A report into the sustainability of Victoria’s alpine resorts has found Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw need continued government assistance to support their long-term viability.
A report by the auditor-general found the resorts have recorded financial losses and asset depreciation over the past five years, despite funding from the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
It identifies workforce and contractor costs as contributing to their poor performance, demonstrating the need for structural change.
The auditor-general’s office says the findings raise concerns about the long-term sustainability of the alpine resorts.
I am a big fan of infill, but 6 storey development in a mountain environment seems a bit excessive.
The following comes from The Age, journalist Simon Johanson.
Mt Buller from Stirling
A LARGE development at the Mount Buller ski resort will go ahead despite objections from the Grollo family, which owns a neighbouring property and extensive other interests there.
The proposed four-storey building on the YHA Hostel site in the heart of Buller village will have shops, a 64-bed short-stay unit and nine apartments.
The plans were approved in August last year by the state government, which oversees all Crown land at the resort.
The Grollo Group, headed by Rino Grollo, has extensive property, hotel and ski-lift operations on Mount Buller.
Its leisure and tourism arm, which owns the neighbouring Kooroora Hotel, objected to the development, seeking a review at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The Grollo Group, an active property developer in its own right, said the revamp of the YHA site did not comply with the resort’s planning guidelines.
It said the plans would remove snow gums unnecessarily and limit the Grollo Group’s ability to redevelop the Kooroora Hotel.
But their objections were rejected by VCAT, which upheld the development’s permit with some slight modifications.
”The development has taken sufficient account of the snow gums on the review site, and has been designed to minimise the number of trees required to be removed,” the tribunal said.
More big projects are expected to rise from Mount Buller’s snow after the resort’s management approved a master plan encouraging buildings up to six storeys in the village.
Nick Whitby, the managing director of Grollo Leisure and Tourism, would not comment on the matter.
This article comes from The Age, journalist is Bridie Smith, April 19, 2012
Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus). Source: Department of the Environment and Heritage
POSSUM Researchers have intervened in an emergency move to deepen the gene pool of one of Australia’s rarest marsupials, the threatened Mountain Pygmy-possum. Studies showed as few as two or three males from the isolated Mt Buller population were successfully mating with females each year, contributing further to genetic depletion of the threatened species.
However scientists from the DSE and Melb Uni have combined to ‘genetically rescue’ the Mt Buller population by removing six males from Mt Hotham and introducing them to the females on Mt Buller.
They have since tested the results of this intervention – and this year found that half the offspring are hybrids (Dad from Mt Hotham, Mum from Mt Buller). It’s good news, as the hybrids are genetically more robust than pure Mt Buller animals.
We have previously pointed out that the Alphutte pizza restaurant at Dinner Plain destroyed all the remnant indigenous groundcover on their property last autumn.
Sadly, they continue their irresponsible behaviour, planting out various exotics, including herbs and succulents, on their property, which have the potential to go wild.
Dinner Plain village is an enclave of private land within the Alpine National Park, about 10 kilometres from Mt Hotham. Despite local Council requiring people to use indigenous species in any plantings, a growing number of residents are choosing to ignore this requirement.
It’s a shame that people who are lucky enough to have access to such a beautiful mountain environment are happy to put potential environmental weeds into the local habitat.
If this concerns you, you may want to avoid Alphutte when you visit Dinner Plain. Local café Mountain Kitchen sells indigenous plants, which are also available via the Alpine Shire.
Another year has zipped by in a blur. I have to say I have really enjoyed writing for the journal these past 12 months. Trying to keep regular posts going means I track lots of the media from around the Alps and this has been giving me a sense of what’s happening right across the mountains, rather than just the corners I mostly hang out in.
As we start to ease into autumn, I feel grateful that we have had another mild summer with no major fires. Last winter started strong but dwindled off to a whimper. The summer flowers have been amazing, and I feel lucky to have been out in some great country, slowly filling the gaps in my experience ‘map’ of the Alps.
The following is a reflection on what’s been popular on the site, and some of the issues that have affected the Alps over the past year.
The following comes from the Border Mail, journalist SARAH DEAN. Photo: Tara Ashworth.
Students down as national park closed
Image: Tara Ashworth, Border Mail
A GROUP of school children stuck on Mount Buffalo after a landslide have been able to travel home this morning after a night spent on the peak.
Quick work by roads crews this morning saw a section of rock debris blocking Mount Buffalo Road to be blasted away allowing vehicles to descend from the peak.
The students from a Mansfield high school, some sightseers and a ranger were able to drive through a gap between boulders which fell on to the road about midday yesterday.
A VicRoads spokeswoman said the road not been closed from the bottom of the mountain and Parks Victoria had shut Mount Buffalo National Park for the weekend.
Works crews will continue to assess the best method to clear the boulders.
The students were among visitors forced to spend last night on the mountain after 300mm of rain this week triggered the landslide.
Machinery from Tallangatta was brought in late yesterday to start work on clearing the road.
The Victorian Government wants to continue the trial to see if it reduces the bushfire fuel load.
The Victorian Government has asked the Federal Court to review the decision by the Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, to ban alpine cattle grazing.
The State Government wants to continue with a trial of grazing in the Alpine National Park to reduce bushfire fuel load.
Earlier this month, Mr Burke stopped the trial, saying it would damage the park’s heritage values.
Victorian Environment Minister, Ryan Smith, says he wants the decision tested in the Federal Court. Victorian Environment Minister, Ryan Smith, says he wants the decision tested in the Federal Court.
The Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) has described the challenge as a waste of time and money.
Phil Ingamels from the VNPA says the State Government still has not come up with a design for the grazing experiment.
“They’ve never answered the question why this can’t be done outside the national park, where, if they had a design, if there was a good reason to do it it, could easily be done outside the national park,” he said.
“The whole thing is just getting sillier and sillier.”
UPDATE: On tuesday January 31, Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke banned cattle grazing in the state’s Alpine National Park.
Mr Burke rejected the state government’s proposal to reintroduce 400 cattle into the park to graze for up to five months a year for five years.
He said his decision was based on departmental advice that cattle grazing would damage the pristine environment, rather than his own personal opposition to the proposal.
‘Mountain cattlemen ignore history in claiming their place in the Alps’. Maybe it’s time to remember some of the other voices of the mountains? Article available here.
Cattlemen says it’s almost too late to put cattle into Victoria’s Alpine National Park this summer.
It’s been two weeks since Federal Minister for Environment, Tony Burke, was expected to make a decision on whether farmers can resume a cattle grazing trial in the Park.
Mark Coleman, president of the Mountain Cattleman’s Association, says the situation has become too caught up in politics and Minister Burke needs to make a decision.
“I believe that the fate of that alpine area rests at his feet and next time we do get a major holocaust through there where our complete ecosystems are completely wiped out from these super hot fires.
“I just hope he’ll be accountable for that till the day he dies.”
Personally I love the statement from the MCAV that “the situation has become too caught up in politics”. Its been about politics from day 1, and the MCAV were quite happy to ‘secretly’ put cattle back in the Park and be involved in ‘politics’ when it suited them. Yet suddenly they’re concerned about politics coming into play – sounds like a case of the ‘Pot calling the Kettle Black’.
Mid summer. Time to be out in the hills. I have been out exploring some of the less known peaks in the Vic High
Twins summit
Country, like Big Hill, south of Mt Beauty, and Mt Sugarloaf just near the old ticket station on the Mt Hotham road above Harrietville.
The stand out mountain so far has been the Twins, a bulky, almost hump-backed mountain just south-west of Mt St Bernard in the Central Alps.
Although it is generally seen from the Great Alpine Road, this peak really presents itself from the south side, with impressive slopes and wonderful views and a sense of remoteness despite being barely 9 km in a straight line from Hotham village.
Looking over The Bluff and Mt Eadley Stoney towards the Crosscut Saw
If you have ever skied or boarded at Mt Buller, the Bluff is probably familiar, even if you don’t know its name. It’s the prominent and rocky, long mountain out on the skyline on your right as you ski back to the village down Bourke Street.
Unlike some of its neighbours, like Mt Buller and Stirling, The Bluff doesn’t have a road or other developments on it, so retains a wildness that is lacking on some other peaks in the area. It is an atmospheric mountain, with loads of character. It has great walking and backcountry skiing and boarding.
The following comes from the Border Mail in Albury. Journalist is Brad Worrall. Nov 22, 2011
Image: SMH
THE future of the historic Mount Buffalo Chalet is again in limbo with the Victorian government rejecting the latest rescue bid.
Mount Buffalo Community Enterprise’s $50 million plan to refurbish the attraction was dismissed by Environment Minister Ryan Smith in a letter two weeks ago.
He said the government was not in a position to fund the proposal at this stage.
But Mount Buffalo Community Enterprise chairman John Brown wants to know what happens next.
“We have written to the Premier to seek clarification on what their plans are to save the chalet,” he said.
“If not our plan, then what and by when?
“The concept plan, which has already withstood close scrutiny from an architectural, heritage and financial perspective, involves a contemporary chalet redevelopment.
“It would breathe new life back into the chalet and the mountain.
“Now all we get is a letter and that is a little dismissive.”
The plan submitted to the government would result in a 99-room hotel-guest house combining contemporary accommodation and preserving the key heritage components of the old chalet.
The plan included low-emissions solar power systems and a new interpretative centre.
The group did not intend to reinstate the ski fields on the Ovens Valley plateau.
The state government would have been required to put up $33 million for the venture, with no return on the taxpayers’ investment.
More than 50 per cent of the profits would have been returned to the community.
Mr Brown wonders whether the government is hoping for a white knight.
“The decision to appoint us came after two rounds of advertising,” he said.
“We were clearly the most attractive option to government at that time, so who will come to the chalet’s rescue now?
“The truth is, today, we are no closer to saving Mount Buffalo chalet than we were five years ago.
“That’s of grave concern to us.
“If the community shares our concern now’s the time to speak up.”
The chalet has been closed since January 2007 in the wake of the bushfires in the North East and an ensuing lease dispute.
Mount Buffalo Community Enterprise’s involvement followed an extensive tender process over 18 months.
In October last year the group entered a 12-month exclusive negotiation period with Parks Victoria.
A $200,000 state bovernment grant and $250,000 of their own money paid for a viability study and the business plan.
A report into the sustainability of Victoria’s alpine resorts has found Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw need continued government assistance to support their long-term viability.
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