"KOSCIUSZKO NATIONAL PARK N.S.W." Kosciuszko National Park by DennyP

The Kosciuszcko (kos-zy-uz-ko)National Park is located in South western New South Wales. A very large National Park that encompasses a huge area of natural mountains and bushland. Also located within this Park is Mount Kosciuszcko Australia highest mountain peak. Although not high like many can boast "Kossie" (as its known ) is only 2230 meters high.
This is also known as the "Snowie" to locals as the Snowy Mountains..this is all within the National Park. The Snowy is an area that is part of the Great Dividing Range (that runs down the eastern seaboard ) kossie is in south western N.S.W.to the Victorian border. This also encompasses the Australian Alpine area and south to the Victorian Alps. As previously mentioned this a huge area of some nearly 700,000 hectares. This is the biggest National Park in new South Wales.
This is extremely popular in the winter season as this is the Australian ski fields and many come to ski its slopes.. Many of the inhabitants that run the ski chalets and lodges are decendants of immigrants that settled here from central and northern Europe after the second world War . These immigrants made the ski villages their home and places of buisiness.

Located on the western border of the Australian Capital Territory The Kosciuszcko National Park runs all the way to the Victorian Border. Within this National Park are many of the ski villages to be found in these snowfields. Thredbo Alpine village, reputed to be the number1 ski resort also is Perisher Blue, is made up of various popular ski spots ie: Smiggins hole,Mt. Blue Cow,and Guthega, The best time for snow is between June and late August.
Some years ago I lived for a short period in the "snowy" and it is amazing just how built out this area has become to tourism.
There are just so many places to visit in this amazing National Park as in the summertime mother Nature paints a whole new picture here. To be seen are many animals as the wildlife is prolific. Summertime sees many bushwalkers and kikers along with many fly fishermen looking for trout in the crystal clear rivers. There is another very popular activity here and that is horse riding there are many places in the" high country "for this as this is where they filmed "The Man from Snowy River"

The Snowy Mountains came into view in the late 50's when it was decided to build a huge Hydro Electric scheme here to utilise all the water from the mountains snow to produce much needed electricity. This was a great vision by the governments of the day as this would not be able to be built today.
This project at this time was the biggest construction project in the world. Just after the horrendous aftermath of the Second World War this scheme attracted many thousands of hopeful construction workers mainly from war torn europe , workers of all trades hoping to get work in such a great and wealthy opportunity. Many of these workers realtives are here today carrying on the "new life" that their parents worked so hard to establish. There are many different towns here that all grewout of the Snowy Scheme and are interesting to visit . Here are to be found are the huge power stations at Tumut and Blowering Dam . Another name that rings a bell for me here is "dead horse gap" . I beleive that the workers on this site are owed admiration as the project was built in difficult conditions. Keeping in mind this was a construction site that was mainly men only.

• Pros:wonderful in summer and winter
• Cons:Too cold for me