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The 'Great Dividing Range', also known as the 'Eastern Highlands', is Australia's most substantial mountain range. The range stretches more than 3500km from the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through New South Wales, then into Victoria and turning west, before finally fading into the central plain at the Grampians in western Victoria.

Contents

History

Features

Water catchments

Transport

Protected Areas

See also

References

History

The ranges were home to Aboriginal tribes such as the Kulin and were of primary significance to European exploration of Australia. One of the first explorers to cross the range was Gregory Blaxland, followed by well-known Australian explorers such as Allan Cunningham, John Oxley, Hamilton Hume and Charles Sturt.
By the late 1820s the most fertile rangelands adjacent to the mountains ranges had been explored and some settled. These included the Gippsland and Riverina regions in the south, up to the Liverpool Plains and the Darling Downs in the north.

Features

All of mainland Australia's alpine areas, including its highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 metres AHD), are part of this range. The highest areas in southern New South Wales and eastern Victoria are known as the Australian Alps.
The central core of the Great Dividing Range is dotted with hundreds of peaks and is surrounded by many smaller mountain ranges or spurs, canyons, gorges, valleys and plains of regional significance. Some of the major plains include the High Plains of South-Eastern Australia, the Central highlands and Bogong High Plains of Victoria. Other tablelands considered part of the Great dividing range are the Atherton Tableland, Northern Tablelands, Canberra wine region and the Southern Tablelands.

The Bunya Mountains, Liverpool Range, McPherson Ranges and the Moonbi Range are some of the smaller spurs and ranges that make up the greater dividing range. Whilst some of the peaks of the highlands reach respectable heights of a little over 2000 metres, the age of the range and its erosion mean that most of the mountains are not outrageously steep, and virtually all peaks can be reached without mountaineering equipment.
In some areas, such as the Snowy Mountains, Victorian Alps, the Scenic Rim and the eastern escarpments of the New England region, the highlands form a significant barrier. In other areas the slopes are gentle and in places the range is barely perceptible. Well known passes on the range include Cunningham's Gap, Dead Horse Gap and Spicer's Gap.

Water catchments

The lower reaches are used for forestry, an activity that causes much friction with conservationists. The ranges is also the source of virtually all of eastern Australia's water supply, both through runoff caught in dams, and, throughout much of Queensland, through the Great Artesian Basin.
The Great Dividing Range divides the drainage basins of streams and rivers which flow directly into the Pacific Ocean on the eastern coast of Australia, from streams and rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin which flow inwards, away from the coast into the interior plains.

Transport

Many of Australia's highways such as the Alpine Way, Great Alpine Road, Hume Highway, Great Western Highway, Capricorn Highway, Warrego Highway, Waterfall Way, Thunderbolts Way and the Murray Valley Highway traverse parts of the range.

Protected Areas

Much of the range lies within a succession of national parks and other reserves including the Alpine National Park, Blue Mountains National Park, and the Grampians National Park

See also

★ Bradfield Scheme

★ Snowy Mountains Scheme

★ Warragamba Dam

References