Victoria’s alpine industry experts are developing a plan for Victoria’s lowest elevation alpine snow destinations to successfully adapt to the challenges posed by climate change.
Alpine Resorts Victoria, which manages Victoria’s six alpine resorts including Lake Mountain and Mt Baw Baw, is charged with building environmentally and financially sustainable year-round models for the mountains.
ARV is consulting widely with local and international snow, tourism and hospitality industry representatives to determine the best operating model for the future.
Lake Mountain is the closest resort to Melbourne and has been popular with generations of day-tripper families enjoying snow play and tobogganing, as well as cross-country skiers. Mt Baw Baw is also popular with snow play, and includes chairlifts for beginner downhill skiing and boarding, accommodation and retail.
“Drawing on expert knowledge to determine the best way to manage the southern resorts as they face the challenge of climate change is the responsible thing to do,’’ Ms Wastie said.
“Climate change is a reality and therefore it makes common sense for ARV to look at all options to achieve the best outcome for affordable and accessible snow play while growing patronage across all the state’s alpine resorts.’’
“There are already a lot of exciting ideas and we are working through a range of options to ensure all people who visit resorts have the best experience, as well as achieving environmental and financial sustainability.’’
Lake Mountain’s peak elevation is 1433m and Mt Baw Baw’s is 1564m, which makes them between 300 and 400 metres lower than the northern ski resorts of Mt Buller, Falls Creek and Mt Hotham.
Ms Wastie said that CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology modelling had highlighted that snow falls at the lower elevations of Lake Mountain and Mt Baw Baw would increasingly present lower natural snow maximum depths and shorter seasons.
Both resorts, which are currently subsidised by the State Government, are facing a number of operational issues, including the added challenge of being off the grid which means they face high operating costs due to the price of fuel to run diesel generators.
ARV will be canvassing the views of the local community via the Stakeholder Consultative Committees, which are groups of representative stakeholders at each mountain, designed to discuss operational and strategic priorities of the resorts.
Page last updated: 04/07/23