Alfred National Park is a 3,050–hectare national park in Victoria, Australia

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, 388 km east of Melbourne. It was declared in 1925.

Located in East Gippsland

East Gippsland

East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114....

, the park reserves examples of warm temperate rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

, particularly the jungle of Mount Drummer. Compared to the tropical rainforests of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 and New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, this is a floristically depauperate forest, representing as it does the southern limit of this flora. This region is biogeographically interesting as the meeting point between the subtropical flora of the north of Australia and the cool temperate

Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...

 and arid

Arid

A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...

 zone floras of the south and west. The rainforest community consists of a closed canopy of Lilly Pilly Acmena smithii

Acmena smithii

Syzygium smithii is a summer flowering evergreen tree, belonging to the myrtle family Myrtaceae. It is commonly planted as shrubs or hedgerows. It features rough woody bark, cream and green smooth waxy leaves with flushes of pink new growth and pink to mauve edible berries. It shares the common...

with numerous liana

Liana

A liana is any of various long-stemmed, woody vines that are rooted in the soil at ground level and use trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy to get access to well-lit areas of the forest. Lianas are especially characteristic of tropical moist deciduous...

s, fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

s and epiphyte

Epiphyte

An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...

s. The park is particularly known for occurrence of four varieties of tree ferns and of epiphytic orchids such as the orange-blossom orchid Sarcochilus falcatus

Sarcochilus falcatus

Sarcochilus falcatus, commonly known as the Orange Blossom Orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to Australia, where it is found from Queensland to Victoria. It is the type species of the genus Sarcochilus....

and the rock orchid Dendrobium speciosum

Dendrobium speciosum

Dendrobium speciosum is not only a widespread Australian orchid but also a very variable orchid, forming a species complex. Its varieties can be found in wildly varying habitats as an epiphyte or a lithophyte in a continuous distribution along the east coast of Australia and in distinct...

. The park was burnt quite badly in the 1983 'Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...

' bushfires.