Mount Feathertop: The Razorback Hike (22km)

Much of Alpine National Park sits high in the Victorian Alps, where long ridgelines, snowgrass plains, alpine ash forests and deeply cut river valleys meet across a huge sweep of eastern Victoria. It forms the largest national park in the state and anchors Victoria's part of the Australian Alps, so the country here changes markedly with elevation, from sheltered forests and watercourses to exposed tops that can stay snow-covered through winter. That range is a big part of what gives the park its particular character: it is not a single mountain block, but an expansive piece of high country with many distinct landscapes within it.

The park protects some of Victoria's most important alpine and subalpine environments, including herbfields, heathlands, bogs and mossbeds that exist in a narrow climatic zone and recover slowly when damaged. Above the tree line the country can feel open and spare, while lower slopes carry extensive forests of alpine ash, montane eucalypts and mixed woodland. Major headwaters rise in these mountains and feed river systems that run north, south and east, which means the park is as much about water as it is about summits. Its scale also helps explain why conditions, vegetation and even the feel of the landscape can shift quickly from one part of the park to another.

Fire is part of the story of this high country. Large bushfires this century have reshaped broad areas of the Alps, and in some places the pattern of regrowth, dead standing trunks and young forest is still obvious. In alpine and subalpine country, repeated fire can have lasting effects on fragile plant communities, especially wetlands and boggy ground. Introduced animals, including deer, pigs and horses, have also affected sensitive habitats, particularly in wetter alpine areas where trampling and erosion can be hard to reverse.

Alpine National Park is also part of an Aboriginal cultural landscape with connections to multiple Traditional Owner groups across the Victorian Alps. The broader management plan for the region names Bidawal, Dhudhuroa, Gunaikurnai, Jaithmathang, Mitambuta, Monero-Ngarigo, Ngarigu-Currawong, Taungurung, Waywurru and Wurundjeri as First Peoples of these mountains and rivers, reflecting how extensive and interconnected this country is. For walkers, that wider context matters: the park is not just high scenery, but a large, layered alpine region shaped by climate, fire, water and long human connection.