Logging takes place in  four of the Yarra tributaries, the catchments are; McMahons Creek, Starvation Creek, Armstrong Creek and Cement Creek.

These catchments provide Melbourne with its drinking water and each year the catchment being logged is opened to run directly into the Yarra as environmental flows.

Melbourne, dubbed ‘Smellbourne’ for its poor drinking water quality, from the 1870s, began to set aside water catchment areas and prohibit farming and logging in these large areas of the forest.

The initial impetus for this was to improve public health in the city by ensuring that fertilisers, silt or human settlement did not pollute Melbourne's water.

Later, the argument moved to water quantity once it was understood that 'untouched' mature forests produce more stream-water flow than forests which have been logged and have more vigorous thirsty regrowth trees.

This area is the Central Highlands