Closures at Falls Creek but Thredbo booms

Snow might be dumping but at least one major Victorian chalet has made the unprecedented decision to close for the entire season.

Falls Creek in the Victorian alpine region. Picture: Charlie Brown

Snow might be dumping down on local ski fields but at least one major Victorian chalet owner has made the unprecedented decision to close for the entire season after he was hit by booking cancellations from Sydneysiders and Melburnians following the decision to temporarily close the Victorian-NSW border from midnight on Tuesday.

“Everybody is pulling out,” said the owner of a major apartment block offering ski-in and ski-out accommodation in Victoria’s prime Falls Creek Village Bowl.

“We are in Victoria. Everybody is pulling out as no one wants to go through quarantine,” the owner said.

At Falls Creek’s privately owned Koki Alpine Resort, Vesna Sugden said the decision had just been taken to close the resort, which accommodates 86 skiers, for the entire season for the first time in its long history.

The decision was taken following cancellations from NSW residents and from skiers in Melbourne’s locked-down suburbs. Ms Sugden said there had been a lack of guidelines and consideration for the lodge’s financial situation.

Over at another luxury Falls Creek resort, charging $755 a night for the peak late July season, a spokesman said all the skiers who had cancelled bookings over the past few days were from NSW.

But at the Grollo-family-owned Mount Buller, also in the Victorian ski fields, selling agent John Castran said the resort had already lost most of its NSW skiing market given just 50 per cent of its lift passes could be sold this season due to COVID-19.

“We lost the majority of NSW skiers because you cannot buy lift tickets unless you have prepaid season passes and you are only allowed a certain number of people on the ski fields,” Mr Castran said.

“The border lockdown with NSW has provided a greater opportunity for Victorian skiers, those who have the passes are having the greatest ski season because of fewer numbers,” he said.

“The lockdown has not touched sales of apartments at Mount Buller, it has worked in our favour because (wealthy) people from Melbourne have cabin fever, they can’t travel overseas, so they walk in, inspect an apartment and say ‘I will take it’.”

Mr Castran said he sold a record five luxury apartments at Mount Buller last weekend, ranging in prices from $1m to $3m.

“This past weekend we had had the biggest real estate market sales in Mount Buller’s history,” he said.

“Sales are out of control and, because of COVID-19, prices have lifted 18 per cent since March.”

But in NSW the situation is far different. “Thredbo Resort does not expect a significant impact on our seasonal winter trade following the government announcing the closure of NSW-Victorian borders,” said Stuart Diver, general manager of Thredbo Resort.

“This is because the overwhelming majority of our guests come from NSW with only a small percentage from Victoria.

“The revised operating model Thredbo has adopted this winter includes restraints of up to 50 per cent usual capacity in an effort to ensure we can provide an environment where our guests can socially distance and we are confident there is sufficient demand within NSW for this winter’s reduced capacity.”

Vail Resorts, which controls ski fields in both states, declined to comment.