Better protected: The snow gum, found in the Snowy Mountains of Victoria, is the only eucalypt able to withstand the cold of the subalpine woodland.
Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: The Australian Alps, home to rare species such as the snow gum and the mountain pygmy possum, were today added to the National Heritage List, offering their species and environments unprecedented levels of protection.
"The listing of the Australian Alps National Parks recognises the outstanding natural, indigenous and historic values of this iconic landscape," said Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
Unique habitats
The entire protected Alpine region, which covers a total area of 1.6 million hectares, is made up of 11 national parks and nature reserves. With peaks of over 2,000 m, the mountains are the only truly alpine region in a country with an average height of just 300 m.
Running for over 600 km from Canberra through NSW to Victoria, the Alps include Mount Kosciusko and the Snowy River National Park.
Important native species include the snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) of Victoria's Snowy Mountains – the only eucalypt able to withstand the cold of the subalpine woodland – and the mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus), the world's only hibernating marsupial (see, Ski resorts threaten alpine marsupial, Cosmos Online).
"Places on the National Heritage List are afforded protection under the Australian Government and we will continue to work together with NSW, Victoria, and the ACT to ensure the protection and proper management of the outstanding heritage values of the Australian Alps National Parks," said Garrett.
"The Australian Alps are [also] an important place of dreaming and gathering for Aboriginal people and of recollection and discovery as former grazing land once traversed by stockmen, gold prospectors, pastoralists, migrants and botanists of early settlement," he added.
Bigger things to come
"This listing is a clear statement that 'heritage' includes the natural environment, not just buildings and places," commented Paul Adam, a conservationist biologist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
"It provides triggers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, where any development proposals would need to be referred to the [Federal Government], which now has very great power to influence management in this area in the future," he said.
Some are already predicting that the listing could lead to bigger and better things.
"What we're looking at is a pathway to getting the Alps listed as a World Heritage Site," said Andrew Cox executive director of the NSW National Parks Association, a non-governmental environment group based in Sydney.
Cox warned, however, that a growing population of feral horses in the Victorian part of the Alps will have to be dealt with before that could happen. "There are 3,000 of them, and their population is growing at 10 per cent every year. There is no effective eradication program in place, and this might impact on our possible listing as a World Heritage Site."
