Mount Baw Baw | |
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The view south across Gippsland from Mount Baw Baw
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Highest point | |
Elevation | 1,567 metres (5,141 ft) AHD |
Coordinates | 37°50′S 146°16′E / 37.833°S 146.267°ECoordinates: 37°50′S 146°16′E / 37.833°S 146.267°E |
Geography | |
Location in Victoria
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Location | Victoria, Australia |
Parent range | Baw Baw Plateau, Great Dividing Range |
Climbing | |
Easiest route | Hike/ski |
Mount Baw Baw is a mountain of the Great Dividing Range, located in Victoria, Australia. Mount Baw Baw Alpine Resort is an unincorporated area of Victoria surrounded by the Shire of Baw Baw.
Mount Baw Baw is about 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Melbourne and 50 km (31 mi) north of the Latrobe Valley. The mountain itself is one of several peaks on the Baw Baw Plateau, a long plateau tending north-east. Other peaks on the plateau include Mount Mueller, Mount Whitelaw, Mount St Phillack, Mount Tyers, Mount Kernot and Mount St Gwinear. The plateau itself is isolated from most of Victoria's high country by the Thomson and Aberfeldy rivers and tributaries of the La Trobe River, including the Tanjil and Tyers rivers to the south.
The Baw Baw massif consists of a late Devonian granodiorite pluton. There is relatively little relief on the plateau itself, the highest point reaching 1,567 metres (5,141 feet). The lower slopes of the plateau are covered in montane eucalypt forest and tall forest, and creek valleys have cool temperate rainforest of myrtle beech, Nothofagus cunninghamii. Above 1,200 m (3,900 ft) snow gum, Eucalyptus pauciflora, woodland occurs. There is no alttudinal treeline limit; subalpine grasslands and shrublands occur in flat valley bottoms on the plateau as a result of cold-air drainage. Much of this subalpine zone is included in the 133 km2 (51 sq mi) Baw Baw National Park. The Baw Baw Village ski resort is technically outside the national park.