Grampians, Victoria, Australia

Lying 241 kilometers east of Melbourne and at the tail end of the Great Dividing Range, the Grampians is one of the country's richest floral regions, harbouring over 8000 different plants, which is about one third of the state's whole indigenous flora. It is thought that the remarkable abundance of floral wealth is due to the area providing a natural refuge for plants million of years ago when the rest of the continent was undergoing marked geological upheavals. There are three main ranges. All have bold, precipitous bluffs on the eastern side and, to the west, slopes that fall away gently to merge with the valley's plain.