Mount Kosciuszko – Australia’s High Point

The Outback looms over most foreign conceptions of Australia.

This hot, arid expanse covers most of the continent and is filled with few humans and many things that might kill humans. It’s one of the gnarliest stretches on the planet, granting Australia an unforgiving natural reputation.

It might seem a bit ironic, then, to realize the tallest mountains in Australia don’t reside in a hellish landscape but in a range called the Snowy Mountains!

The crown of this chain and Australia’s ceiling is Mount Kosciuszko.

In 1840, Polish explorer Pawel Edmund Strzelecki explored the high peaks of Australia. When he encountered the tallest mountain, he thought it resembled the shape of Kosciuszko Mound in Krakow, which is named after General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. This Polish national hero fought against the Prussians and Russians in his homeland and aided the fledgling United States in their revolution against England. Many parks in the U.S. still bear his name.

Interestingly, the mountain does not have a known Indigenous name, even though some nearby crags did have old native nomenclature. Mount Townsend, for example, the range’s second-highest peak, went by the Aboriginal/Ngarigo name Tar-gan-gil, which means “Bogong moth.” These moths aestivate on the slopes of Townsend. Modern attempts to give Kosciuszko an Aboriginal name have met with pushback from some native groups, as the proposed name – Kunama Namadgi, which ostensibly means “Snow Mountain” – apparently means “faeces” in some native languages. Quite unfortunate.

Mount Kosciuszko rises 7,310 feet (2,228 meters) above sea level.

Since it’s the highest point on an island, its prominence is also 7,310 feet. The closest peak higher than Kosciuszko is 1,177 miles away, New Zealand’s Mount Tutoko.

The Snowy Mountains are part of the Australian Alps, which are a subrange of the mighty Great Dividing Range.

The GDR is a cordillera, which is essentially a chain of chains. In a cordillera, the specific chains might not connect directly, but they form long super-networks. The Great,mmmmmml Dividing Range is the fifth-longest chain on the planet and the longest entirely within one country.

Unlike many of the world’s major chains, the Snowy Mountains, the Australian Alps, and the Great Dividing Range are the result of orogenies, massive tectonic uplifting events, not volcanic activity or plate collisions. These uplifted plateaus feature less jagged relief than the European Alps or the Himalayas, for example, which are the consequence of plates smashing into each other.

As the High Point of Australia, Mount Kosciuszko is one of the Seven Summits, the pinnacles of the seven traditional continents.

Of the seven, Kosciuszko is the shortest and, by far, the easiest to summit. Unlike the others, which require mountaineering expeditions, Australia’s ceiling can be hiked in a matter of hours. Until 1977, one could drive to within meters of the summit on a road, but the government closed the thoroughfare for environmental concerns.

Despite Australia’s warm stature, powder tends to cover the Snowies during winter and spring. Since Kosciuszko resides in the Southern Hemisphere, this period usually covers June through October.

Skiing in Australia. Next thing you’ll tell me is you can ski in Las Vegas, too!

Seeing is believing, though. The Snowies bring a sport unassociated with Australia all the way down under!