Something for Everyone  

Lake Mountain is Melbourne's closest and most affordable alpine resort. It is also Australia's premier cross country skiing and snow play destination. The resort offers over 30kms of cross country trails for skiing or snow shoeing. The main visitor centre sits at 1340 metres, with the heighest point sitting at 1480 metres.

During winter enjoy cross country skiing, tobogganing, snow shoeing and snow play. Why not come and ride a snow mobile. Winter activities are rapidly expanding with mountain bike riding, walking, road cycling and nordic walking all on offer. Heights Bar and Bistro is open 7 days.  

Black Saturday Bushfires  

The Black Saturday bushfires caused significant damage to the resort. The main toilet block, day shelter and trail head facilities, ski patrol building, takeaway food facilities, rotunda and bbq areas, machinery, workshop, equipment and snow making system were all destroyed.  

The fire swept up and across the Lake Mountain plateau and has burnt many of the snow gums and heathlands. The trail network was also significantly damaged.  

Luckily the main visitor centre which houses the bistro, day shelter, ski hire and retail outlet and resort administration was not damaged and remained operational. Unfortunately a fire in the ski hire of the main building, on the 1st July 2009 caused by an electrical fault to a boot dryer, meant yet another set back in a disasterous year.  

Resort management made a decision soon after the fires to get the resort back up and running for snow season 2009, understanding the importance of Lake Mountain not only to staff, but also to Marysville and the surrounding region. Staff and management worked tirelessly to make it happen.  

Since the devasting bushfires Lake Mountain has been operational for snow season 2009, built a boardwalk and over 9kms of single track mountain bike trails, held events including the Lake Mountain Sprint tarmac car rally and the inaugral Granite Grind mountain bike event.  

Construction is underway on a new building to replace the infrastructure that was lost in the fires and a new workshop will be completed in the next month.  

History of Lake Mountain 

Cattle Grazing Days Maurice Keppel ran the Marysville Hotel. In 1864 he purchased the allotment at Paradise Plains on Edgar’s Track in the Great Divide. Edgar’s Track was a pack horse route between Warburton and Woods Point mines. In time, the family progressively acquired more selections around Lake Mountain and on the grazing flats at Buxton moving their cattle and sheep between these pastures.

Grazing of low numbers of cattle at Lake Mountain took place over many decades. The Keppel family gradually died out with the last cattle grazed on Lake Mountain in 1964. The only surviving descendant handed over to the Lands Department, one of the longest held grazing licenses in the history of Victorian alpine grazing.

Early Days at Lake Mountain

The Public Works Department initiated the development of the Lake Mountain area in the early 1920s with the construction of a road towards Lake Mountain from Cumberland Road. Construction crews consisted of unemployed relief labor.

Following the fires of 1939 the road was extended to within 1km of Lake Mountain by the Forest Commission of the times. Members of the Ski Club of Victoria (SCV) visited Lake Mountain in the late 1930’s but it was not until February 1939 that movement to have the area opened for skiing got underway. Early efforts from the SCV members and the general public of Marysville proved fruitless due to the massive destruction of the summer fires of 1939.

The Marysville division of the Ski Club of Victoria held its inaugural meeting on May 28, 1939, with 20 people signing up and Berry Higgs elected as President. In 1940 a basic hut was built at the foot of the Snowy Hill run, accommodating 8 people. It had no bunks and an earth floor which was often soggy and wet. In the same year Marysville SCV members and Rover Scouts cut a trail over the top of Snowy Hill. With the onset of war in 1943, attention and enthusiasm toward the mountain waned and it was not until 1947 that interest was re-kindled with clearing of large open areas for skiing at Snowy Hill. Run development and maintenance continued over the following years. By 1955, a four hectare well groomed gentle slope had been cleared. Ski runs and playgrounds were constructed around the area known today as Berry Higgs Playground. The Marysville SCV division folded in 1960. The original trails at Lake Mountain were ex-logging roads that had been used post-war as access roads to the Federation and Sandstone Ranges.

Actual development of Lake Mountain to its present day status began in the late 1970’s. In 1979 the then Forest Commission of Victoria as the governing authority, had its first nordic trail in place and a toboggan run was constructed. In subsequent years, further trail construction and toboggan runs were constructed along with public shelters, amenity facilities, a food outlet, ski hire, ski school outlet and administration and first aid building.

The Alpine Resorts Commission (ARC) assumed responsibility for the management of the Resort from 1985, until it was disbanded in 1998. The Lake Mountain Alpine Resort Management Board was commissioned in 1998 under Ministerial guidance and prevails as the management authority of Lake Mountain Alpine Resort. Under this management structure the resort has flourished to its present day recognition as Australia’s premier Nordic ski resort and one of the world’s most visited Nordic Ski destinations.