Perisher Valley is a ski resort village in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy River Shire. It is primarily a winter only resort village, although all year round accommodation is available. It is within the Kosciuszko National Park, and is administered by The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service. Access to the Valley is via the Skitube underground railway, or by road. There is an access fee payable to the Park's Service, and motor vehicles are not permitted to stay overnight in the winter months.
At the 2006 census, Perisher Valley had a population of 136 people.[1] In winter, the population is approximately 2,500 guests.
Perisher Valley is one of four villages making up the Perisher ski resort. It is 1,720 metres (5,640 ft) above sea level.
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The first Kosciuszko Chalet was built at Charlotte Pass in 1930, giving relatively comfortable access to Australia's highest terrain.[2] The growing number of ski enthusiasts heading to Charlotte Pass led to the establishment of a cafe at Smiggin Holes around 1939, where horse drawn sleighs would deliver skiers to be begin the arduous ski to the Kosciusko Chalet.[3] It was the construction of the vast Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme from 1949 that really opened up the Snowy Mountains for large scale development of a ski industry and led to the establishment of Thredbo and Perisher as leading Australian resorts.[4][5] The Construction of Guthega Dam brought skiers to the isolated Guthega district and a rope tow was installed there in 1957.[6]
The last establishment of a major skifield in NSW came with the development of Mount Blue Cow in the 1980s. In 1987 the Swiss designed Skitube Alpine Railway opened to deliver skiers from Bullocks Flat, on the Alpine Way, to Perisher Valley and to Blue Cow, which also opened in 1987.[5] The operators of Blue Cow purchased Guthega in 1991, and the new combined resort later merged with Perisher-Smiggins to become the largest ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere.[7] In 2009 Perisher had 48 lifts covering 1,245 hectares and four village base areas: Perisher Valley, Blue Cow, Smiggin Holes and Guthega.[8]
Since 2009, Perisher Valley has been the host of the Snowy Mountains of Music Festival, a folk festival created by the same people behind the Illawarra Folk Festival. The festival runs every year on the Queen's Birthday Weekend, which is also the official start of the Ski Season for the Snowy Mountains. It acts as both a promotional festival for the Australian Snow Season, specifically, Perisher Valley, but also as an outlet for all sorts of Australian and International talent across a diverse range of genres. [9]
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