Ron Dorman—Bruce Coleman Inc. A hike along Australia’s Great Dividing Range would reveal a series of plateaus and low mountain ranges roughly paralleling the coasts of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. The mountain range extends some 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, to the Grampians in Victoria Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania. In Queensland, the mountains average is 2,000–3,000 feet (600–900 meters) in elevation, but they rise as high as 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) in the Bellenden Ker and McPherson ranges and the Lamington Plateau. Farther south, a segment known as the Australian Alps, near the New South Wales–Victoria border, contains Australia’s highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko (7,310 feet [2,228 meters]). Since the Great Dividing Range is not very high compared to other mountain ranges, few animals specifically adapted to mountainous environments occur there. Tree kangaroos and bird-wing butterflies occur in the rainforests of the mountainous northeast. Some bird species, such as the galah and the Australian magpie are found throughout Australia. Much of the Great Dividing Range is defined by forested areas of acacias, eucalyptus (see photo), and casuarinas, with hummock grasses and flowering plants, including banksias, in the undergrowth. The vegetation on the western slopes is predominately subtropical or temperate woodlands of eucalyptus and scrub. The Wollemi pine is a “living fossil” that was discovered in Wollemi National Park in 1994.