Annual Report 2024: Objective 1 - Enable investment that drives sustainable businesses

Since inception, ARV has worked with tourism and alpine operators to diversify and develop the visitor experience and public infrastructure of the resorts, primarily through investment from both State and Federal grant programs.

ARV also seeks to attract commercial investment in the resorts to continually enhance the visitor experience.

As a land manager for 10,590 hectares and 450 leasehold properties, ARV facilitates property administration and planning that supports sustainable development.

ARV also delivers essential services such as power, gas and water that are foundational for successful resort operations, and continued growth to meet the evolving needs of visitors.

In addition, ARV faces the challenge of ensuring the regulatory frameworks that the organisation operates within support these objectives, and that external factors are managed or influenced to facilitate any required changes.

This is where ARV’s role as an advocate and lead voice for the alpine sector is critical.

Economic significance of the Alpine Resorts

Victoria’s alpine resorts are major contributors to the Victorian visitor economy. To quantify the scale of this contribution, ARV commissioned consultants SGS Economics & Planning to deliver a study of the economic and social significance of Mt Buller, Falls Creek, Mt Hotham, Mt Stirling, Mt Baw Baw and Lake Mountain Alpine Resort.

This work revisits and builds on a similar study by EY for the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council in 2017. The study, released in June 2024 to coincide with the official opening of the snow season, found that the alpine resorts collectively deliver:

• $2.14 billion dollars in economic output annually, with $1.33 billion generated directly by visitor expenditure.
• 12,130 full-time equivalent jobs > the equivalent of $154 million in annual user and health benefits, including $137 million in improved mental and physical health of resort visitors.
• $820 million in annual existence benefits, which is the value people gain from the presence of the alpine resorts even without direct use.
• $133 million in annual benefits for businesses and workers, consisting of $121 million in business profits and $12 million in benefits for workers.
• for every $1 of government investment in resort assets, this leverages $4 in private sector investment.

Beyond economic benefits, the study also found that the resorts provide important environmental benefits to the state’s ecosystems through programs run by ARV, including renewable energy generation, resource recovery, land stability programs, integrated water management, weed and pest control, biodiversity management and threatened species management.

In addition, Victoria’s alpine resorts offer social benefits such as improved wellbeing and physical health, including:

• improved physical health for visitors, stemming from participation in activities that contribute to people living healthier and longer lives.
• reduced health system costs related to managing diseases linked with physical inactivity.
• improved economic productivity due to physically active individuals taking fewer sick days than physically inactive individuals.

Expression of interest for Lake Mountain and Mt Baw Baw Managment

Since assuming management of Lake Mountain and Mt Baw Baw, ARV has introduced a series of operational changes that have enhanced the profitability of commercial services in these resorts and also reduced operational costs.

This work has delivered positive outcomes so far, reflective of the hard work and commitment of the teams at Mt Baw Baw and Lake Mountain.

While ARV remains committed to delivering further efficiencies at Lake Mountain and Mt Baw Baw, it acknowledges that other commercial entities may be better positioned to run these mountains in a more efficient and effective way.

Importantly, alternate commercial operators may have capacity to invest in the tourism offerings of these destinations to provide them with a vibrant and sustainable future.

In order to test the market and potential opportunities associated with these resorts, ARV launched an expression of interest (EOI) for Mt Baw Baw and Lake Mountain at the start of December 2024.

Closing February 2025, the EOI asked suitably qualified entities to propose management solutions for one or both resorts, in their entirety, including the operation of both commercial and essential services.

Via ferrata at Mt Buller

Australia’s first via ferrata 'RockWire' climb opened at Mt Buller in February 2024. This green season activity offers guests a taste of mountaineering on Mt Buller’s summit in a safe environment, with a climbing instructor leading the way.

The 'RockWire' enables guests to be hooked onto a continuous steel cable system that enables them to safely traverse the summit’s west face using fixed anchors, ladders, bridges and handholds. In its first season, more than 430 climbers aged from nine to 78 scaled the heights.

The term 'via ferrata' means 'iron way' in Italian, and dates back to World War One, when soldiers built cable systems to help them cross challenging mountain passes in the Dolomites.

This was an initiative of Buller Ski Lifts, which was supported by ARV under the strategic objective of enhancing the visitor experience and offering iconic products for resort guests. Plans are in place for a second via ferrata course on the summit to open in 2025.

Mt Hotham alpine gateway

Alpine Gateway, which opened in June 2024, operates as a new trailhead for the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing and a visitor facility to enhance year-round access to mountain activities.

With a multi-level car park, including more than 50 undercover parking spaces, the site provides direct ski field access and is fitted out with fully accessible amenities including lockers, showers and heated community areas.

The impressive day shelter also provides Disabled Wintersport Australia (DWA) with a 20-square-meter storage and workshop area, along with a transfer room for intermediate-to-advanced sit skiers to transfer themselves seamlessly to the snow fields.

Supported with funding by the Victorian Government, the facility will also serve as an ideal starting point for exploring the area’s network of walking trails in the warmer months.

Key worker accommodation

ARV has supported continued investment and attraction of funding from the Regional Worker Accommodation Fund (RWAF) to create an additional 1300 worker accommodation beds across Falls Creek, Mt Buller and Mt Hotham.

This $138 million project, to be delivered by the Grollo Group, will see the development of 1300 new key worker beds at the Mt Hotham Airfield, Mt Buller and Bogong Village near Falls Creek.

The Grollo Group, which is the recipient of the RWAF, will build modern and appropriate accommodation that meets the increasing demand for worker accommodation at the resorts.

This project is essential to ensuring the sustainability of Victoria’s alpine resorts and provides critical investment in resorts to enable continued and sustainable growth for the sector. The project is expected to commence in 2025 and to be completed by the end of 2026.

Page last updated: 21/04/26