ABSTRACT
The alpine ecosystems of Oceania differ from all other major continental alpine areas in lacking a long association with grazing pressure from ungulates. Southeast of the Wallace Line, New Guinea and Australia evolved a fauna in which the large grazing animals were marsupials. In the isolated islands of New Zealand, the largest grazing animals were birds. The Snowy Mountains are the headwater catchments of the three major rivers in south-eastern Australia — the Murray, Murrumbidgee, and Snowy rivers. The disturbances due to grazing and burning, and the 15-years rehabilitation program itself, have produced terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem states that differ from the natural climax state. Where degradation of the ecosystem was less severe, the ecosystem retained the capacity to return to its climax state; elsewhere, the ecosystem reached a different stable state, whereas some areas are still in transition. A 25-year program for rehabilitation and revegetation of the alpine catchments was started in 1957.
