Australia was a pioneer of recreational skiing and has extensive skiable terrain in the South Eastern States between elevations of around 1250m to 2200m^[1] and several well developed ski resorts.

History and Major Locations

The sport of skiing is now practiced in three States: New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, as well as in the Australian Capital Territory, during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Skiiable terrain stretches through large areas of territory from June to October and a number of well serviced resorts have been developed, including: Thredbo, Perisher Blue, Charlotte Pass and Selwyn Snowfields in NSW; Mount Buller, Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Baw Baw and Mount Buffalo in Victoria; as well as the small resorts of Ben Lomond, Tasmania and Mount Mawson in Tasmania.

Jindabyne is the main service town for the NSW resorts, but most Australian resort centres have on-snow accommodation. Other ski-service towns include Cooma and Adaminaby in NSW and Bright in Victoria.Canberra is situated around 1 hour 45 minutes from the NSW ski-fields, while Melbourne is in good proximity to some of the Victorian resorts (less than three hours to Mount Buller).

Australia's highest town, Cabramurra, NSW, has private skiing facilities for residents and the resort village of Dinner Plain in Victoria also has ski facilities.

The mainland's highest peak is Mount Kosciuszko at 2228m^[2].

New South Wales

Recreational skiing in Australia began around 1861 at Kiandra, New South Wales, when Scandinavian goldminers introduced the idea to the frozen hills around the town [3]. According to the Sydney Morning Herald[4], ski competitions and a ski club were established at Kiandra by the 1870s and it is "now widely accepted that these competitions and the club were the first in the world"^[3]. Skiing at Kiandra was a useful survival skill, but more reliable snows lie further to the South and in the 20th Century, the focus of recreational skiing NSW shifted southward, to the Kosciusko region.

The first Kosciuszko Chalet was built at Charlotte Pass in 1930[5], giving access to Australia's highest terrain. In 1964, Australia briefly boasted the "World's Longest Chairlift", designed to carry skiers from the Thredbo Valley to Charlotte Pass, but technical difficulties soon closed the facility[6].

It was the construction of the vast Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme from 1949 that really opened up the Snowy Mountains for large scale development of a ski industry[7][8] and lead to the establishment of Thredbo and Perisher as leading Australian resorts. In 1987 the Swiss designed Skitube Alpine Railway opened to deliver skiers from Bullocks Flat, on the Alpine Way, to Perisher Valley and to Mount Blue Cow, which also opened in 1987[9].

The highest lifted point in Australia is at Thredbo, NSW, at 2073m [10]. Thredbo also has the largest verticle drop of any Australian resort (672m), but Perisher is the largest resort in Australia, with 48 lifts covering 1,245 hectares and four village base areas: Perisher Valley, Blue Cow, Smiggin Holes and Guthega, New South Wales [11].

Victoria

The Mount Buffalo Chalet in Victoria was first constructed in 1910, with its first ski lodge being built at Dingo Dell in 1954. A fire destroyed the Chalet in 2007 forcing the temporary closure of the resort[12]. A stone cottage was built at Mount Hotham in 1925 to cater for a growing interest in sport of skiing and a Club was built in 1944 with the first ski tow installed in 1951[13]. A ski hut was erected at Mount Baw Baw, just 120km East of Melbourne, in 1945 and a ski rope tow added in 1955[14]. The first ski lift went into service at Mount Buller in 1949[15], and in the same year rope tow was installed at Falls Creek. In 1957, Australia's first charilift was installed at Falls, and the area is today the largest ski resort in Victoria[16].

The Australian Capital Territory

The most northerly skifields in Australia are located in the ACT in the Namadgi National Park and Bimberi Nature Reserve. A ski chalet was constructed at Mount Franklin in 1938 to service the Canberra Alpine Club[17]. Ski runs were cleared and ski tows were improvised. The chalet later operated as a museum before being destroyed in the 2003 bushfires. A new shelter designed and built by University of Adelaide students opened in 2008, but today only cross country skiing is possible in the area, when conditions allow[18]. Cross Country skiing is also practiced at Mount Gingera[19], which rises above the city of Canberra to an elevation of 1855m^[4].

Tasmania

The most southerly skifields in Australia are located in Tasmania. Tasmania is a mountainous island off the Southern Coast of Eastern Australia. Mount Ossa is the highest point on the island at 1614m but Tasmania has eight mountains exceeding 1500m[20]. Tasmania's premier downhill ski operations are located at Ben Lomond, 60km from Launceston. Limited downhill ski operations also exist in the Mount Field National Park at Mount Mawson[21].

One of Australia's most scenic alpine locations is located in Tasmania at Cradle Mountain, where cross country skiing is possible [22]. Cradle Mountain is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, insribed by UNESCO in 1982[23].

Competitive Skiing

Australia was a pioneer nation in the sport of ski racing, with annual ski races being conducted at Kiandra during the 19th Century. The Kiandra snow shoe club is easily one of the oldest ski clubs in the world [24] and lays claim to having conducted the "world's first" international ski carnival in 1908^[5]

The Winter Olympics

Australian skiers competed in the Winter Olympics for the first time in Oslo, 1952. Australian skiers competed in all subsequent Winter Olympic Games. Alpine skier Zali Steggal won Australia's first skiing medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics winning bronze in the women's slalom event. Alisa Camplin won Australia's first Gold Medal in the Freestyle Skiing Women's Aerials at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. Camplin won Bronze at the subsequent Torino Olympics in 2006, while Dale Begg-Smith won Australia's second skiing Gold in 2006 in the Freestyle Skiing Men's Moguls[25]^[6].

Cross Country Skiing

The Australian High Country is populated by unique flora and fauna including wombats, wallabies and the Snow Gum. The Alpine regions are subject to environmental protection, which has limited the scope of commercial development of skiiable terrain^[7], however Australia has extensive cross country skiing terrain[26] and some resorts cater especially to this method of skiing - including Lake Mountain, Mount Sterling and Mount St Gwinear in Victoria. . High country huts, largely a legacy of the era of cattle grazing in the mountains, provide emergency shelter throughout the Alpine regions[27]. Seamans Hut, near Kosciusko, was built as a refuge in 1929 to commemorate Laurie Seaman, who was separated from his party and died in a 1928 blizzard while attempting to cross-country ski to Mount Kosciusko[28].

The Kosciusko Main Range together with the Mount Bogong region offers some of the most challenging cross-country and back-country skiing in Australia. Australia's rugged island State of Tasmania also offers cross country skiers some scenic terrain - notably at Cradle Mountain, if conditions allow. Mount Franklin Chalet, built in 1938, in the ACT, played a pioneering role in providing lifted ski runs in Australia, however the chalet was converted to a museum and subsequently destroyed by fire in 2003, so today only cross country skiing can be practiced in the area (when conditions allow)[29].

A landmark expedition in early Australian cross country skiing was conducted in 1927, when William Hughes, of the Kiandra Snowshoe Club, together with four members of the Ski Club of Australia made the first historic ski traverse from Kiandra to the Hotel Kosciusko (now Sponars Chalet). Their eventful journey, via the Jagungal Wilderness and across freezing rivers, is retold in Klaus Hueneke's book "Kiandra to Kosciusko" and was commemorated by 150 ski tourers in 1977 in an event organised by the Kosciusko Huts Association[30].

Snow Conditions

According to the Australian Government's "Bureau of Meteorology", in most years snow is sufficient above about 1500 metres to sustain a "viable ski industry". However, snow falls can vary greatly from year to year. In 1973 temperatures remained too warm, while in 1982 it was too dry for much of a snow season. However, some other years have abundant snow - the Bureau cites 1981 as an example. Snow making equipment at ski resorts has reduced uncertainty in recent times^[8] . In New South Wales, a heavy natural snow season can see a base of up to 3.6 meters in August, at an elevation of 1830m at Spencer's Creek, (near Charlotte Pass) - see below chart. Typically, depths will be lower than this. [31][32].

Low altitude and often dry climate keep the snow season relatively short (June-Oct), however, Heavy snow can fall anytime between April and December in the Australian High Country. The official opening of the ski season for most resorts coincides with the Queens Birthday Long Weekend in June.

See Also

• Winter sport in Australia
• Kiandra snow shoe club
• Thredbo, New South Wales
• Skiing in Victoria, Australia

• Perisher Blue, New South Wales
• Mount Hotham
• Falls Creek, Victoria
• Mount Buller, Victoria
• Selwyn Snowfields
• Charlotte Pass, New South Wales
• Ben Lomond (Tasmania)
• Mount Mawson

• List of ski areas and resorts in Australia

Footnotes

External Links

• ski.com.au
• Australian Alps National Parks
• Snowy Hydro Snow Depth Charts
• Bureau of Meteorology Climate Education
• Australia at the Winter Olympics
• Ski & Snowboard Australia
• Cross Country Skiing Australia
• Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area