Baw Baw National Park

Baw Baw National Park

Baw Baw is a national park in Victoria, Australia, 111 km east of Melbourne. It contains the Baw-Baw Plateau and Mount Baw Baw, a small ski resort, including nearby town, technically outside the national park.

Geographically, Baw-Baw plateau is a plateau of several peaks (Mount Baw Baw, Mount St Gwinear, Mount St Phillack, Mount Erica and Mount Whitelaw) of largely subalpine terrane outcrops of weathered granite boulders dot the plateau with alpine meadows punctuated by stands of snow-gum.

It is reported that Baw Baw is Aboriginal for 'echo' but the name could also come from 'Bo Bo', a name used on early maps meaning Big.

The area was first explored in 1860 by botanist Ferdinand von Mueller. The area was settled in the 1880s and 1890s, after the discovery of gold in the area. Baw Baw National Park was declared in April 1979. On 7 November 2008 the park was added to the Australian National Heritage List as one of eleven areas constituting the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves.

The typical vegetation in the park is low-lying grasses, heathlands and snow gums, this is typically described as sub-alpine. Fauna abounds on the foothills to the major plateau (Baw Baw Plateau), including Leadbeater's Possum, which is highly endangered and Victoria's state fauna emblem.

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