United States
£ GBP
Australian Alps is a fascinating guide to Kosciuszko, Alpine and Namadgi National Parks. It introduces the reader to Australia's highest mountains, their climate, geology and soils, plants and animals and their human history. It traces the long-running conflicts between successive users of the mountains and explores the difficulties in managing the land for nature conservation.
Australian Alps gives credit to little-known or understood stories of the people who have worked to establish better understanding of the Alps, especially their vital role as the major water catchments for south-eastern Australia. This new edition updates many themes, including the involvement of Aboriginal people in the region, catchment function and condition, pest plants and animals, fire and the issue of climate change.
Written by a specialist with over 25 years' experience in community education in and about the Australian Alps National Parks, this new edition features many excellent natural history and historical photographs. Ideal as support information for field trips, it will make a wonderful memento of an alpine visit.
Australian Alps acts as a detailed companion to park interpretive material and to topic-specific field guides: it caters for readers who want a broad overview of areas of interest they will come across in a visit to the mountains.
Acknowledgements
1 Australia’s Alps – the Brindabellas, the Snowy Mountains and Victoria’s High Country
2 Alpine weather and climate
3 The shape of the Alps – geology, landform and soil
4 Alpine vegetation – what grows where?
5 Alpine animals
6 Aboriginal life in the Alps
7 Settlement and land use in the Alps – pastoralism
8 Science in the Alps
9 Gold mining in the Alps – then and now
10 Source of the rivers – alpine water resources
11 The road to conservation
12 Visiting the parks
Appendix 1: Websites
Appendix 2: Further reading
Deirdre Slattery has 25 years' experience in community education in and about the Australian Alps National Parks, having worked with tour operators, agency staff, university students, teachers, recreation user groups and general community members on many field trips and bushwalks and through ariticles and talks. In Victoria, Deirdre has worked in the National Parks Service and has served on the National Parks Advisory Council and Alpine Advisory Committee and represented the state on an Australian Alps Liaison Committee Working Group. She is an Adjunct Staff member in Outdoor and Environmental Education at La Trobe University.
