Melburnians banned from hitting the slopes on Queen’s Birthday weekend

Melburnians will be banned from the ski-seasoning opening after the Covid-19 outbreak extended the lockdown for non-regional residents.

Mount Buller business owners Dan Rogers and Caroline Frey say they are trying to get through the latest lockdown ‘one week at a time’. Picture: Aaron Francis

All was set for a high-altitude Queen’s Birthday long weekend bash at Hotel Pension Grimus.

Last-minute maintenance and finishing touches were being completed at the family owned Mount Buller venue over recent weeks in anticipation of a bumper ski season opening in Victoria’s alps.

Hotel Pension Grimus owner Lotte Grimus said her 120-person hotel was 80 per cent booked next weekend. The restaurant was fully booked on Saturday, June 12, and nearly full on Sunday for dinner.

But they have been forced to postpone their opening on news that Melburnians will be shut out of ­regional Victoria on the long weekend, even if lockdown is lifted from midnight next Thursday.

“Most of our customers come from Melbourne ... we have very few regional visitors,” she said.

“We decided to cancel all of our reservations for opening weekend. We will lose revenue from that, as well as not having any since 2019.”

Anton Grimus – a two-time winter Olympian who helps run the hotel with his mum – said seasonal businesses were flexible since they depended on the weather, but tourism in the area hinged on an open Melbourne.

“We are pretty resilient in terms of ups and downs,” he said. “Last year was a different type of unknown and it was sad to see the whole winter go.

“We are all in it together but sometimes it feels like we are a bit forgotten here in the snow.

“If Melbourne is in lockdown, we are in lockdown.”

Manager at the Hotel Pension Grimus at Mount Buller, Anton Grimus. Picture: Aaron Francis

Acting Premier James Merlino said residents of metropolitan Melbourne would not be allowed to travel to regional Victoria on June 12 due to the latest outbreak.

“I want to be upfront with people that even if all goes well, we won’t be able to have people from Melbourne travelling to regional Victoria during the Queen’s Birthday long weekend,” he said.

It is unclear if popular ski destinations at Mount Buller, Falls Creek and Mount Hotham plan to open and operate ski lifts for regional visitors only next weekend.

The Victorian ski resorts’ misfortune is in contrast to Perisher resort in NSW, which opened a week early on Friday following early snowfalls and good snow-making conditions.

Caroline Frey and Dan Rogers own four businesses at Mount Buller, including the cinema, Mt Buller Physiotherapy and Snow Play Tours. They said the lockout was “frustrating” because most of their customers would come from Melbourne.

“We are just trying to get through this one week at a time,” Mr Rogers said.

“There are a lot of operators who are quite down and thinking ‘I can’t do this again’.”

Australian Ski Areas Association CEO Colin Hackworth said it was disappointing news. “I think businesses will be feeling anxious because everybody was preparing for June 12 and now we don’t really know,” he said.