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'Mount Kosciuszko', located in the Snowy Mountains, in Kosciuszko National Park, is the highest mountain in Australia (not including its external territories), at 2,228 m above sea level. It was named by the Polish explorer Count Paul Strzelecki in 1840 in honour of the Polish national hero General Tadeusz Kościuszko.
The name of the mountain was formerly spelled "Mount Kosciusko," an Anglicisation; but the version "Mount Kosciuszko" was officially adopted in 1997 by the Geographical Names Board of NSW. The common Australian pronunciation of Kosciuszko, "kozzy-osko" or // (IPA), differs from the , "kosh-CHOOSH-ko" or //.
Various measurements of the peak originally called by that name showed it to be slightly lower than its neighbour, Mount Townsend, and the names were thereupon transposed by the New South Wales Lands Department, so that Mount Kosciuszko still remains the highest peak of Australia, and Mount Townsend ranks as second.^[1] The picture by Eugene von Guerard hanging in the National Gallery of Australia titled ''"Northeast view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko"'' is actually from Mt Townsend.^[2]

Contents

Reaching the summit

Higher Australian mountains

Notes and references

External links

Reaching the summit

Like many of Australia's highest peaks, Mount Kosciuszko is not particularly difficult to climb. There is a road to Charlotte Pass, from which it is a nine kilometre walk up a path to the summit. Anybody with a modest level of fitness should be able to climb it. Until 1976 it was possible to drive close to the summit. The walking track to Mount Kosciuszko from Charlotte Pass is in fact that road, which was closed due to environmental concerns.
The peak may also be approached from Thredbo, which is a shorter (6.5 kilometres) and not very difficult walk and is supported by a chairlift ride year round. From the top of the chairlift there is a raised walkway to the summit to protect the native vegetation. Kosciuszko National Park is also the location of the downhill ski slopes closest to Canberra and Sydney, containing the Thredbo and Perisher Blue ski resorts. Mount Kosciuszko may have been ascended by Indigenous Australians long before the first recorded ascent by Europeans.

Higher Australian mountains

Higher peaks exist within territory administered or claimed by Australia but outside the Australian mainland:

★ Mawson Peak (2745 m.) on Heard Island, and

★ Mount McClintock (3490 m.) and Mount Menzies (3355 m.) in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Notes and references

1.
2.

External links

★ Peakware- World Mountain Encyclopaedia - photo

★ Mt. Kosciuszko Inc. - a very comprehensive website