The Great Dividing Range extends more than 3500 kilometres along the Eastern seaboard of Australia, from the tip of Cape York Peninsula, curling slightly westwards into Victoria and down into Tasmania. The Australian capital of Canberra lies within the Range.

Almost all of Australia's major river systems flow from the Range, such as the Murray-Darling system, which provides water for the agricultural areas of the three most populous States - New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. The Great Dividing Range seperates Australian rivers into those flowing into the Pacific Ocean and Coral Sea and those flowing into the Indian and Southern Oceans and the Arafura Sea.

The range is of greatly varying elevation, the tallest mountains being the Snowy Mountains in NSW and Victoria (otherwise known as the Southern or Australian Alps). In tropical Queensland there is no chance of snow even on the highest peaks, whereas at Mount Wellington in Tasmania it has been known to snow in summer. Climate, flora and fauna vary greatly, with everything from hilly tropical rainforests to snow-gums and gorges, Tasmanian Devils to crocodiles.

The region was formed when "the sediments of a great ocean trough (the Tasman Geosyncline) was uplifted to form an immense chain of fold mountains stretching from Cape York to Tasmania. The Great Dividing Range... is the remnant, after more than 250 million years of erosion, of these once imposing mountains"¹

The tallest mountain in the Range is Mount Kosciusko, at a mere 2230m. This is also the tallest mountain in the whole of Australia. Compare Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895), Mount Everest (8,848), Mount McKinley (6,194m), Mount Elbrus (5,663m), Aconcagua (6,959m).

National Parks

ACT
Canberra Nature Park
Googong Foreshores area
Murrumbidgee River Corridor
Namadgi National Park
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

NSW
Namadgi National Park
Brindabella National Park
Kosciuszko National Park
Alpine National Park
Mount Buffalo National Park
Snowy River National Park
Blue Mountains National Park

Queensland
Bunya Mountains National Park
Crows Nest Falls National Park
Daintree National Park
Lamington National Park
Moogerah Peaks National Park
Mount Barney National Park
Mount Walsh National Park
Tambourine Mountains National Park

Victoria
Alpine National Park
Baw Baw National Park
Coopracambra National Park
Dandenong Ranges National Park
Errinundra National Park
Grampians National Park
Kinglake National Park
Lind National Park
Mount Buffalo National Park

Ski Resorts

NSW
Charlotte Pass
Diggers Creek
Perisher Valley
Smiggin Holes
Thredbo
Wilson's Valley

Victoria
Falls Creek
Mount Baw Baw
Mount Buffalo
Mount Buller
Mount Hotham

Other well-known individual mountains or mountain chains which form the GDR include: the Blue Mountains (NSW), Grampians (Vic.), Glasshouse Mountains (Qld.) and Mount Bogong, the tallest mountain in Victoria.

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1. http://www.brisbane-stories.powerup.com.au/m2m/03_environment/01_geological.htm