Great Dividing Range

Well I learned something today.  I was interested in the Great Dividing Range.  I found out “The Dividing Range … is … a combined complex (cordillera) of mountain ranges, plateaus, hilly upland areas and escarpments with an ancient and complex geological history.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Dividing_Range).
I had never heard to the term “cordillera”.  It comes from the Spanish for rope.  Makes sense really with cord in the word.  The word has a complex root, but I do not do complex well.  For example, cordillera is a diminutive of cuerda ('rope').  I always thought diminutive meant “smaller” and I ask how can cordillera be a diminutive of cuerda when it contains more letters?  My problem.
The Great Divide is one example of quite a few.  The Rockies are one.  The Andes are another.  I never knew it but there is one in Northern Iran and the Artic.  There is also one in Laos and Vietnam.
To me that is interesting information, but I just know it has affected me.  To get to Toowoomba west of here, we need to go up the range.  It is always an exciting trip.  It is the only place I have seen run off areas for trucks if their brakes fail.
In Townsville we could look west and see Mt Stuart which was a part of the Great Divide.  It was where the free to air TV stations had their towers.  There was extensive land on the coast side of the Mountains but to go west they would always need to be traversed.
Further south (west of Mackay) the Great Divide is further west.  To get to the Eungella National Park requires a trip up the Great Divide.  The area is known as a good take off point for Hang Gliding.  A creek there was the first and only time I have seen platypus in the wild.
North of Cairns was known as “where the mountains meet the sea.”  It really is like that.  It is amazing driving along the “coast” route, how the drive features high up viewing points of the sea.
The Great Divide is a water shed.  Rivers either go into the sea or inland.  The Burdekin River, south of Townsville (flowing from the Great Divide) is mostly a gently flowing river.  But in the wet season it is mind boggling the amount of water that comes down that river.
Where I live was in drought but driving through a local town there, I saw lush green lawns being watered via sprinkler in the middle of the day.  I would never recommend watering in the middle of the day (too much evaporation) but if anywhere could, it was that place.  Their water table has been chockers due to the amount of underground water in that area that flows from the Great Divide.
Lake Eyre in inland Australia is fed by (amongst others) rivers originating in the Great Divide.  Its basin is the largest internal drainage systems in Australia and one of the biggest in the world.  Lake Eyre only fills approximately once every eight years but when it does it is a sight to behold.  Wildlife just seem to know when it is on.  Birds populate the area in abundance.
I was interested in the Great Dividing Range because I have always thought divides separate one from another.  It only took a look in my backyard to see that was the case.  East of the great divide is lush and fertile.  West is dry and barren.  I am glad to live on this side where it is fertile.