Main watershed of eastern Australia.
It comprises a series of plateaus and mountain ranges roughly paralleling the coasts of Queensland , New South Wales , and Victoria , Austl. Beginning in the north on the Cape York Peninsula, Queen., the range heads south to become the Australian Alps near the New South Wales–Victoria border. Bending west in Victoria, the range ends in the Bass Strait to form the central uplands of Tasmania . The range stretches for 2,300 mi (3,700 km). First traversed in 1813 by Europeans moving into the Australian Outback, the region is now important for agriculture, lumbering, and mining, and national parks attract tourists.