A Victorian mountain resort says it faces a drought of visitors and $100 million in lost revenue after heavy rains caused a landslide that will take months to clear, as summer snow falls.
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This week's snowfall is a novelty for many, but it happens more regularly than people think, Falls Creek Alpine Resort chief executive Stuart Smythe says.
He referred back to early December, 2019, when there was 2cm of snow as the Country Fire Authority held a bushfire briefing in the early throes of Black Summer.
"You were walking through snow and you could see the plumes of smoke over on the Kosciuszko ranges," Mr Smythe told AAP.
"It was only something you'd ever see in Australia."
Since Black Summer, Falls Creek has faced COVID-19 lockdowns and capacity restrictions. Operations returned to normal during this year's snow season, only for it to be isolated by a huge landslide caused by heavy rains in October.
The slow-moving landslip is still active and has cut off the resort from its arterial road.
The closure has added hours to the journey for tourists, isolated residents and has sent students attending school in nearby Mount Beauty back into remote learning.
Limited access to an emergency track was granted to essential workers and residents on Thursday but public, single-lane use won't resume until autumn 2023.
The road isn't expected to return to two lanes until next summer.
Regional Roads Victoria says the landslip is one of the most complex in 40 years and it has so far removed about 10,500 cubic metres of material, equivalent to four Olympic swimming pools.
Mr Smythe said the resort had been forced to cancel its busiest ever summer schedule and many of its businesses weren't eligible for most flood-related relief.
"We've been completely forgotten," he said.
He said Falls and its businesses were looking at losses of between $70 million to $100 million over summer.
"Mountain towns never flood, but the water that comes in because of the flooding causes landslips so that's what's killing us,'' Mr Smythe said.
"But we get absolutely no support at all."
He said the resort had been lobbying the state and federal governments for help, which so far had been limited to disaster payments for casual workers and sole traders.
A Victorian government spokesman said Regional Development Victoria was working with Falls to develop solutions.
"We're working with Falls Creek Alpine Resort and the local council to understand the effects on local businesses," the spokesman said.
"We're connecting those businesses with relevant government support."
A National Emergency Management Agency spokesman said the Australian government had committed to jointly fund more than $1 billion in recovery assistance for Victorian communities impacted by the floods.
The spokesman said concessional loans were available for small business and non-profit organisations that had lost significant income because of the floods, which included the landslide.
Australian Associated Press
