly dared look at each other. Instead, a sideways, "So, do we make an offer today", sufficed to sum up where we were each at. The rest is history and we ended up in here.
A pictorial account of our purchase and first few months can be found here.
We recently took possession of our new, temporary abode; a 1978 Millard caravan.
The next installment will summarise what we've done so far to turn our former turnout block into a new farm. Stay tuned!