Mountain rescue

Last month the Australian Alps were awarded National Heritage status in recognition of the outstanding natural and cultural significance of Australia’s most spectacular mountain range. The heritage listing applies to a group of national parks that encompass the High Country in Victoria, the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, and the Brindabella Ranges in the Australian Capital Territory and total 1.6 million hectares. From a conservation standpoint, the alps overall are considered to be in good condition, with some of the wetlands identified as being in near pristine condition, but there are threats from introduced species and human activities including skiing, climate change and grazing. Thus, the heritage listing is a welcome extra protection for the region. The Australian Alps are divided into four altitudinal zones — tableland, montane, sub-alpine, and alpine — each with a different range of plant life. The terrain within these zones is highly varied, giving rise to many different sub-communities of plant species. The montane zone is characterised by lush, dense, cool forests: an unexpected and refreshing surprise on this, the driest inhabited continent on earth. There are well over a thousand plant species in the alps, representing almost all plant families in Australia. Approximately ten percent of them are endemic to the alps, a much higher rate than in most areas. These include the anemone buttercup, the Bogong daisy-bush and the silky daisy, all of which are threatened, and snow gums, the predominant tree around the snow line. All the major animal groups are represented among the fauna of the alps, including a number of vulnerable and threatened species. These include every day marsupials, such as wallabies, wombats, koalas, and platypus, as well as a number of lesser known species, such as sugar gliders, a small species of possum once thought extinct and now a popular pet in the United States. In the summer months the alps are home to thousands of aestivating Bogong moths, a migratory insect that breeds on the hot inland plains and then shelters in alpine caves and crevices to escape the heat. These moths were once an important source of protein in the diet of indigenous Australians who gathered in the alps in the summer and caught moths in string nets made from the bark of various shrubs. In fact, Bogong moths are second only to the sun as a source of energy input into the Australian alps and are still the principal source