How’s the skiing going?
A topic revisited and, er, what do we find?
I believe I am a fair man. Last month I put up a post ‘sno people @ the snow showing how deserted it was up at nearby Falls Creek & Mt Hotham ski resorts, even though they had great snow cover and were talking it up in their usual PR style.
BUT, to be fair, that was only in late June and not the ‘peak season’, so maybe we should revisit the same topic (and places) now – in late July – in what is the absolute peak of the snow season.
It’s a beautiful sunny day and there’s heaps of snow. It’s early afternoon on a Saturday so the runs must be packed.
I wonder how they are going at Falls Creek (you know, the place where they’re about to have a fire sale of 70+ accommodation properties)?
Let’s look at the Falls Creek snow cams. Please click on “more” below:
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Wow, pretty quiet @ Falls. Maybe all the investors are checking out the St Falls building in anticipation of picking up a bargain? Somehow I doubt it.
Okay, let’s pop-on-over to Mt Hotham’s snow cams - that’s where all the skiers must be:
Oh. And they are claiming that “all 5,000 beds are nearly sold out – hurry, book now, this is the best season ever”? I don’t think so.
Look, I am not being negative here. I am not “talking down our tourist market”, as some idiots in Bright have previously claimed. And before anyone from Falls Creek’s or Mt Hotham’s PR department calls me (like they’ve done before), demanding I “take it down” just read on. Because I am simply telling the truth. And this is it:
- Skiing is stuffed. At least it is @ Hotham & Falls. They have overdeveloped and priced themselves out of the reach of the market. It’s dumb, because they are so far away from Melbourne that, in order to attract people, they actually need to make it more affordable. But they can’t – because they’ve invested too heavily and crapped in their own nests. Many thanks to Messrs Kennett, Bracks, Brumby, MFS Ltd (now defunct), James Packer (now running Mt Hotham) and all the other greedy, thoughtless developers. Oh, and even our own Alpine council who blindly supported them – with our money! Well done.
- Skiing DOES NOT bring great benefits to this area or the town of Bright. I went into town today and there were about ZERO tourists around. It was eerily quiet. The photos you see above are taken today in the middle of the resorts’ so-called peak season. Well, bloody hell, if that’s their ‘peak’ then it’s the equivalent of Bright only being 10% full during the Christmas school holidays. You see, we are actually nearly 100% full at that time (and during Autumn) but, if what is currently happening up there was happening to Bright in summer & Autumn, well, there’d be total carnage and ruination. Like there is going to be on the mountains.
- The peak tourist season around these parts is actually from Christmas through to mid-May. It’s also busy in November, after the snow melts in Spring. And I’m talking about Bright. You know, the REAL tourist destination of this region and the one that all the tourism authorities at Federal, State and council level ought to be supporting with funding for both infrastructure and promotion. Instead of wasting it on the stuffed ski industry and the corporate wankers who only have development $$s in their eyes.
End of lecture. Do something about it please Bright Chamber, Alpine Council & Tourism Victoria. Stop supporting the wrong destinations and start supporting and funding towns like Bright.
Amen.
Promoting 'Beautiful Bright'.
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Ray, You should also add ex South Australian Labor Premier, Don Dunstan to your list. He’s the one who started it all when he was running Tourism Victoria. He created the Alpine Resorts Commission that then took all the planning controls away from the Lands Department and the local councils thus creating the opportunity for the “developers”. Successive governments of both persuasions then were then “snow blind” when acceding to their carefully crafted demands. The ARC is still alive today in the form of the Alpine Resorts Consultative Committee which oversees the “independent” Resort Management Boards. Interestingly one of the former BRC senior management team is now the CEO of the Australian Ski Resort Operators Association. Leopards don’t change their spots – not even Snow Leopards!
Hi,Ray, Good economic comment on the skifields dillemma. The scene is frightening and has some very serious implications. It is about time our representative “Non representatives”in all levels of government , told a few truths instead of all the political “spin” on behalf of of the ruling ilites who infest the overpaid office seat warmers who like to think they are indispensible. I have news for them! When the sheople wake up these misled and deceptive manipulators could find the “Kitchen a bit too hot.” Meanwhile the fiddling with “climate change /global warming /assylum seekers/and so on is one of the greatist cons of all time. I wonder why the local population willingly allowed the closing and sell up of the tobacco industry that has been the econimic life blood of this district for over 100 years and yet the product is still imported legallyand sold but the profits now are made in foriegn counries. This same story also applies to many other industries in Australia and now the world dominating banking system is enjoying the prospect af world government and total control of all economic activities, It doesn’t need much imagination to work out why all our local industries are ailing and feeling the same pressures as is the over developed snowfields.Finally if we continue voting in the “silver tailed masters of deception who infest the major party monopolies, we are keeping ouselves on the same disasterous path.It is about time we found out that it is a waste of time running faster if we are already on the wrong road.
Yes, Herb, BRC were the early profiteers from property development at Hotham in the 90s. Then they went on and ruined Erskine House @ Lorne, also courtesy of Messrs Kennett & Bracks. Gee, they got some ‘lucky’ breaks, didn’t they?
What can we do about it? Bright has been left behind and ignored for govt funding (purposely in my opinion) over the past 15 years while successive governments have poured money into their mates’ developments on the mountains. At least we’re now getting an extra $1million per year, some of which is going into the Ireland St makeover, although that money has to be spread right across the shire.
I have always said it is up to us to make enough noise at council level and insist they make deputations to the State & Federal govts to get some serious funding for Bright (like about $5 – $10 million for a total makeover, that would be nice). Let’s face it, without wishing to sound parochial, the fact is that Bright is the #1 tourist destination of the whole northeast region. There is no doubt about that. Yet we go ignored. And yet the local business people and the Chamber just let it all go on. Like lemmings.
Imagine what Bright would be like if we had a serious upgrade of the town? Our tourist numbers would double, and the whole shire & region would benefit greatly from that. I’ll keep beating the drum but it’s a hard message to get across.
Tudley, thanks for that. Yes, incompetence is widespread at all levels of government and industry, but as for what I’m talking about here – the ripoff on the mountains – well, I reckon corruption is what has taken place.