Great Dividing Range

Mountain range in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, Australia; extends 3600 km/2200 mi from Cape York Peninsula to the Victoria–South Australia border; includes the McPherson and New England Ranges, the Australian Alps, the Blue Mts and the Grampians; rises to 2228 m/7310 ft at Mt Kosciuszko.

The Great Dividing Range, also known as the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range.

The range stretches more than 3500km from the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through New South Wales, then into Victoria and turning west, before finally fading into the central plain at the Grampians in western Victoria.

The central core of the Great Dividing Range is dotted with hundreds of peaks and is surrounded by many smaller mountain ranges or spurs, canyons, gorges, valleys and plains of regional significance.

Australia's highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 metres AHD), and all of mainland Australia's alpine areas are part of this range.

The Great Dividing Range divides the drainage basins of streams and rivers which flow directly into the Pacific Ocean on the eastern coast of Australia, from streams and rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin which flow inwards, away from the coast into the interior plains.

Whilst some of the peaks of the highlands reach respectable heights of a little over 2000 metres, the age of the range and its erosion mean that most of the mountains are not outrageously steep, and virtually all peaks can be reached without mountaineering equipment.

Many of Australia's highways such as the Hume Highway, Great Western Highway, Capricorn Highway, Warrego Highway and the Murray Valley Highway traverse parts of the range.

Much of the range lies within a succession of national parks and other reserves including the Alpine National Park, Blue Mountains National Park, Heathcote-Greytown National Park and Mount Worth State Park.