Industry News
Selwyn Snow Resort, Australia, announced today that it will be closing for the next few days.
“Unfortunately, mother nature has washed us out and as a result we will have no lifts spinning for skiing and snowboarding.
Tobogganing and Snow play will be available free of charge on Long Arm run, but no carpet lift will be in operation. The Selwyn Centre will be open for clothing hire, souvenirs, food & beverages.
Guests with pre-purchased products valid from Sunday 30 July to Wednesday 2 August have been emailed by our Guest Services team.
We will continue to monitor the weather and our snowmaking team are on standby to make snow any chance they can.”
The Australian ski resort Selwyn has been having a tough few years. In the 2019/20 bushfires the resort was scorched to the ground. Then Covid struck and reopening was not on the cards, aside from the time and cost of rebuilding the entire resort. Last year the small ski resort was ready to open except for needing to have electricity connected to the resort, but an early snowfall in May meant the critical work could not be finished.
Finally this year the resort was able to open again after three long years but as things are, Australia is moving into El Nino territory, meaning below average snowfalls and above average temperatures. After a pretty good school holiday period, the resort has watched the snow on the ground dwindle and has now been forced to shut.
Selwyn is Australia’s most northern ski resort and is located at an altitude of 1,492 m (4,895 ft) and reaches a top elevation of 1,614 ft (5,295 ft). The northern location combined with relatively low altitude means that the resort can have trouble maintaining a good natural snow cover. The resort invested heavily into snowmaking infrastructure after the 2019/20 bushfires, purchasing state-of-the-art TechnoAlpin snow cannons, but recently temperatures have stayed above freezing and day time temperatures were around 10°C (50°F).
Temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing on Wednesday night again and there is about 2.4cm (1 inch) of snow forecast for Friday/Saturday. We hope the resort can resume operations again by next weekend.
