Mount Kosciuszko

The mountain was named by the Polish explorer Paweł (Paul) Edmund Strzelecki in 1840, in honour of Tadeusz Kościuszko, general and hero of the Kościuszko Uprising and American Revolutionary War, because of its perceived resemblance to the Kościuszko Mound in Kraków, Poland.{{cite web |url=http://wikiski.com/wiki/index.php/Australian_Geographical_Name_Derivations |title=Australian Geographical Name Derivations |publisher=Wikiski.com |date=8 April 2011 |access-date=18 June 2012 |archive-date=2 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102140157/http://www.wikiski.com/wiki/index.php/Australian_Geographical_Name_Derivations |url-status=dead }}

An exploration party led by Strzelecki and James Macarthur beside him with Indigenous guides Charlie Tarra and Jackey set off on what is called Strzelecki’s Southern expedition. Macarthur was seeking new pastures. Strzelecki wanted to investigate the climate, geology, paleontology and geography of NSW and to publish his findings.Strzelecki, Paul Edmund de. Physical description of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (1845). Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1967 (Reprint) This included identifying Australia’s highest summit, which Strzelecki reached on 12 March 1840.{{cite book |last1=Andrews |first1=Alan E. J. |title=Kosciusko: The Mountain in History |date=1991 |publisher=Tabletop Press |location=O'Connor ACT |isbn=0-9590841-2-6 |page=50 |ref=Andrews}}Paszkowski, L. Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki: reflections on his life. Arcadia, Australian Scholarly Publishing. Melbourne [Vic.] 1997. {{ISBN|1-875606-39-4}}.

File:Eugène von Guérard - Mount Kosciusko, seen from the Victorian border (Mount Hope Ranges) - Google Art Project.jpg, 1866]]

File:Guerard Mount Townsend 1863.jpg, 1863]]

The approach was made from Geehi Valley. After climbing Hannel’s Spur, the peak now named Mount Townsend was reached. Here Strzelecki used his instruments to make observations. Mt Townsend is Australia's second highest mountain, adjacent to and almost the same height as Mt Kosciuszko, and Strzelecki saw that the neighbouring peak was slightly higher. In the presence of Macarthur he named the higher summit Mount Kosciusko after the famous Polish-Lithuanian military leader who died in 1817. As it was late, Macarthur decided to return to camp and Strzelecki alone climbed the Kosciuszko summit.

Based on Strzelecki’s records, Australia’s highest summit was mapped. A cartographical mistake made in an edition of Victorian maps transposed Mount Kosciusko to the position of the present Mount Townsend. Later editions of the map continued to show the original location.{{Cite web|title=RAHS Publications - The Cartography of Mount Kosciusko|url=http://mtkosciuszko.org.au/english/cartography-of-mount-kosciusko.htm|access-date=2021-06-03|website=mtkosciuszko.org.au|language=en|archive-date=3 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603112412/http://mtkosciuszko.org.au/english/cartography-of-mount-kosciusko.htm|url-status=live}} NSW maps did not make this mistake.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

The Victorian error created confusion. In 1885, Austrian explorer Robert von Lendenfeld, guided by James M. Spencer,[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13579769 " Jas. M. Spencer The Highest Point in Australia The Sydney Morning Herald, February 18, 1885"]. a local pastoralist, aided by a map containing the transposition error, reached Mount Townsend believing it was Mount Kosciusko. According to Spencer, the local Aboriginals called Mount Kosciusko Tar-gan-gil. Like Strzelecki, Lendenfeld also observed that the neighbouring peak was higher. He named it Mount Townsend to honour the surveyor who in 1846 traversed the peak.

Lendenfeld claimed he had identified and reached the highest peak of the continent. The NSW Department of Mines discovered Lendenfeld's mistake and assigned the name Mount Townsend to the second-highest mountain of the range. Lendenfeld's announcement created further confusion. When Lendenfeld's mistake was corrected, a popular legend was created that the established names of the two mountains were swapped rather than re-educate the populace of the name of the highest mountain.{{cite book|last=Slattery|first=Deirdre|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/910161107|title=Australian Alps : Kosciuszko, Alpine and Namadgi National Parks|date=2015|isbn=978-1-4863-0171-3|edition=Second|location=Clayton, Vic|oclc=910161107|access-date=3 June 2021|archive-date=5 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241005163111/https://search.worldcat.org/title/910161107|url-status=live}}

The confusion was straightened out in 1940 by B. T. Dowd,Dowd, B. T. "The Cartography of Mount Kosciusko". Royal Australian Historical Society. Journal & Proceedings, vol. 26, part I, pp. 97–107. a cartographer and historian of the NSW Lands Department. His study reaffirmed that the mountain named by Strzelecki as Mount Kosciuszko was indeed, as the NSW maps had always shown, Australia’s highest summit. When Macarthur’s field book of the historical journey was published in 1941 by C. Daley,Daley, C. "Count Paul Strzelecki’s Ascent of Mt Kosciusko and Journey through Gippsland" The Victorian Historical Magazine, vol. 19, no 2, pp. 41–53, 1941. it further confirmed Dowd’s clarification. This means that Targangil, mentioned in Spencer’s 1885 article, was the indigenous name of Mount Townsend, not of Mount Kosciusko. According to A. E. J. Andrews, Mount Kosciuszko had no indigenous name.Andrews, Alan E. J. FRAHS. Mount Kosciusko, Our Highest Mountain, Letters to the Editor, Published in the Kosciuszko Hut Association Newsletter No: 108 Winter 2000. Detailed analysis of the mountain history can be found in books by H. P. G. ClewsClews, H. P. G. Strzelecki’s Ascent of Mount Kosciuszko 1840 Australia Felix Literary Club, Melbourne 1973. and in the cited A.E.J. Andrews' book Kosciusko: The Mountain in History.

The name of the mountain was previously spelled "Mount Kosciusko", an Anglicisation, but the spelling "Mount Kosciuszko" was officially adopted in 1997 by the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. The traditional English pronunciation of Kosciuszko is {{IPAc-en|ˌ|k|ɒ|z|i|ˈ|ʌ|s|k|oʊ}} {{respell|KOZ|ee|US|koh}}, but the pronunciation {{IPAc-en|k|ɒ|ˈ|ʃ|ʊ|ʃ|k|oʊ}} {{respell|kosh|UUSH|koh}} is now sometimes used,{{cite dictionary|editor-last=Yallop|editor-first=Colin|entry=Kosciusko|encyclopedia=Macquarie Dictionary|edition=4th|year=2005|location=Melbourne|publisher=The Macquarie Library|isbn=1-876429-14-3}} which is substantially closer to the Polish pronunciation {{IPA|pl|kɔɕˈt͡ɕuʂkɔ||Pl-Tadeusz_Kościuszko.ogg}} {{respell|kosh|CHYUUSH|koh}}.

There are several native Aboriginal (Ngarigo) names associated with Mount Townsend, where J. Macarthur recorded in 1840 some campings of the natives. There is some confusion as to the exact sounds. These are Jagungal, Jar-gan-gil, Tar-gan-gil, Tackingal; however, all of them mean Bogong Moth, which aestivate on the mountain.

In 2019, "Kunama Namadgi" was submitted to the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales as a proposed dual name for Mount Kosciuszko. The proposal was submitted by the Toomaroombah Kunama Namadgi Indigenous Corporation, which states that the proposed name means "snow" and "mountain". According to Uncle John Casey, the mountain's Ngarigo name has "been Kunama Namadgi for 4,000 years, since we've been on country, until the white man came in the early 1800s and that's when they changed it". However, Iris White, the chairperson of the Southern Kosciuszko Executive Advisory Committee, disputed that account, stating "that name is not from our language. It's offensive because in some of our languages 'Kunama' actually means faeces". White said that a new name should not be given "just for the sake of it sounding Aboriginal or sounding good".

The mountain was formed by geologic uplift.Geology Page: [http://www.geologypage.com/2016/03/geologists-discover-how-australias-highest-mountain-was-created.html Geologists discover how Australia's highest mountain was created | Geology Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241005163223/https://www.geologypage.com/2016/03/geologists-discover-how-australias-highest-mountain-was-created.html |date=5 October 2024 }}, access-date: 17 February 2017 It was not formed by any recent volcanic activity.{{cite book |title=Volcanic Tourist Destinations |last=Erfurt-Cooper |first=Patricia |year=2014 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-642-16191-9 |page=273 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XQ5ABAAAQBAJ |access-date=24 April 2017 |archive-date=5 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241005163109/https://books.google.com/books?id=XQ5ABAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} Eroded granite intrusions remain at the summit as large boulders above the more heavily eroded sedimentary rocks.

Plant species found in the mountain include:

• Kosciuszko buttercup (Ranunculus anemoneus)
• Vickery's grass (Rytidosperma vickeryae)
• Phebalium (Nematalolepis ovatifolia)
• Billy buttons (Craspedia spp.)
• Snow gum

Mount Kosciuszko is the highest summit in mainland Australia. Until 1977 it was possible to drive from Charlotte Pass to within a few metres of the summit, but in 1977 the road was closed to public motor vehicle access due to environmental concerns. The road is open from Charlotte Pass for walkers and cyclists for {{convert|7.6|km|mi|0}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/~/media/429F16DDC80E428A8A0F25550ED8808E.ashx/ |title=National Parks' 'Southern Kosciuszko walking tracks factsheet' |access-date=10 January 2017 |archive-date=5 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241005163128/http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/~/media/429F16DDC80E428A8A0F25550ED8808E.ashx/ |url-status=live }} to Rawson Pass, at an elevation of {{convert|2100|m}} above sea level. From there a {{convert|1.4|km|mi|0|adj=on}} walking path leads to the summit.

The peak may also be approached from Thredbo, taking 3 to 3.5 hours for a round trip. This straightforward walk starts from the top of the Thredbo Kosciuszko Express chairlift, which operates all year-round. The walking path is popular in summer, and is a mesh walkway to protect the native vegetation and prevent erosion. It is {{convert|5|km|mi|1}} to Rawson Pass, where it meets the track from Charlotte Pass, and from where it is a further {{convert|1.4|km}} to the summit.

The walk to the summit is the easiest of all the Seven Summits.{{cite book |title=Climbing the Seven Summits: A Comprehensive Guide to the Continents' Highest Peaks |last=Hamill |first=Mike |year=2014 |publisher=The Mountaineers Books |isbn=978-1-59485-649-5 |page=275 |url={{GBurl|id=fiSgyRhsUrgC}} |access-date=24 April 2017}}

Australia's highest public toilet was built at Rawson pass in 2007,{{cite web |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/celebrating-the-centenary-of-australias-rooftop-playground-20061206-gdozhr.html |title=Celebrating the centenary of Australia's rooftop playground |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=6 December 2006 |access-date=10 November 2018 |first=Daniel |last=Lewis |archive-date=10 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181110200010/https://www.smh.com.au/national/celebrating-the-centenary-of-australias-rooftop-playground-20061206-gdozhr.html |url-status=live }} to cope with the more than 100,000 people visiting the mountain each summer.{{cite web |url= http://web2.encom.com.au/peter/tidings/2007maytidings.pdf |title= The rush to complete Australia's highest dunny |date=3 May 2007 |publisher= Department of Environment and Climate Change, NSW |pages=6–7 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109233226/http://web2.encom.com.au/peter/tidings/2007maytidings.pdf |archive-date= 9 November 2014}}

The third and often overlooked route up Mount Kosciuszko is up the very challenging and historic Hannel's Spur Track ({{cvt|15.5|km|disp=or}}), which approaches from the NW and is the only route to pass through the Western Fall Wilderness Zone – passing through four different bio-diversity bands along the ascent. The Hannel's Spur Track is officially Australia's biggest vertical ascent of {{cvt|1800|m|ft}}. This is the same route that explorer Paul Strzelecki climbed and discovered Kosciuszko in 1840 and also the same annual route that the stockmen once brought the cattle up/down from the valley almost {{cvt|2|km}} below to graze in the alpine meadows of Kosi throughout the summer. The various aboriginal tribes from the Murray valley also used this same route annually for millennia to access Kosciuszko to harvest the delicacies of Bogong moths that were abundant throughout the summer months and to socialise with other tribes from the coast and northern plains. The Hannel's Spur Track trailhead (sign) is about a {{convert|1.4|km|adj=on}} hike SSE of the Geehi Rest Area on the Alpine Way road between the towns of Thredbo and Khancoban.

The peak and the surrounding areas are snow-covered in winter and spring (usually beginning in June and continuing until October or later). The road from Charlotte Pass is marked by snow poles and provides a guide for cross-country skiers, and the track from Thredbo is easily followed until covered by snow in winter.

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File:North from Mt Kosciusko.jpg

File:Mount Kosciuszko with snow.jpg

File:Mt Kosciuszko map Stevage.png

Kosciuszko National Park is also the location of the downhill ski slopes closest to Canberra and Sydney, containing the Thredbo, Charlotte Pass, and Perisher ski resorts. Mount Kosciuszko may have been ascended by Indigenous Australians long before the first recorded ascent by Europeans.

Each year in December, an ultramarathon running race called the Coast to Kosciuszko ascends to the top of Mount Kosciuszko after starting at the coast {{convert|240|km|mi}} away.{{cite web |url=http://www.coast2kosci.com/ |title=Coast to Kosciuszko |publisher=Coast2kosci.com |access-date=18 June 2012 |archive-date=15 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615144305/http://www.coast2kosci.com/ |url-status=live }}

Higher peaks exist within territory administered or claimed by Australia: outside the continent are Mawson Peak ({{convert|2745|m|ft|abbr=on|disp=or}}) on Heard Island as well as Dome Argus ({{convert|4030|m|ft|abbr=on|disp=or}}), Mount McClintock ({{convert|3490|m|ft|abbr=on|disp=or}}) and Mount Menzies ({{convert|3355|m|ft|abbr=on|disp=or}}) in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Although not in Australia, Puncak Jaya in New Guinea, Indonesia, which stands at {{convert|4884 |m|ft|abbr=on|disp=or}}, is the highest mountain in the Australian continent as well as Oceania.

The 1863 picture by Eugene von Guerard hanging in the National Gallery of Australia titled Northeast view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko is actually from Mount Townsend.{{cite web |url=http://www.nga.gov.au/OutandAbout/Texts/48469.htm |title=Eugene von Guérard: North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko 1863 |publisher=National Gallery of Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081104100231/http://www.nga.gov.au/OutandAbout/Texts/48469.htm |archive-date=4 November 2008 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |first=John Boyd |last=Macdonald |title=Home » Jokar projects » Ten-Mile Stare |url=http://www.jokar.com.au/projects/Ten-Mile%20Stare/slides/Mt_Townsend_Panorama1.html |publisher=Jokar Photography |quote=Mt. Townsend, 19 November 1862. Eugene Von Guérard's painting |access-date=8 July 2019 |archive-date=7 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507181527/http://jokar.com.au/projects/Ten-Mile%20Stare/slides/Mt_Townsend_Panorama1.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=http://mtkosciuszko.org.au/english/strzelecki-kosciuszko.htm|title=Strzelecki's Kosciusko by E. Axford|website=mtkosciuszko.org.au|access-date=23 October 2017|archive-date=5 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241005163111/https://mtkosciuszko.org.au/english/strzelecki-kosciuszko.htm|url-status=live}}

In the well known poem by Banjo Paterson, The Man From Snowy River is said to hail from “up by Kosciusko’s side”.{{cite web|url=https://allpoetry.com/The-Man-from-Snowy-River|title=The Man from Snowy River|access-date=19 October 2023|archive-date=9 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309005044/https://allpoetry.com/The-Man-from-Snowy-River|url-status=live}}

Australian rock band Midnight Oil recorded a song called "Kosciusko" on its 1984 album Red Sails in the Sunset, referring to the mountain. The spelling was updated to "Kosciuszko" for the group's 1997 compilation album, 20,000 Watt R.S.L.

A species of lizard, Eulamprus kosciuskoi, is named after Mount Kosciuszko.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Kosciusko {{sic}}", p. 145).

The mountain top was the finish line on the fifth season of The Amazing Race Australia.{{cite web|url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7175079/canberra-and-mount-kosciuszko-to-feature-in-amazing-race-finale/|title=Amazing Race finale to feature Canberra - and Mount Kosciuszko|work=The Canberra Times|date=20 March 2021|access-date=27 March 2021|archive-date=19 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319205624/https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7175079/canberra-and-mount-kosciuszko-to-feature-in-amazing-race-finale/|url-status=live}}

File:Kosciusko Mountain view from the track.jpg|Mt Kosciuszko pictured in summer, without snow

File:Morning views from the summit of Mount Kosciuszko, Kosciuszko National Park 21.jpg|Kosciuszko National Park as viewed from the summit

File:Sunrise views from the summit of Mount Kosciuszko, Kosciuszko National Park 34.jpg|The base of a survey trig marker at the summit

File:Kosciuszko05.JPG|East side of the mountain

File:Mount Kosciuszko Summit walk, Kosciuszko National Park 12.jpg|Mount Kosciuszko Summit walk

File:Mount Kosciuszko Summit walk, Kosciuszko National Park 06.jpg|The summit from Charlotte Pass, New South Wales

File:Kosciuszko06.JPG|Mount Etheridge from south side showing high elevation toilet at Rawson Pass

File:Mount Kosciuszko from the Snowy River.jpg|View of Mount Kosciuszko and the Etheridge Range from the headwaters of the Snowy River

File:Kosciuszko02.JPG|The plate at the top

File:Mount Kosciuszko Summit walk, Kosciuszko National Park 16.jpg|The Snowy River flowing down from the summit.

File:Kosciuszko03.JPG|Lake Cootapatamba, the lake on the highest place in the Australian mainland

File:Sunrise views from the summit of Mount Kosciuszko, Kosciuszko National Park 26.jpg|Adjacent mountain ranges

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{{Wikisource1911Enc|Kosciusco}}

{{Wikivoyage|Mount Kosciuszko}}

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• [http://mtkosciuszko.org.au/ Mt Kosciuszko Inc.] — page for information about explorer P. E. Strzelecki – and news about Mount Kosciuszko
• {{cite peakware|id=145|name=Mount Kosciuszko}} — photo

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Category:Mountains of New South Wales

Mount Kosciuszko

Mount Kosciuszko

Category:Highest points of countries

Mount Kosciuszko

Mount Kosciuszko

Mount Kosciuszko