Alpine National Park
The Alpine National Park is Victoria's largest national park covering an area of 646,000 hectares stretching along the Great Dividing Range from near Mansfield through to the New South Wales border.
The park encompases most of the state's highest mountains and also diverse and stunningly beautiful alpine topography with ranges, wild rivers, impressive escarpments, forests and open grasslands known as high plains.
Enjoying Alpine National Park
Walking near Mt Bogong
Walking near Mt Bogong
Alpine National Park provides a wide range of recreational activities including:
- walking and skiing, including:
- remote wilderness adventures for well-prepared, experienced walkers and cross-country skiiers, and
- short walks to lookouts and other points of interest
- cycling
- fishing
- game hunting - subject to regulations
- horse riding, canoeing, rafting and rock climbing are also offered by commercial tour operators within the park.
Accommodation ranges from bush camping in the park to lodges and motels in surrounding towns, and in the adjacent ski resorts of Falls Creek, Mt Hotham, Mt Buller and Dinner Plain. Facilities at picnic spots are generally limited to fireplaces, picnic tables, and in some cases toilets.
People in Alpine National Park
Aboriginal people went to and through the Alpine area over thousands of years, and knew its flora, fauna, geography and seasonal changes intimately. Groups visited the Alps in summer to hold ceremonies and gather the nutritious bogong moths that shelter there. Today, Aboriginal communities in Victoria, NSW and the ACT take a particular interest in the management and heritage of the high country.
Kiln, Glendart historic site
Kiln, Glendart historic site
European pastoralists from NSW started moving south into the Alps in the 1830s. Grazing began around Omeo in 1836, and runs were taken up in the foothills. Summer grazing soon extended to the higher country, and huts were built there for shelter and storage during stock mustering.
From the 1850s to around 1900, gold lured many people to the Alps. Relics can still be seen in Historic Areas adjacent to the park, and towns like Dargo, Harrietville, Mitta Mitta, Omeo and Bright have strong links to the gold era.
The 1939 bushfires in the forests around Melbourne and the boom in house-building after World War II led to a greatly increased demand for timber from the Alps. This resulted in the building of a network of roads that helped open the Alps to visitors. Today tourism is one of the most important activities in the Alpine area.
Nature in Alpine National Park
The Alpine National Park has the greatest range of flora and fauna of any national park in Victoria.
Woodland, Tamboritha Saddle
Woodland, Tamboritha Saddle
More than 1100 native plant species are found in the park, many of these specially adapted to survive the severe winter climate. Twelve of these species, including the Bogong daisy-bush and silky daisy, are found nowhere else in the world.
Mature alpine ash forests are common as you go up the mountains, and snow gums are the predominant eucalypts in the woodlands around the snowline.
In higher exposed areas where conditions are too severe for trees to survive, the vegetation changes to heathlands, alpine herbfields and grasslands, mossbeds and snowpatch communities. These High Plains are renowned for their summer wildflower displays.
The park is home for a variety of animals that have adapted to survive the severe winter climate, including threatened species such as the smoky mouse, broad-toothed rat, powerful owl, spotted tree frog and she-oak skink.
Of special note is the rare mountain pygmy-possum, the world's only exclusively alpine marsupial that stores food to last throughout the winter. Its special habitat — boulder slopes with heathland and snow gums — is only found in a few places within the Victorian and New South Wales Alps.
Bogong moths inhabit the Bogong and Dargo high plains and peaks between November and April, away from the heat of the inland plains. They shelter in rock crevices and provide food for mountain pygmy-possums and little ravens.
Caring for Alpine National Park: leave no trace
Australia's Alps region is fragile and needs care and protection to survive.
When visiting Alpine National Park:
- leave your pets at home – they disturb native animals and other park users
- take your rubbish home – no bins are provided
- stay on track – even if it's muddy or dusty, don't widen tracks. Motorised vehicles are not permitted beyond public roads and car parks
- leave animals, plants, rocks and wood where you find them – each has a place in the delicate balance of nature
- use a fuel stove – they are quicker, cleaner and better for the bush. Fires are permitted only in fireplaces provided at campgrounds and picnic areas
- got to go? – use a toilet or take a walk at least 100 paces from water and campsites. Dig 15 cm with a trowel, then cover waste
Discover more about minimal impact recreation and how to leave no trace in the Caring for the Alps section of this site.
More information
For more information about the Alpine National Park:
- Telephone - Parks Victoria Information Line 131 963
- Visit - Parks Victoria's Alpine National Park page.
Skiing information
- Sno-Info
- The Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Up to date information including charts and satellite images.
Park address/contacts
131 963
Longitude: 148° 10' E
Visitor information Centres
-
Bright Visitors Centre119 Gavan StBright VIC 3741AustraliaTelephone: 1800 500 117
- Mansfield Visitor Information Centre167 Maroodah HwyMansfield VIC 3724AustraliaTelephone: 1800 060 686
* Access to Alpine National Park is available via the towns of:
- Bairnsdale
- Bright
- Bruthen
- Buchan
- Heyfield
- Mansfield
- Mitta Mitta
- Mount Beauty
- Orbost
- Jindabyne, NSW
Key
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