Australian Alps The Australian Alps an IBRA bioregion

Australian Alps

�The Australian Alps, an IBRA bioregion, is the highest mountain range of Australia. This range is located in southeastern Australia, and it straddles southeastern New South Wales, eastern Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory.

�The Australian Alps contain Australia's only peaks exceeding in elevation above sea level. The Alps are the only bioregion on the Australian mainland on which deep snow falls annually.

�The Australian Alps are part of the Great Dividing Range, the series of mountains, hills, and highlands that runs about from northern Queensland, through New South Wales, and into the northern part of Victoria.

�This chain of highlands divides the drainage of the rivers that flow to the east into the Tasman Sea from those that flow west into the drainage of the Murray–Darling basin (and thence to the Southern Ocean) or into inland waters, such as Lake Eyre, which lie below sea level, or else evaporate rapidly.

�The Great Dividing Range reaches its greatest heights in the Australian Alps.

�The Australian Alps consists of two biogeographic subregions: the Snowy Mountains including the Brindabella Ranges, located in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory; and the Victorian Alps, located in Victoria.

Ecology