Mount Buffalo (Cresta Valley and Dingo Dell)
The birthplace of lift-served skiing in Australia, where downhill skiing ended in 2006 after fire destroyed the Cresta Valley buildings and the Victorian government decided not to rebuild because of the rising snowline.
- Region
- Victoria
- Country
- Australia
- Status
- closed
- Year opened
- 1937
- Year closed
- 2006
- Reason for closure
- Parks Victoria ordered the Cresta Valley lifts closed in August 2006, and in December 2006 an escaped back-burn during the Great Divide fires destroyed Cresta Lodge, the day visitor centre and the supporting power and sewerage plant. The Victorian government then ruled out rebuilding the skifield, citing projections that the snowline would rise above the mountain within about a decade. The Dingo Dell lifts had already been burnt in the 2003 bushfires.
History
Mount Buffalo, in the Victorian Alps near Bright, is where Australian lift-served skiing began: a rope tow was strung up at Cresta Valley in 1937, the first in the country, and the grand Mount Buffalo Chalet below had been drawing snow visitors since the 1910s. Two small McCallum chairlifts and a set of Poma drag lifts were added from 1964, and a second field at Dingo Dell operated from around 1950. The plateau tops out at 1,723 m, low even by Australian standards, and the area was always snow-marginal. Dingo Dell's lifts were finished off by the 2003 bushfires. Parks Victoria closed the Cresta Valley lifts in August 2006 despite more than a metre of snow lying, and in December 2006 a back-burn that escaped during the Great Divide fires destroyed the Cresta Lodge, the visitor centre and the site's power and sewerage infrastructure - Parks Victoria received a 6.4 million dollar insurance payout. The state government subsequently refused to rebuild the skifield, ending about seventy years of downhill skiing and citing climate projections for the snowline. The chairlifts and pomas were left standing and slowly decaying; the Greater Alpine National Parks Management Plan of 2016 provides for their removal and site restoration. Cresta Valley and Dingo Dell now serve cross-country skiing, snowplay and tobogganing.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cresta Valley rope tow | Surface lift | Installed in 1937 and generally credited as the first ski tow in Australia; superseded in the 1960s | |
| Valley Chair | Chairlift - Double - Fixed | McCallum | Short chairlift at Cresta Valley, about 160 m long, dating from 1964; still standing after closure |
| Cresta Chair | Chairlift - Double - Fixed | McCallum | The upper Cresta Valley chairlift, also from the 1960s |
| Novice Poma | Platter | Poma | Beginner lift nearest the road at Cresta Valley; reported still in good condition years after closure |
| Cresta Poma | Platter | Poma | Installed 1964; derelict since 2006 |
| Gully Poma | Platter | Upper Cresta Valley drag lift; derelict since 2006 | |
| Dingo Dell Poma No. 1 | Platter | Dingo Dell ski area; out of use by the late 1990s and the towers were felled in the 2003 bushfires | |
| Dingo Dell Poma No. 2 | Platter | Dingo Dell ski area; out of use by the late 1990s and the towers were felled in the 2003 bushfires |
Sources and further reading
More in Australia
Location
-36.7632, 146.7857