The Australian snow industry is being hit with a “severe lack of snow” that has led to early season shutdowns and a crisis for resort businesses.
In a statement released today, Protect Our Winters Australia (POW), which comprises winter sport athletes, scientists and businesses, said 2026 marked the hottest winter on record for the Australian Alps.
“The 2026 snow season is shutting down early across the Australian Alps, with resort closures, businesses up for sale, and severe lack of snow,” POW said.
“Mt Baw Baw (VIC) and Selwyn Snow Resort (NSW) both closed for the season last week. Selwyn cited a ‘challenging winter’, temperature, and rain’s ‘impact on our remaining snow cover’ as the reasons for closure.”
This year marked the fourth poor snow season since 2020.
Research commissioned by POW found snow cover had decreased by 30 percent since the mid-1950s, and the length of the ski season had reduced by 17-28 percent across most alpine resorts.
POW is campaigning for “systemic climate solutions”, including scaling back of fossil fuel use, to reduce the impact of climate change on alpine areas of Australia.
Freeskier Mia ‘Miff’ Rennie, said she grew up skiing at Selwyn snowfields and remembered having to “dig out” snow from front doors.
“That’s now a thing of the past,” she said. “I have seen firsthand how quickly our winters are changing and how quickly we need to respond so future generations can continue to experience the magic of winter that I grew up with.”
According to POW, Australia’s resort economy is worth over $3 billion annually and supports over 12,000 jobs in Victoria alone.
It said resorts did an amazing job to make the best of a bad season through strategic snow placement and snowmaking technology.
“But businesses big and small across the Alps are feeling the pressure,” it said in the statement.
“Mt Hotham’s iconic Hoff Hut closed for the season and is up for sale, with snow cams showing the ski-in, ski-out access bare.”
POW said, besides the business impact, with diminishing opportunities for training and competition in Australia, our elite winter athletes were increasingly forced to chase snow opportunities overseas.
Senior Research Fellow at Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne, Dr Lily O’Neill, said state and federal governments were operating a giant Ponzi scheme on regional Australia.
She said governments were still approving coal mines and gas wells, “hoping we don’t notice that same coal and gas is destroying our snow and alpine economies”.
The full report on the changing snowscapes is here
