 Winters are dark, cold and windy with snow on the ground, with Mount Kosciuszko for example only having 10 frost-free days per year.On the mainland, the Australian Alps montane grasslands are surrounded at lower elevations by the Southeast Australia temperate forests ecoregion.The montane grasslands are a mixed habitat of grassland, heath and bog that is home to a rich collection of Alpine and other plants adapted to the cold climate, snow and harsh dry winters.