Western Australia is moving closer to opening its first ski slope, thanks to a proposal for a $50 million (Aus) indoor snow park at Perth.
Plans for the privately-financed project include two parallel runs about 350m long, with one at 15 degrees for beginners and the other at 30 degrees for advanced skiers.
There will also be a halfpipe and terrain park. The plans also include an outdoor ski jump training area. The precise location of the new facility has not yet been finalised.
Australian companies have been pioneers of indoor snowmaking since the 1980s when one of the first indoor snow slopes in the world opened in Adelaide. The country has also exported indoor snow technology for snowdomes, one off events and even for movie filming worldwide. The most technologically advanced indoor snow concept, the revolving indoor Ski Track snowdome mooted for several locations worldwide, including as the base of the latest mega development in Dubai, is also Australian.
Australia’s conventional ski areas are also continuing to expand, but suffered a poor snow season in 2006 and there are projections that climate change will end all natural snowfall in the country by the middle of this century. A feasibility study had shown that Perth had 50,000 skiers who traveled to Eastern Australia or overseas regularly to ski.
The proposed Perth slope with two ski slopes, each 350m long, and a terrain park. The complex would cover 60,000square metres and would aim to be built over 18 months in 2008-2009. The slope lengths would put the dome amongst the ten longest of the 60 or so centres in 20 countries likely to be operational by 2010.
Australia’s original indoor ski centre at Mt Barton in Adelaide has had successive owners with financial difficulties in recent years and is believed to have ceased operating. A second small indoor snow facility is located at the Big Banana Theme Park on the country’s Gold Coast. Perth is believed to have around 50,000 active skiers. The closest major indoor snow centre is Snow Planet at Auckland in New Zealand although Ski Dubai across the Indian Ocean is, relatively speaking, not much further in the opposite direction.
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