Covid-19: No business for snow business

Lockdowns have hammered businesses in the Kosciuszko National Park, but revellers are making the most of the empty mountains.

With Sydney locked down, snowboarders Siobhan Anton, 22, and Ellie McMaster, 19, from Newcastle, have the Perisher slopesall to themselves. Picture: Jamila Toderas

As they stood on top of a ski run at Perisher in NSW’s Kosciuszko National Park and surveyed the mountain, Ellie McMaster and Siobhan Anton, couldn’t believe their luck.

“It’s amazing,’’ Ms Anton, 22, said.

Trees stood like alpine ghosts in the aftermath of a blizzard that covered everything in white and sprinkled the mountain with fresh powder.

With the empty chairlifts disappearing into the winter fog and with Covid-19 restrictions in place in Sydney and Melbourne, Ms Anton and Ms McMaster, 19, could have been excused for thinking they had the mountain to themselves.

“It’s half capacity … There’s no waiting for food here, there are no lines on the chair lifts and there are not many beginners this year,” said Ms Anton, who is planning to drive down every weekend she has off work while the slopes are empty.

Perisher Manor Hotel managers Jane and Damian Breitfuss. Picture: Jamila Toderas

It’s a similar story for Harley Fry, 29, and Georgia Goode, 29. After missing out earlier in the season, the couple from Jamberoo south of Wollongong managed to snap up deals on accommodation and rentals after the lockdown sparked a rush of cancellations.

“We’re like the Steven Bradbury of bookings, when everyone else’s bookings fall over, we just slide in,” Ms Goode said.

It’s the Covid-19 conundrum. Normally mid-winter is boomtime for the NSW skifields.

But the virus’s strangulation of movement in Sydney and Melbourne has seen bookings cancelled and numbers dwindle.

And while the few skiers able to make the trip are enjoying bumper conditions — the ski resort enjoyed a 45cm dump of snow over the weekend, with another 70cm predicted for the week ahead – for the business people of the slopes it has been a disaster.

Damian and Jane Breitfuss, who manage the Perisher Manor Hotel at the foot of the mountain, had been hoping for a bounce-back this year after Covid-19 destroyed the 2020 season.

The hotel is one of the few accommodation options in Perisher Valley and The pub next door is just a stone’s throw from the bottom of the front valley slope.

This year had started brightly. With stripped-back social distancing restrictions, Perisher’s opening weekend was packed; business was booming.

They had a full house when the grim news came through that Greater Sydney was being plunged back into lockdown on June 26. About 90 per cent of their guests come from Sydney.

Still paying off last year’s rent, the couple’s emotion is palpable as they grapple with the prospects of another ruined season.

Tuner Nathan Clough. Picture: Jamila Toderas

“This is a family owned and ­operated business. Mum and Dad have been in Perisher Valley since the mid-60s and lived here their whole lives. To see business go like this within two years, it’s pretty sad. We work very hard, it’s our livelihood,” Mr Breitfuss said.

While they’ve seen a slight uptick in bookings from regional NSW, Ms Breitfuss said bookings were still down almost 60 per cent and ongoing uncertainty about whether Annastacia Palaszczuk would shut the border meant Queenslanders were reluctant to follow through with bookings.

After working at the Adis Waxatorium Ski & Snowboard Tuning Centre in Perisher for 20 years, Nathan Clough decided to make the plunge this year and purchased the business in May.

With Australia seemingly having navigated the worst of the virus, he thought the country was “out of the woods”. Now he’s just “hoping and praying” case numbers drop and restrictions ease. There’s not much else he can do.

“I’m hoping I survive. And I’m hoping I can cover my payments otherwise, yeah, we’re in trouble,” Mr Clough said.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond warned the latest set of lockdowns would “be the final straw for a whole lot of businesses”.

“The issue this time around in NSW is you haven’t been able to travel around in regional areas, so that bounce in regional tourism has been cut to nothing,” she said.