Australia: more snow than Switzerland

It is now springtime in Australia. But two hours from the spring flower festival, Floriade, in Australia’s capital, Canberra, snow is still falling in the Snowy Mountains. The ski season is from early July to mid-September, but in most years there is still good skiing until mid-November on the Kosciuszko main mountain range.

The world’s longest continuously running ski club is in Australia. Three Norwegian miners introduced skiing to Australia in 1861 during the Gold Rush period in New South Wales. They constructed skis from natural wood and established the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club. In 1908 the town of Kiandra hosted the world’s first international Alpine Ski Carnival in which Denver skier, Charles Menger, from America, won the main event. Kiandra nowadays is not a ski resort, having died out after the Gold Rush. However, the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club was re-named the Kiandra Pioneer Ski Club and is based in a town called Perisher, two hours from Kiandra. Perisher, in the state of New South Wales, is the largest ski resort in the southern hemisphere. The Perisher Blue resort has 1,250 snow-covered hectares that incorporate seven mountain peaks across four ski resorts that are inter-linked by a network of ski-lifts. More than 400 ski-lifts can be operational across the Australian ski fields at any time.

Much of Australia, particularly in the country’s centre, is desert or semi-arid land. To the north are tropical rainforests and to the south are cold-weather rainforests. Despite these small areas of rainforests, and recent flooding in northern Australia, the country’s rainfall is actually the lowest of all the globe’s seven continents. Eighty percent (80%) of the land has rainfall less than 600 millimetres (23.6 inches) a year, and 50% has less than 300 millimetres (11.8 inches) a year. Hence, much of the country is still in drought.

But Australia can get a lot of snow. Australia actually has more snow cover (in area) than Switzerland, although the snow depth is only several metres deep and snowfalls are highly variable across the snowfields.

The Snowy Mountains region in the south-east of the country covers the mountains of Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, and New South Wales, but there are also mountains (and a snow season) in Tasmania. The highest peak in Australia is Mt Kosciuszko in the Snowy Mountains at a modest 7,310 feet (2,228 metres) above sea level, where there is an alpine climate. Because of the low altitude of the mountains, the snowfall is not as reliable as the larger peaks of Europe. The lowest minimum temperature ever recorded was −23°C (−9.4 °F) at Charlotte Pass in the Snowy Mountains on 29 June 1994, however night temperatures in the region are usually around -8°C. Daytime temperatures are about 2°C.

The Snowy Mountains are generally called “The Snowies” in New South Wales and “the High Country” in Victoria. Most of the commercial ski resorts are near the Victoria and New South Wales state border. On the Victorian side are three major and four minor resorts. On the New South Wales (NSW) side there are two major and two minor resorts. There are also two minor ski resorts in Tasmania. The deepest snowpacks are usually in late August and early September, and the snow quality is best in July which is the coldest month in Australia but the weather is less stable. So August is the best compromise for snow depth and snow quality (but it is peak season and expensive). The steepest ski runs are in the resorts of Thredbo, Perisher, Charlotte Pass, Selwyn, Falls Creek, Hotham, Buller, Baw Baw, and Mt Mawson.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).