Prelims ask
Kosciuszko, 2,228 m. West-flowing Murray. Not a young fold range.
Oceania · Residual escarpment
Great Dividing Range
- Countries
- Australia, along the east coast from Cape York toward Victoria.
- Length
- About 3,500 km. Exam-safe figure.
- Orientation
- North–south.
- Mountain type
- Residual escarpment
- Plates
- Not a young fold belt on a living destructive margin. An old, uplifted and dissected continental margin and escarpment.
- Highest peak
- Mount Kosciuszko, 2,228 m, Snowy Mountains, New South Wales. Highest peak on the Australian mainland.
- Rivers that rise here
- Murray, Murrumbidgee and Darling headwaters lie on the western slopes and flow inland, then south. East-flowing rivers to the Pacific are short.
- Climate and rain shadow
- Onshore winds wet the Pacific slopes. The western slopes and the interior are drier. This is a real, if moderate, rain shadow.
Mains use
A north–south divide close to an east coast: short rivers one way, a long troubled basin the other.