Great Dividing Range

Eastern Australian mountain range, extending 3,700 km/2,300 mi N–S from Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, to Victoria. It includes the Carnarvon Range, Queensland, which has many Aboriginal cave paintings, the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, and the Australian Alps, and ends southwards beyond Bass Strait as the central uplands of Tasmania. In its northern parts in Queensland the Range averages 600–900 m/2,000–3,000 ft in height, while farther south the average is about 900 m/3,000 ft, though the Australian Alps include Mount Kosciusko (2,228 m/7,310 ft), the highest peak in Australia. The Range contains the headwaters of the leading rivers of Australia, with the Darling, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, and Goulburn flowing westwards to join the Murray, while the Snowy River, a major source of hydroelectricity, flows eastwards to the Pacific. Until exploration by Gregory Blaxland and others in the early 19th century the Range was a formidable barrier to westward migration of European settlers from the eastern coastlands. It is now an area of rich resources for agriculture, lumbering and mining, while its rivers provide water for irrigation in the drier lands to the west as well as power for hydroelectricity and its national parks and ski areas are the basis of a major tourist industry.