Mount Kosciuszko

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Mount Kosciuszko

Kosciuszko is one of the world's great national parks, and the largest in New South Wales. Covering almost 675,000 hectares, the park contains the highest mountains in Australia, the famous Snowy River and all NSW ski fields.

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A Tourist Attraction

Its many and varied attractions include walks through alpine herb fields, spectacular caves, limestone gorges, scenic drives, historic huts and homesteads.

It contains six wilderness areas, and its alpine and sub-alpine areas contain plant species found nowhere else in the world. The park is also home to the rare mountain pygmy possum and corroboree frog.

Mount Kosciuszko is the highest mountain in Australia, located in the extreme southeast corner of the continent. Located between Melbourne and Sydney in the Australian Alps, Kosciuszko draws crowds from both cities, and has become a popular resort for both hiking and skiing. The area has rocky terrain and is heavily forested, and receives heavy precipitation (both rain and snow) during the Australian winter.

Kosciuszko National Park is one of the best-known and most spectacular reserves in Australia, attracting over 3 million visitors each year. The park is named after Mount Kosciuszko which, at 2228 metres, is Australia's highest mountain. Mount Kosciuszko itself was named for the famous Polish patriot.

The park is approximately 150km in length, running from the Victorian border to the west of the ACT's namadgi national park. At 690,000 hectares it is the largest park in New South Wales and the Australian Alps.

The area was reserved as a state park in 1944. In 1966 it became a national park under the control of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. In 1977 the park was declared a World Biosphere Reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere program.

Kosciuszko lies astride the Great Dividing Range and contains the headwaters of major rivers including the Murrumbidgee, Snowy and Murray. It contains most of Australia's snow and the entire NSW alpine zone as well as glacial features and ski fields. Many of the parks plant life is above the tree line and are found nowhere else in the world.

Many rare species of fauna live in the park including the mountain pygmy possum which was thought to be extinct until 1966 and is still only found in this park above the 1500 metre line. The northern corroboree frog (an endangered species) is also only found in the Kosciuszko National Park.

The area has a long and rich history of land use, including Aboriginal occupation which is thought to date back 20,000 years. Since European occupation of Australia, exploration, grazing, mining, skiing, tourism and the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme have all had and impact on the landscape.

 

Not Kosciusko, it's Kosciuszko

The NSW government has recently decided to change the spelling of the park from Kosciusko to what is now believed to be the correct spelling of Kosciuszko.

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