Stretching 3600km from the tropical rainforests of Cape York, through the high peaks of the Alps in New South Wales and the ACT, to the temperate woodlands of the Grampians in Victoria, our Great Dividing Range connects thriving eastern Australia from tip to toe.

Almost three-quarters of Australians live along the inland western slopes, eastern escarpment and adjoining coastal plains. It is rich in cultural heritage for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and is enjoyed by millions of visitors from all over the world.

Despite its vital role, over the last two centuries, nearly 70 percent of the Range has been degraded, fragmented and polluted from mining, logging and land clearing. In April 2015, its forests and woodlands were listed as one of 11 global biodiversity hotspots threatened with deforestation. That same month, scientists at James Cook University released maps illustrating how a number of these forests are critical in helping safeguard more than 500 threatened species from the impacts of global warming.

Communities along the Range are doing incredible things to restore habitat and protect threatened species locally. But driving the change we need at a national level will take the support of the millions of Australians living in our cities.

The major cities of eastern Australia are home to more than 11 million people. As our society is increasingly urbanised, we are becoming more and more disconnected from the ecosystems that underpin our lives. Yet the bustling cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane are just as dependent on the Range as our threatened birds, mammals and frogs.

That’s why ACF is bringing people together to protect, restore and connect our Great Dividing Range. We’re encouraging people to get out on the Range, traverse its stunning landscapes, wander through its magnificent forests, swim in its waterholes and trek its mountain-scapes – so we can all remind ourselves that the fate of our Range is intimately connected to our own.

THE WET TROPICS

The Wet Tropics is one of the most significant ecosystems on Earth, with outstanding natural beauty and magnificent sweeping landscapes. Although the Wet Tropics cover only one percent of the Australian continent, it contains an incredible 62 percent of butterflies, 30 percent of all marsupials, 23 percent of reptiles, 60 percent of bats, 30 percent of frogs, and 18 percent of all bird populations in Australia. And it provides habitat to rare and threatened species included the endangered southern cassowary.

Aboriginal rainforest culture of the Wet Tropics region is recognised as one of the oldest surviving rainforest cultures in the world – dating back over 40,000 years.

Though 900,000 hectares is protected, important areas with World Heritage values exist outside of the boundary and are under significant threat.

Northern Queensland has two seasons, the wet season (summer) which runs from November - April, and the dry season (winter) which runs from May - October. The best time to visit is the dry season when roads are accessible and it’s safe to swim at the beaches. From rainforest tours to river cruises, choose from a multitude of ways you can explore thismagnificent ecosystem. www.daintreerainforest.com/ 

Liz Gallie, artist and cassowary conservationist

I live beneath the rainforest canopy near Mission Beach, in the Wet Tropics of northern Queensland. For such a small area, its natural beauty is extraordinarily diverse – something I’m reminded of every day. There is always the thrill of seeing cassowaries on my small rainforest block, and I spend a lot of time observing these magnificent prehistoric birds and taking their photograph. Unfortunately, too often the photos are focused on the incremental but significant destruction of their habitat.

The laws that protect our threatened species are failing. And the lack of local leadership and understanding of just how special Mission Beach is means there is not enough pressure on state and federal governments to make change.

I started a group called Mission Beach Cassowaries to involve the whole community in sharing information to identify, track and record cassowary sightings. Locally, to protect the cassowary from extinction, we need to address habitat loss and fragmentation, dog attack and road strike urgently. Nationally,  we need to see independent governance enforcing the laws that protect our threatened species.

Everyone can make a difference in their local community. I want to be part of creating a future where governments give equal consideration to the environment and the economy and stop seeing them as mutually exclusive. Only then can a sustainable tourism industry support the future of Mission Beach, the community and our beautiful cassowaries.

THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS

The spectacular Australian Alps, ancient landscapes of undulating plateaus and ridges, surrounded by steep slopes, escarpments and gorges, are the heart of the Great Dividing Range.

Travelling through three vast national parks, spanning Victoria (Alpine National Park and Snowy River National Park), New South Wales (Kosciuszko National Park) and the Australian Capital Territory (Namadgi National Park), they encompass a diversity of landscapes.

The highest peaks in Australia, the Alps are home to unique cold climate plants and animals including the only three colonies of the mountain pygmy-possum known to exist. The rivers that run from their peaks supply almost 30 percent of flows into Australia’s food bowl, the Murray-Darling Basin. But the Alps and the wildlife that inhabit them are under increasing pressure from global warming. Rising temperatures are reducing snow depth and more frequent bushfires are devastating these alpine ecosystems.

The Australian Alps Walking Track winds through the high country of Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT. It traverses rugged remote alpine country and bushwalkers must be experienced, self reliant and have good navigation skills. The end-to-end walk takes about 50 to 60 days and is strictly for the intrepid traveller. You can do day treks or combine shorter, more manageable sections of the trail. Pitch your tent in the wilderness, stay in camping grounds, historic huts or alpine resorts close to the track.

Kathryn McCallum, nature lover and advocate

For 45 days, I walked alone along the Australian Alps Walking Track, traversing the highest peaks of three states. Our Alps are not high altitude, but the 700km track climbs up and down the equivalent of four Mount Everests.

As a silent lone walker, I met many beautiful creatures; lizards that seemed unafraid of me; a coiled black snake that catapulted adrenalin through me; four wedge-tailed eagles circling the sun together, so high they disappeared like a dream into the great, blue sky.

I didn’t manage to spot a mountain pygmy-possum although I hiked by their last remaining habitats. Alone in my tent, I thought of them searching for rocky terrain at higher altitudes as global warming heats the lower mountains.

As I hiked through a howling lightning storm, the hair on my arms stood on end. I camped my last night in a clearing, anxiously checking the flames on a nearby peak, emergency beacon ready by my side. In the morning I walked safely out of the mountains into Canberra, my senses refreshed by the beauty of the world.

I later learned the lightning ignited 185 bushfires that day. Several of the fires combined into a drought-fuelled inferno that raged for weeks and burned up much the country I had crossed. I felt its loss deeply.

Returning from the mountains, I questioned my work as a neutral journalist. I decided to start a community group to campaign on the pollution threatening the places I love. For a decade since, I’ve worked to bring people who care together to speak out for the wonderful natural world we all depend on.

VICTORIA’S CENTRAL HIGHLANDS

The magnificent Mountain Ash forests of Victoria’s Central Highlands contain the world’s tallest flowering plants and are some of the most carbon dense forests on Earth, storing more carbon in the forest soil, leaf matter, tree trunks, limbs and leaves than almost any other global ecosystem.

They are home to Victoria’s faunal emblem, the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum and at least 40 other animal species that live and nest in the hollows and crevices of the old growth trees. Their tall trees catch the rain and supply over four million people in Melbourne and surrounding areas with 86.4 percent of the city’s water supply.

Despite their critical value, clear-fell logging continues in the Highlands, primarily to make office paper. A total of 48,334 hectares of forest was clearfell logged between 1931 and 2011 – an area that equates to half of Greater Metropolitan Melbourne.

Community groups including ACF are calling for a Great Forest National Park. Just 90 minutes north east of Melbourne, stretching from Kinglake to Mt Baw Baw and north east up to Eildon, the park will protect endangered forests and wildlife and give Melburnians an escape from the concrete jungle – a place to recharge and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of Victoria’s spectacular natural beauty.

There you will be free to meander along beautiful mountain streams, cycle under a canopy of towering mountain ash trees, or hike through spectacular alpine woodlands. There will be something for everyone with activities such as bike riding, bushwalking, bird watching, four-wheel driving, camping, zipline tours and so much more.

You can download a free, self-drive tour map and visit one of the special pockets of forest that forms part of the future site of the Great Forest National Park.

Deanne Eccles, member of Knitting Nannas of Toolangi (KNOT)

I live in Toolangi in the mountain ash forests at the southernmost region of the Great Dividing Range. Our kids are connected to the forest in so many ways. They breathe it, they climb it, they smell it, and are excited by all it creates. They are highly affected when they see the forest pulled down and ripped apart.

These forests are the water catchments for Melbourne and all of the communities surrounding it. The water they harvest feeds the Goulburn and Yarra Rivers. These trees are also the last remaining habitat of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum.

Logging is decimating the Leadbeater’s habitat even though just this year it was reclassified as critically endangered. And for what? To make Reflex copy paper. The previous state government created new guidelines that claimed to protect the Leadbeater’s but instead benefited VicForests. These laws should be based on science, not politics.

Logging is making the forests more vulnerable to bushfires and I’m fearful of another Black Saturday in the Central Highlands. I experienced those bushfires and I don’t want to go through it again.

Right now we need to protect our native forests. We need to negotiate about ways to move this industry into plantation or expand opportunities for employment through education and retraining. What makes me sad is the assumption that people in the timber industry can’t do anything else but work in that industry. These people are highly practical and industrious.

Our country – our lands, our water, our rocks, our beaches, our animals, our plants, our coloured skies – shapes our cultural identity. I am not the Sydney harbour bridge or the Telstra tower. But I am the mountain ash tree. I am the water I drink. I am the air I breathe. Destroy it, and you destroy us. I hope we can recognise that before it’s too late.

To find out more about ACF’s Great Dividing Range campaign: www.acfonline.org.au/the-range 

Category: Destinations
Written: Sun 01 May 2016
Printed: May, 2016
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