Victoria Slams State Shut Again – Ski Resorts Closed

In the latest Victoria lockdown news, we see that as of today at 1pm all Victorian ski resorts will have to halt their lift operations once again due to statewide lockdowns. These adjustments to the Victoria lockdowns were announced at a press conference this morning and the mountain ski resorts were given no more than a few hours to adjust their operating plans. Regional Victoria has been out of stricter lockdowns for the last few weeks which allowed Mt Buller, Hotham, Falls Creek and Mt Baw Baw to resume operations however they could only accept skiers, boarders and visitors from regional Victorian towns and cities. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer has declared that all metropolitan Melbourne restrictions – except for the curfew – will be implemented across regional Victoria from 1pm today until 11.59pm Thursday, 2 September which is the current Victoria lockdown end date. This means that under Victoria lockdown restrictions there will be only five reasons to leave your home: to get the food and the supplies you needto exercise for up to two hours no more than 5km from your homefor care or caregiving authorised work or education if you can’t do it from homeor to get vaccinated at the nearest possible location.

Image Credit Falls Creek Face masks will still be mandatory outdoors and indoors (not at home) unless an exception applies – this includes all workplaces, and secondary schools. To give industry time to adjust, workforce permits will be required to leave the house for authorised work from 11.59pm Monday 23 August.Playgrounds, basketball hoops, skate parks and outdoor exercise equipment will be closed. Masks will also not be able to be removed to drink alcoholic beverages. Exercise will be limited to just one other person, plus dependants if they can’t be left at home. This really is a kick in the guts from not only the ski resorts but also many of the smaller business and accommodation providers who rely heavily on the winter ski season. The Victorian alpine region is doing it extremely tough this year where they are not only trying to survive the constant opening and closing of 2021 but also try to recover any losses from the 2020 season where they were not allowed to open. With these closured announced today the Victorian ski fields join the New South Wales ski fields in turning off their operations and stopping the ski lifts. The only ski fields left in the country with the ability to open are the small resorts in Tasmania however they are having a rather low season in terms of snowfall. Typically August in the primary season for riding the ski resorts in Australia, as of today the average snow depth is around 150cm which makes for excellent riding across all the resorts. Prior to lockdown many of the ski resorts were nearly running at 100% of operations.

Image Credit: Perisher Sadly the case numbers across Melbourne and Sydney are heading in the wrong direction and as those cases make their way out into the regional areas is going to continue to have damaging effects on our local alpine communities. Will this be the end of the Australian 2021 snow season? Will we all get one last chance to ride the lifts in spring before the snow melt happens in October? We honestly dont know but we have our fingers crossed that we can get back on the mountains once more this season.