Kosciuszko is one of the best known and best loved national parks in Australia, attracting around three million visitors each year. The park is named after Mount Kosciuszko, which at 2228 metres is Australia's highest mountain. The park is approximately 150 kilometres in length, running from the Victorian border to the west of the ACT's Namadgi National Park. At 690,000 hectares it is the largest park in New South Wales and the Australian Alps.

Kosciuszko lies astride the Great Dividing Range. The north-south line of the range cuts across the moisture-laden westerly air streams, bringing much more rain and snow to the western escarpment than to the lower rain-shadow areas to the east. The park contains the headwaters of some of Australia's major rivers including the Snowy, the Murrumbidgee and the Murray. The park also contains most of Australia's snow and all of NSW's alpine zone, glacial features and ski fields.

Many of the park's plants above the treeline are found nowhere else in the world. A feature of the park is its large area which enables viable wildlife populations to survive. Species found in the park include the mountain pygmy possum Burramys parvus, which was thought to be extinct until 1966. The possum is only found in Kosciusko National Park above 1500 metres and in the high country of Victoria. Another endangered species found in the park's alpine sphagnum bogs is the northern corroboree frog Pseudophryne corroboree.

Kosciuszko has a long and rich history of land use, including Aboriginal occupation thought to date back 20,000 years. Since European occupation of Australia, exploration, grazing, mining, skiing, tourism and the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric scheme have all had an impact on the landscape.