They do not look like real mountains. They do not jut. They have no vertical granite walls. But they are all we have got in Australia for mountains. Oddly enough they are called the Snowy Mountains, yet they would be one of the few mountain ranges at this latitude to lose virtually all their snow each summer.
And that is what’s happening now. The melt is on in the Snowy Mountains. The downhill skiers are gone and only a few cross-country skiers carry their skis to the Main Range to find the best of the remaining snow.
As the snow melts an almost unique flora is exposed _ heaths, mosses, alpine grasses and wild-flowers. I say “”almost unique” because there is another fairly similar flora in Australia _ in the desert. Yes; that’s right. You see the desert and Australia’s alpine area have a lot in common. Bear with me.
For five months of the year it is almost completely dry in the alpine area. Everything is frozen. As in the desert, the plants have to cope with a long dry spell. The heaths therefore have small sclerophyll leaf , like the leaves of plants in semi-arid areas.
Also there is only a small growing season in Snowies, so the plants go to it fairly vigorously when the melt starts _ just like desert plants after the rain. The result is similar. An abundance of wildflowers, particularly daisies in the high country.
There is a difference, though. In the desert no-one can predict when it might rain and when the flowers might appear. In the Snowies, the flowers start in late November (one species actually flowers under the snow as an adaptation to the short growing season). But the bulk of them come out in mid to late January.
This year looks like a promising season. There were an abundance of fresh daisy shoots a week ago.
One of the best approaches to the alpine region of the Snowies from Canberra is to drive to Charlotte’s Pass (via Cooma, Jindabyne and Perisher) _ about 230 kms from Canberra.
Nestling beneath the pass is the Chalet, built in the summer of 1938-39 after a fire destroyed the earlier building in 1930. It is also the site of Australia’s first mechanical ski lift built in the same summer. Until recently the Chalet was only open in the winter to serve skiers. Now it is open through the summer to serve people wanting to ascend Kosciusko (2228 metres), walk to the glacial lakes or look at the wildflowers.
The Chalet is less yuppie and up-market than Thredbo and you can get the view of the Main Range and a mountain feel without having to go up a chairlift. The Chalet is at 1760 metres; Thredbo at 1400 metres. On the other hand the Chalet does not have golf or tennis or the huge range of restaurants that Thredbo has. It is more secluded _ an escape.
The ascent to the summit is a misnomer. It is an 8km walk along a dirt road. The road was built in the 1940s when cattle were allowed into the alpine region for summer grazing and was closed in 1974. Twenty years later it still has not grown over, showing the fragility of the environment.
I recall a family outing to Kosciusko in 1961: Dad, Mum, six kids in the FB Holden drove to the carpark at Rawson’s Pass a couple of hundred metres below the summit. There was no-one else there.
Now 3000 people come into the alpine region on the peak days over Christmas-New Year and Easter. It is better to go in late November or early December if you are in to the lonely mountain feel.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service has a difficult task to protect the environment while catering for people wanting to enjoy it.
Grazing was permitted in the alpine and sub-alpine areas (above 1370 metres) until 1958. It had started in the 1820s, according to some histories. The damage can still be seen even after extensive restoration work.
One of the main pressures to stop grazing was economic, not environmental. Cattle wrecked the mosses and heaths causing erosion that silted the run-off water. With the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme the silting would shorten the life of the dams and the electricity-generation works. Also with soils and plants eroded the run-off after the melt speeds up, when the whole aim of the Snowy Scheme was to do precisely the opposite: to conserve the water from the melt and redirect it west.
In November you can see how the plants slow the melt run-off and filter the water. Drops come off the snow patches, form trickles which run in to lots of tiny ponds formed by mosses _ home for the corroboree frog. The grasses and mosses prevent the water from gouging erosion gullies.
Eventually, though the water forms streams which run into the Snowy River which rages in the melt.
This year the Chalet has organised a NPWS park ranger to talk to weekend guests about the park’s flora and fauna. ($169 per person, two nights including 3-course dinners, cooked breakfasts and cut lunches. Phone 008 026 369).
Pictures:
Skiers cross the Snowy in search of remaining skiable snow.
Melt pool with the Main Range in the background.
The Snowy river with a layer of snow forming its banks.
The western edge of the Main Range looking into Victoria with Carruthers Peak, left, and the Sentinel in the foreground.
A crack in the melting snow.