IT’S great to see Melbourne visitors able to rejoin the rest of Victoria visiting our North East alpine resorts of Falls Creek, Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain.
The school holidays are critical to ski industry operators and while some COVID restrictions still limit capacity, to see visitation and occupancy as high as it can be is a positive step forward for all concerned.
We can only hope the rollercoaster ride thrown up by COVID’s ongoing challenges are less bumpy in the months ahead – and that Mother Nature will step up and start pumping out the natural snowfalls.
At the time of going to press at the end of June the Victorian Government was continuing to recommend that residents of metropolitan Melbourne heading to an alpine resort have a COVID–19 test within 72 hours of departing Melbourne, or after departing Melbourne but before arriving at the resort, and have received a negative test result.
The government said testing is not required for children under 12 years (unless they’re displaying COVID–19 symptoms).
When this was introduced initially as mandatory for a period in mid–June, it blindsided operators and according to Mt Hotham Chamber of Commerce president Steve Belli, caused confusion, anger and last minute cancellations across the Alpine region and dealt a further blow to the resorts, who had already lost much of their opening weekend business to the snap lockdown and restrictions preventing Melburnians to travel.
“It’s not fair to put these kinds of restraints on (only) Victorian ski resorts – we have done everything requested of us right the way though and have had zero infections regionally,” he said.
“We have an excellent good government–approved COVID–safe plan which was developed last year and fine tuned this year and we have worked closely the whole way through with the DHHS and DELWP.”
Mr Belli said opening weekend had been stronger than expected after the extension of the Melbourne lockdown as regional and even some interstate visitors took the opportunity to snap up accommodation.
“The bottom line is that we’re open for business and ready for visitors to come and enjoy what we have to offer,” he said.
“You can rest assured we are a COVID–safe place and we are compliant in every aspect and are the safest resorts in the world given the requirements prior to entry.”
Mountain clinics open
ALPINE Health is running COVID testing clinics on the mountains.
An appointment is required for both Mt Hotham and Falls Creek clinics, which are open for one hour only, from 11am until noon.
At Mt Hotham the clinic is located next to the village’s medical clinic – to book call 0457 429 175.
The Falls Creek clinic is located next to the Gully chairlift – to book call 0457 422 756.
Residents and staff of both resorts have been told that they must get tested immediately – even if they have been tested recently – should they feel unwell or at the first sign of even very mild symptoms, including fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose and loss or change in sense of smell or taste.
“If you have symptoms, get tested at the Mt Hotham or Falls Creek testing clinics or one of the local Alpine Health testing clinics in Bright or Mt Beauty,” a statement from Alpine Health advised.
“Return home immediately and isolate until you get your tests results.”