Alpine National Park
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Alpine is a national park in Victoria (Australia), northeast of Melbourne. It covers much of the higher areas of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria, most of Victoria's skiing resorts, the subalpine woodland and grassland of the Bogong High Plains, and Victoria's highest point, Mount Bogong.
The majority of the park was affected by a large bushfire in early 2003, the largest since fires in 1939. Most facilities for tourists were relatively unaffected. Fires are a periodic feature of most Australian ecosystems.
Unusually for an Australian national park, agricultural activity is conducted in the park, with quotas of cattle controversially allowed to graze on the High Plains during the summer months. In May 2005, the Victorian state government announced plans to end this grazing; the federal government has in turn publicly floated the idea of using national cultural heritage powers (on the basis of the cultural place given to the mountain cattleman, notably through The Man From Snowy River) to override the state decision.
The park's eastern and north-eastern boundary is alone the border with New South Wales in some parts; on the other side of the border is the Kosciuszko National Park.
Alpine National Park is divided into six sections:
- Wonnangatta-Moroka
- Mt. Buller-Stirling
- Mt. Hotham-Feathertop
- Bogong High Plains
- Wombargo-The Cobberas
- Tingaringy
Fact sheet
- Area: 6,474.15 km²
- Coordinates: Template:Coor dms
- Date of establishment: 1989
- Managing authorities: Parks Victoria
- IUCN category: II
See also: Protected areas of Victoria (Australia)