, regarding the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19)
What is happening in the Southern Hemisphere, right in the middle of the snow season
Current situation in Australia
As of August 25th, Australia and New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere are in the middle of winter, which is the peak season for the snow business. Normally, many tourists from the Northern Hemisphere would visit, and ski resorts would be very busy. However, due to the coronavirus,
entry for all foreigners is currently restricted.
In Victoria, where Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, is located, infections are spreading rapidly, and Stage 4 has finally been announced, imposing the most stringent restrictions on movement, including a lockdown of urban areas. These restrictions
will have a devastating impact on daily life, such as limiting non-work outings to a 5km radius from home, limiting outings to one hour per day, and imposing a
curfew of 8 pm. These restrictions will continue for at least six weeks, until September 13th, and could be extended for up to six months if the situation continues. These restrictions apply to urban areas, while suburban areas with ski resorts have moved from Stage 2 to Stage 3 restrictions since August 6th. Australia has about 10 ski resorts, but one of the most famous and popular is Mt. Buller, located just three hours from Melbourne in Victoria, where infections are rapidly increasing.
Opening day of the 2020 season on June 24th
Despite the coronavirus pandemic in the Southern Hemisphere, which has the world paying close attention to how the spread of the virus will play out over the winter, the resort was able to safely open on June 24th. Here is the video from that day
People were enjoying themselves while following infection prevention measures and rules, such as acrylic panels at ticket counters and social distancing on lifts, and their joy at being able to say, "I'm so glad the mountain is open!" was overflowing
on August 6, 2020,
at alert level 3.
However...
the situation changed drastically. With the alert level raised to Stage 3, Mt. Buller was closed from August 6th.
We asked Tony Harrigton, a photographer who lives in Mt. Buller, about the actual situation on the mountain. Tony is also the official photographer for Mt. Buller, so he is well-informed about the inner workings of the resort.
With Mt. Buller closed, Tony was forced to stay in a hotel for two weeks after being asked to stay home due to restrictions while traveling to Queensland, where the Gold Coast is located, for surf business
The difficulty lay in this
"The government was overwhelmed with other matters and simply didn't have the resources to focus on the ski resorts. Despite this situation, representatives from all of Australia's ski resorts gathered and held numerous discussions with the government. They discussed social distancing regulations and how they would affect ski resort operations. Then
, representatives from each ski resort spoke with their managers. The biggest issue they encountered was accommodation. Employees who lived and worked on the mountain were no longer able to stay in shared rooms, as they could now only have one room per person." As a result, the
ski resorts had to be run solely by their year-round staff. This extreme reduction in personnel meant that the permanent staff had to take on tasks beyond their regular duties, including disinfecting facilities and implementing various infection prevention measures, causing their workload to balloon. The damage from COVID-19 first manifested as a major personnel problem.
The big lift problem
Then there's the lift problem. Because social distancing requires maintaining a distance of 1.5 meters from each other, only two people can ride a four-seater lift, and three people can ride a six-seater lift. Lift usage has been cut in half. Naturally, profits have plummeted.
However, it was decided that people living under the same roof (residents of shared houses or family members) do not need to be protected. This is because, if they were living together, they would have been infected long ago.
"Strict restrictions were also placed on the number of people allowed into the mountains. Sretbo in New South Wales, another famous resort in Australia, was the first to suspend season passes and issue refunds.
The problem that arose there was securing staff to work in the mountains when season passes could no longer be used. Many of the people who live and work in the mountains do so because they can use season passes, so if season passes are no longer usable, they lose the motivation to come to work."
A one-day pass costs 140 AU dollars, so paying 140 dollars every day is simply not possible. In other words, they no longer have any motivation to work at the ski resort. Not only do they have no accommodation, but they also no longer have any motivation to work, so they're at their wit's end. It's a problem when the ski resort is open but there are no staff
Website crashes due to rush to buy advance tickets
Another major problem was advance tickets. Lift tickets were sold in limited quantities one or two weeks before the start of the season, but sales were suspended for the next six to eight weeks. Everyone tried to buy a one-day ticket on the resort's website, causing a surge in traffic that crashed every resort's website.
"There was a huge outpouring of complaints from people who couldn't buy tickets. Even if you managed to book a hotel or accommodation, you'd lose out if you couldn't get into the mountains because you couldn't buy a ticket, and it became a huge problem. The operations team had a very hard time dealing with this."
A restaurant with a capacity of 100 people can accommodate up to 20 people
"In Australia, there was a rule that all restaurants had to close completely at the start of the season. However, as the infection situation calmed down, they were allowed to reopen, and the restrictions were eased to 10, then 20 people. Originally, they were operating and making a profit with a capacity of around 100 people, so there was a fundamental difficulty in how to make a profit with just 20 people.
And when it got unbearably cold due to rain or snow and people wanted to take shelter somewhere with a roof, they couldn't go into the restaurants because of the capacity limits. So the resort closed part of its in-house shop and turned it into a warming room that could accommodate up to 20 people. The
resort's in-house shop, which originally made thousands of dollars in profit a day, was reduced to just a room to warm up. Because of the bad weather, they had to take all the boots and clothes off the shelves just for 20 people. How wasteful and crazy!"
Tony's gallery, HARROW ART, located in Village Square at the foot of Mt. Buller, also limited admission to a maximum of six people
"So many people wanted to come in to see my photos, but I had to tell them, 'Sorry, sorry, you can't come in, please,' and make them wait outside in the cold. I felt so sorry for them. There's nothing more contradictory and painful than being told 'don't come' in a place that says 'please come'."
Measures to prevent the spread of infection..
Ski patrols work in small teams, but because clusters are likely to occur within each team, they make sure that the teams do not meet with each other. Furthermore, when an injured customer is injured, they provide care while wearing full protective clothing in case the injured customer is infected
To prevent cluster outbreaks at the resort, they implemented a system requiring all visitors to download an app to their smartphones and scan a QR code upon entry to record their movements. Since the app registers names and contact information, if an infected person is found on the mountain, they can contact those at risk as close contacts based on their movement history.
However, despite these measures, the ravages of the infection raged through Mt. Buller, and the resort finally closed. The earliest possible reopening date is September 13th. What will happen?
Text/Editing: STEEP Editorial Department Photos: Tony Harrington