The Baw Baw National Park is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

located on the boundary between the

Victorian Alps The Victorian Alps, also known locally as the High Country, is a large mountain system in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. Occupying the majority of eastern Victoria, it is the southwestern half of the Australian Alps (the other h ...

and

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

regions of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The national park is situated approximately east of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and north of the

Latrobe Valley The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestle ...

. The park contains the forest covered Baw-Baw Plateau and surrounds the

Mount Baw Baw Alpine Resort Mt. Baw Baw Alpine Resort is a small Australian downhill ski resort located approximately east of Melbourne and north of the Latrobe Valley in Victoria. The Alpine Resort is an unincorporated area which is surrounded by the Baw Baw National P ...

. The Baw-Baw

Plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

has a number of peaks, that includes

Mount Baw Baw Mount Baw Baw is a mountain summit on the Baw-Baw Plateau of the Great Dividing Range, located in Victoria, Australia. The name is from the Woiwurrung language spoken by Eastern Kulin people. It is of uncertain meaning, but possibly signifies, ...

Mount St Gwinear Mount St Gwinear is a mountain in Victoria, Australia, located at the north-east end of the Baw Baw National Park in the Gippsland high country. It is popular with families looking for a cheap and accessible snow-play/tobogganing destination a ...

, Mount St Phillack, Mount Erica and Mount Whitelaw; all largely

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

terrane outcrops of weathered

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

boulders rising from the plateau, which is covered by a forest of snow-gums, punctuated by

meadows A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifici ...

. Mount St Phillack, a granite hill on the Baw-Baw plateau standing at above sea level is the park's highest peak as the slightly higher Mt Baw Baw peak is part of the ski resort area. The slopes of the plateau within the national park form the

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

s for the Thomson River and the Thomson Reservoir, and the Tanjil and Tyers rivers.

History

The traditional custodians of the land surrounding Baw Baw National Park are the

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourne ...

people of the

Kulin Nation The Kulin nation is an alliance of five Aboriginal nations in south central Victoria, Australia. Their collective territory extends around Port Phillip and Western Port, up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valley ...

. Through their cultural traditions, the Gunaikurnai people identify the Baw Baw National Park as their traditional country. The area was first explored by Europeans in 1860 by botanist

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

. The area was settled in the 1880s and 1890s, after the discovery of gold in the area. Baw Baw National Park was declared in April 1979. On 7 November 2008 the park was added to the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

as one of eleven areas constituting the

Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves The Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves is a group of eleven protected areas consisting of national parks, nature reserves and one wilderness park located in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Victoria and which was l ...

. The Baw Baw National Park represents the southerly extent of the sub-alpine environment on mainland Australia. Aberfeldy River, Baw Baw National Park

Flora and fauna

The typical vegetation in the park is low-lying

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es,

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

lands and snow gums, this is typically described as

sub-alpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

. Fauna abounds on the foothills to Baw Baw Plateau, including

Leadbeater's possum Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbour ...

, which is highly endangered and Victoria's state fauna emblem. The critically endangered

Baw Baw frog The Baw Baw frog (''Philoria frosti'') is a critically endangered species of Australian frog as categorised on the IUCN Red List and listed under the ''Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988)''. It has suffered a decline in population, mostly ...

(''Philoria frosti''), listed on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

, is native to the region. The deciduous Baw Baw berry (''

Wittsteinia vacciniacea ''Wittsteinia vacciniacea '', the Baw Baw berry, is a shrub species in the family Alseuosmiaceae. It is endemic to Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British ...

'') may be found on the plateau.

Etymology

The national park draws its name from Mount Baw Baw. In the

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

Woiwurrung language The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance. The Woiwurrung people's territory in Central Victoria extended from north of ...

the name for the mountain was thought to be variously ''bo-ye'', meaning "ghost"; or ''bo-bo'', meaning

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago t ...

. In the

Bunurong language The Boonwurrung language, also anglicised as Bunurong, Bun wurrung, and other variant spellings, is an Aboriginal Australian language traditionally spoken by the Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation of central Victoria prior to European se ...

, the mountain was thought to be named ''Bore Bore'' and in the

Gunai language The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai ( ) language, also spelt Gunnai, Kurnai, Ganai, Gaanay, or Kurnay ) is an Australian Aboriginal dialect cluster of the Gunaikurnai people in Gippsland in south-east Victoria. Bidawal was either a divergent dial ...

, ''Bo Bo'', both meaning "echo".

Activities

The major uses of the park are skiing in winter and bushwalking in summer. It is popular for cross country skiing, downhill skiing, summer bushwalking, rafting and canoeing, fishing, scenic drives and picnics. The

Australian Alps Walking Track The Australian Alps Walking Track is a long-distance walking trail through the alpine areas of Victoria, New South Wales and ACT. It is 655 km long, starting at Walhalla, Victoria and running through to Tharwa, ACT near Canberra. The trac ...

traverses its entire length, starting at Walhalla and continuing north towards the

Alpine National Park The Alpine National Park is a national park located in the Central Highlands and Alpine regions of Victoria, Australia. The national park is located northeast of Melbourne. It is the largest National Park in Victoria, and covers much of the hig ...

. The Baw Baw section takes a bit less than three days to walk with plenty to see for those interested in botany or geology. There is popular ski touring along the Baw Baw Plateau between Mount Baw Baw, past Mount St Phillack to Mount St Gwinear. There is a volunteer ski patrol group who run on weekends and patrol around the St Gwinear portion of the national park. They access the park from the opposite side of the plateau to the ski resort at Mount Baw Baw. Other popular skiing is

Nordic skiing Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the Ski binding, binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe ...

at Mount Baw Baw, introduced in 1972 including championship races and a ski school.History of the Mount Baw Baw region
June 2002

References

External links

* * {{authority control National parks of Victoria (Australia) Gippsland Protected areas established in 1979 Australian National Heritage List 1979 establishments in Australia Plateaus of Australia Environment of Victoria (Australia) Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves Central Highlands (Victoria)