Australian ski resort announce new opening date following large fire

A popular Australian ski resort has provided a revised announcement, just one day after announcing they’d close for the winter season.

Australia’s oldest and highest ski resort have backflipped on the announcement that they would likely close for the 2024 ski season following a fire at the property.

The blaze broke out at Charlotte Pass Snow Resort’s sewerage treatment plant near Mount Kosciuszko’s peak on Friday, May 17.

With the plant still unable to process any wastewater from taps, showers or toilets, the resort announced days after the incident that they were struggling to find a solution to be able to open for the start of winter.

Kevin Blyton, chairman of the resort, said they were looking into whether temporary services could be restored to sections of the plant not impacted by the fire, whether they could use a temporary package sewerage treatment plant, or if sewerage could be trucked off-site and processed elsewhere.

“I must caution that all of these potential options present significant challenges and may not be operationally feasible in the unique alpine region Charlotte Pass is located in, as well as the short time frame before the commencement of the 2024 season,” Mr Blyton said on Wednesday.

A fire ripped through the sewerage treatment plant at Charlotte Pass. Picture: NSW Fire and Rescue

On Friday evening, however, a week since the fire broke out about 6.30am — the resort announced they had sourced a “temporary option” to now allow the season to proceed from Friday 5th July — just in time for the school holidays.

“Just in time for the school holidays,” the statement read.

“Lifts are scheduled to start spinning on Friday 5th July. Guests arrival for all overnight accommodation will also commence from Friday 5th July.”

The resort announced the only “viable option” was to restore temporary services to the existing Sewage Treatment Plant.

During the fire, four trucks and 16 firefighters responded to the blaze, establishing a relay to pump water to the isolated location.

Fire and Rescue NSW Inspector Phil Eberle said the first truck arrived within 15 minutes, before the others joined shortly after.

He said it took them about two hours to bring it under full control.

“They’ve done a great job here. We’ve got very little to no exposure [of hazardous materials] into the environment,” he said at the scene.

“Unfortunately, it’s caused a lot of damage to Charlotte Pass but the firefighters and fire rescue have just done a great job.”

The resort has found a solution to be able to open in July. Picture: Charlotte Pass

Charlotte Pass, owned by the Blyton Group, is only accessible in the snow season by the resort’s oversnow transport service from Perisher Valley.

In 2022, Charlotte Pass was fined $144,000 and ordered to pay NSW Environment Protection Authority’s investigation costs of more than $90,000 after Spencers Creek in Kosciuszko National Park was polluted.

Over a period of 78 days in 2019, partially treated effluent from the resort’s sewage treatment plant discharged into Spencers Creek.

The EPA said Charlotte Pass was in breach of its environment protection licence for failing to “maintain and operate its sewerage treatment plant in a proper and efficient manner”.