Ski Australia - Victoria

There are around 20 Australian ski resorts, a little under half of these are commercial ski centres, the remainder are club fields run by enthusiasts and generally volunteers.

Most of Australia's ski areas are located in New South Wales and Victoria, home to the country's highest peaks, as well as most of its population. There are two small ski centres on the southern island of Tasmania too however.

There has been heavy investment in resort development in recent years at the largest resorts, particularly Perisher, which measures itself as the largest ski area in the southern hemisphere (in terms of groomed terrain and number of lifts) but also at resorts including Falls Creek, Mount Hotham and Mount Buller.

So when you ski Australia you’ll find all the latest equipment on the slopes. Although uniquely Australian, the ski resorts typically follow the North American model of self-contained complexes with modern lift systems, all amenities on site and the opportunity for condominium ownership, most of them owned by a single company.

Snow cover can be an issue at Australian ski areas but, as in other countries where cold weather is not guaranteed through the winter, lots of coping strategies have been developed to ensure there is some snow even in the ‘bad times’ including snow farming, cloud seeding and traditional snow making. One resort has won awards for recycling ‘waste water’ in to snow after purification. And in fact Australian resorts typically have relatively good snowfall records from May to September.

Australian ski centres have hit media headlines in the country in recent years for a reason the centres are not so keen to promote – lift ticket prices have topped the world tables, sometimes overtaking the usual highest resorts in North America, as the most expensive anywhere. This is partly due to the high operating costs for resorts in Australia but more caused by the inexorable rise in value of the Australian dollar against other currencies (at least at the time of writing!)

Although Australia is one of the world’s newest major nations, skiing in Australia is as old as the sport itself anywhere in the world, thanks to immigrants bringing skiing to Australia with them in the nineteenth century.

Indeed Australia recently celebrated 150 years iof skiing – longer than most other countries – thanks to The Kiandra Snowshoe Club in Australia which lays joint claim to the title "world's oldest ski club" with a Norwegian contender.

The title may be a little academic, as the Kiandra Snowshoe Club's founder members were probably Norwegian immigrants anyway, as it is they who are credited with bringing skiing to Australia in 1861 during the gold rush. Since then Australians, along with New Zealanders, have re-exported their skiing talents world-wide, it's a rare ski school in the world's top resorts hat doesn't employ at least one antipodean ski teacher.

In more recent times the world's first indoor snowdome (arguably), Mount TheBarton, opened in Australia in 1987 although it closed after 20 years and subsequent attempts to bring indoor snow back to Australia are yet to prove successful. However several of the world's pioneering 'indoor snow' manufacturing businesses are also Australian.

Most resorts offer a good mix of accommodation from basic to high calibre. There's skiing here when 98% of the world's resorts are shut down through "lack of snow" in the northern hemisphere’s summer months but it can be a long trek to most of the resorts with few ski centres near major population centres. However increasingly good flight links from Melbourne and Sydney have shortened the trip.
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Australia - Victoria: latest snow conditions round-up


AUSTRALIA REPORT It's just over a week to go to the start of Australia's 2023 ski season and the signs remain good, with another decent snowfall bringing 15-30cm (6-12") of snowfall into last weekend and cold weather continuing to allow snowmaking efforts to work on in the build-up to the season start. "We woke up to a beautiful sight today at Perisher of 15cm of snow and with just over two weeks away until opening weekend on June 10, we cannot wait to welcome guests back for the season," confirmed Maddi Ventura, Marketing Manager at the country's largest resort, Perisher, in New South Wales last Friday.

There were further falls of 5-15cm (2-6") on Sunday morning and the weather has continued cool and snowy Most Australian resorts open on or around the 10th for a long holiday weekend in celebration of King Charles III's birthday. However, it remains to be seen if any take advantage of the current conditions and open early for the season in the coming week.

Summary of forecast snowfall and ski conditions for resorts in Australia - Victoria. Fresh snow is forecast at 0 resorts. Powder is reported at 0 resorts and 0 are reporting good piste conditions.

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All resorts

Ski resorts of Australia - Victoria, alphabetically

Resort
snow depth
top and bottom

on-piste

off-piste

Last Snow

Next 9 Days
0–3 | 3–6 | 6–9
snow (cm)
Next 5 days weather forecast.
Freezing level (m)
Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed

(1506m — 1521m)

snow report 6 days ago

1.0 cm
6 days ago
light rain part cloud cloud light rain light rain
Mid station 1514 m
2500m 2700m 2850m 2700m 2800m

(1600m — 1780m)

snow report today

opens in 7 days 2.0 cm
6 days ago
light rain part cloud cloud light rain light rain
Mid station 1690 m
2500m 2750m 2750m 2700m 2750m

(1430m — 1520m)

snow report 6 days ago

6 cm
6 days ago
rain showers part cloud cloud light rain heavy rain
Mid station 1475 m
2500m 2800m 2750m 2600m 2750m

(1450m — 1560m)

snow report 6 days ago

1.0 cm
6 days ago
light rain part cloud cloud cloud light rain
Mid station 1505 m
2450m 2800m 2850m 2750m 2850m

(1512m — 1676m)

snow report 5 days ago

4 cm
6 days ago
part cloud part cloud cloud light rain mod rain
Mid station 1594 m
2600m 2800m 2750m 2650m 2750m

(1390m — 1790m)

snow report today

opens in 7 days 6 cm
6 days ago
rain showers part cloud cloud light rain heavy rain
Mid station 1590 m
2500m 2750m 2800m 2650m 2750m

(1219m — 1250m)

snow report 8 days ago

3.0 cm
9 days ago
part cloud clear cloud part cloud light rain
Mid station 1234 m
2500m 2800m 2800m 2800m 2850m

(1454m — 1850m)

snow report today

Mount Hotham webcam
opens in 7 days 2.0 cm
6 days ago
rain showers part cloud cloud light rain light rain
Mid station 1652 m
2500m 2750m 2800m 2700m 2800m

(427m — 457m)

1 cm
on 25 Jul
light rain part cloud cloud cloud light rain
Mid station 442 m
2450m 2750m 2850m 2750m 2850m

(1719m — 1749m)

snow report 5 days ago

7 cm
6 days ago
rain showers part cloud cloud light rain heavy rain
Mid station 1734 m
2500m 2750m 2800m 2650m 2750m