AUSTRALIA’S ALPINE REGION

ALPINE REGIONS are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Although they constitute only 0.15 per cent of the Australian continent, they are home to many rare, endemic and snow-dependent species. Snow records kept by Snowy Hydro Limited indicate that at Spencers Creek in NSW, one of the highest and most snow-prone points in the Australian snowfields (1830m), the total snow amount across a season has declined by 30 per cent since 1954. The same records show a decline of snow depth of about 15 per cent over that period.