Rain has damaged what was an epic, bumper season across all of our resorts. Unfortunately our Victorian resorts have been copping the full brunt of the rainfall, with mudlisdes taking out 13 cars at Mt Buller, damaging the Village Chair Ticket Office at Hotham and closing the road to Falls Creek as well.

All the details are below...

The CSIRO Carpark

Photo: Michelle Coppel

From the Age:
 

Mt Buller mudslide damages cars

A MUDSLIDE in a carpark at Mount Buller ski resort this morning pushed three parked cars off the edge of a precipice and damaged at least another 10.

Police said no one was injured in the mudslide, which happened about 10am, and the cars’ owners were still on the mountain, but the ground was too unstable to attempt to recover any of the cars.

One car was still dangling in a tree this afternoon.

‘‘It’s looking pretty ordinary . . . there is extensive damage to several cars,’’ said Leading Constable Damien Griffiths.

All chairlifts, except ground-level ‘‘magic carpet rides’’, were closed at the resort. Spokeswoman Rhylla Morgan said the snow cover had receded and all but the most determined skiers were sheltering inside.

‘‘It’s certainly pretty wild and woolly out there,’’ she said. ‘‘We had plenty of snow on the ground to start with, so hopefully the rain will turn to snow tonight and we’ll regain what we’ve lost.

‘‘Amazingly there are some determined skiers who are out there . . . a couple of kids are having a lesson and look pretty happy.’’

From Mt Hotham site:

Landslip at Hotham damages Village Ticket Office

Due to the extreme natural wet weather systems experienced today (Sat 4 Sep) there has been an incident within the skifield area of Hotham Alpine Resort.

A saturated natural landslip occurred from the Golden Point area which caused severe damage to the Village Ticket Office, adjacent to the Village Chairlift. The Village Chairlift was not directly involved as the Ticket Office took the impact of the landslip.

MHSC and Ski Patrol worked closely with the Police and the CFA to ensure all guests and staff were removed safely from the skifield as their safety is the number one priority.

Once this storm cell has passed the ski field will be assessed for damage by Hotham Skiing Company and the Mt Hotham Resort Management Ski Patrol.

For Sunday 5 September the planned operations for the skifield are as follows:

* Heavenly Valley Quad Chair will open as scheduled at 7.30am. A village bus service will operate to the Loch carpark on a circuit back to the village centre from 9.00am.

All other lifts will open as scheduled (weather permitting) with the following exceptions:

* Blue Ribbon will not operate, this includes the upper slopes due to no access to the Village Chair load.

* Village Chair will not operate until the damage sustained to the immediate area is assessed. The Davenport Access Trail, PumpHouse Drop and the Swindlers Trail from the bottom of Heavenly Valley are all closed until further notice.

* Gotcha and the Keogh’s/ Orchard chairlifts will not operate on Sunday but will be assessed for re-opening by Ski Patrol during the day.

From Falls Creek site:

ROAD CLOSED TO FALLS CREEK

Due to the severe weather conditions and as a precautionary measure to travellers, the Bogong High Plains Road has been closed to all traffic by Victoria Police.

Resort Management is working with Emergency Services to get the road open as soon as it is considered safe to do so. Until then, police recommend that all travel to and from Falls Creek be deferred until Sunday morning when the situation can be reviewed.

It is suggested any travellers in transit arrange accommodation in Mt Beauty of stay in Falls Creek overnight. If there is any change to these circumstances, you will be notified as soon as Resort Management is made aware.

Thredbo River pic by Charles Beckinsale

Laura Williams and her sister at the flooded Thredbo river BBQ area

Photo: Laura Williams