Interaction + the impact
Since the Great Dividing Range was formed some 300 million years ago, throughout time, the landform has been impacted in many ways.
Before the British colonisation in 1788, the ranges were habituated by Aboriginal Australian people, and their tribes. We evidently know this because of the tracings of decorated caves, rock engravings, axe grinding grooves, campsites and trails that Aboriginal people occupied for some twenty thousand years ago.
For example, in Mount Kosciusko, Aboriginal people would travel hundreds of kilometres to meet on the highest peaks of the alpine region, for intertribal corroborates, settling of disputes, trading, marriages, the initiation of young men and important spiritual ceremonies.
Indigenous people also worked in the mountains as graziers, miners, loggers, dam builders and more. This practise lasted until around 1865.
The most popular area Aboriginal people lived was along the Snowy River valley, where around 280 sites have been identified, as well as Cloggs Cave in Victoria, where 8,500 year old stone tools have been found.
Aboriginal people also inhabituated in Barrington Tops National Park in New South Wales, as the rainforests offered a wealth of resources for them, including edible fruits like the native cherry, Lilly-Pilly and figs.
In 1813, explorations were made across and around the ranges in hopes of finding good agricultural land. In the 1830’s, parts of the ranges were settled and Various road and railway routes were established.
Unfortunately, today, humans are destroying the Great Dividing range by logging down hundreds of trees. About 70 per cent of the Forests of Eastern Australia have been cleared or disturbed, while only 18 per cent is protected.
As the laws to control deforestation are becoming weaker, it could bring a resurgence of large-scale forest clearing, mainly for livestock and cropping. Sadly, if this continues, it will result to Australian species disappearing, as well as the continuing decline of our water, topsoil and local and regional climate.