Mount Buller, Victoria
Encyclopedia
Mount Buller is a town in Victoria
, Australia
208 kilometres (129.2 mi) east of Melbourne
on the slopes of Mount Buller
(elevation 1804 metres AHD
). Primarily a resort town, Mount Buller is popular with snowsports enthusiasts in winter due to its close location to Melbourne. At the 2006 census
, Mount Buller had a population of 251.
The Mount Buller Alpine Resort
is an unincorporated area
of Victoria; the larger surrounding locality of Mount Buller is part of the Shire of Mansfield.
The town has around 7000 beds available in accommodation facilities, the most of any Victorian ski resort.
La Trobe University
had a minor campus at Mount Buller. The campus facilities included a public cinema, gym and indoor sporting facilities. La Trobe has vacated the mountain, however the Resort Management Board is now using the building, better known as the Mount Buller Community Centre, as its home. All facilities are still operational, with the cinema, gym and sports hall open all year round.
Mount Buller is also the home of the National Alpine Museum
.
Before 1984 Mount Buller was serviced by two lift companies that involved the skier needing to purchase two lift tickets to ski the whole mountain. In 1985, the two lift companies merged, allowing skiers to ski the whole mountain with one ticket. Today, Mount Buller is serviced by 24 lifts covering a wide range of terrain. In 1993, with an increasing number of visitors, the ski resort built a new quad chairlift called Wombat Lift on the skiers right of Little Buller spur to relieve the traffic on Federation triple chairlift. 2005 saw the addition of the Emirates quad chairlift to the lift network. A new six-seater chairlift — the Holden Express — was installed over the 2007/08 summer and is operational for 2008. This addition saw the decommissioning of one of the oldest chairs of the mountain — the Abom (previously known as Helicopter), along with Blue Bullet 2. A list of every ski tow to ever operate at Mount Buller can be found at wikiski.
. Australia's first resort-wide wireless internet service is available in the village, operated by Whispar.
24 Lifts at Mount Buller include:
Blue Bullet 1, Holden Express, Skyline, Emirates, Bull Run, Federation, Southside, Summit, Grimus, Boggy Creek, Tirol, Spurs, Burnt Hut, Wombat, Howqua, Koflers, Chamois, Bluff View, Burke Street Carpet, Horse Hill Access, Baldy Rope Tow
Aerial Skiing
World Cup events every year in September. However, these events were cancelled in 2007 due to lack of sponsorship. Every year Mount Buller also hosts the Victorian Snowsports Championships, which has with over 3000 competitors.
The Mount Buller summit and faces are also popular with ice climbers
especially in winter.
The Mount Buller snowmaking systems use a combination system of fan and air/water guns. The system is based around a central high level water storage reservoir, pump station and central air compressor station. Large distribution pipelines deliver the water and compressed air to the various ski runs. Water and compressed air delivery hydrants are located down the edge of the runs where the snow guns are coupled using flexible snowmaking hoses. The system currently has 223 snow gun connection hydrants around the mountain, of these, 81 are connected to snowmaking guns - 57 fan guns and 58 air/water guns.
The coverage of snowmaking at Mount Buller includes:
Total ski able area of snowmaking: Over 74 hectares
with an influence of the oceanic climate
.
.
During the summer the resort has a number of Mountain Biking tracks.
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
208 kilometres (129.2 mi) east of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on the slopes of Mount Buller
Mount Buller (Victoria)
Mount Buller is a mountain in the Australian Alps.The summit of Buller can be reached by vehicle via the village coupled with a 500m short walk. It is also possible to climb the peak from Delatite river level you can follow the Klingsporn walking track. The Klingsporn track was the bridle trail in...
(elevation 1804 metres AHD
Australian Height Datum
The Australian Height Datum is a geodetic datum for altitude measurement in Australia. According to Geoscience Australia, "In 1971 the mean sea level for 1966-1968 was assigned the value of zero on the Australian Height Datum at thirty tide gauges around the coast of the Australian continent...
). Primarily a resort town, Mount Buller is popular with snowsports enthusiasts in winter due to its close location to Melbourne. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Mount Buller had a population of 251.
The Mount Buller Alpine Resort
Mount Buller Alpine Resort
The Mount Buller Alpine Resort is an alpine resort within the Australian state of Victoria with the Mount Stirling Alpine Resort surrounded by, but not a part of, the Shire of Mansfield for the management of Mount Buller...
is an unincorporated area
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
of Victoria; the larger surrounding locality of Mount Buller is part of the Shire of Mansfield.
Mount Buller Village
La Trobe University
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...
had a minor campus at Mount Buller. The campus facilities included a public cinema, gym and indoor sporting facilities. La Trobe has vacated the mountain, however the Resort Management Board is now using the building, better known as the Mount Buller Community Centre, as its home. All facilities are still operational, with the cinema, gym and sports hall open all year round.
Mount Buller is also the home of the National Alpine Museum
National Alpine Museum
The National Alpine Museum of Australia is located at Mount Buller, Victoria, Australia at the Mt Buller Community Centre, formerly the campus of La Trobe University. It is "a non-profit; membership supported Museum dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting elements from the broad...
.
Mount Buller Ski Resort
The ski area around the town has a network of 25 lifts, capable of moving more than 40,000 people per hour - the highest capacity in Victoria. The highest lifted point is 1780 m at Grimus Chairlift and the base altitude is 1375 m at the Chalet Creek loading station on the Horse Hill chairlift / gondola. The lifts are owned by Groset, a part of the Grollo group of companies.History
A Mount Buller Post Office opened on 17 February 1958.Before 1984 Mount Buller was serviced by two lift companies that involved the skier needing to purchase two lift tickets to ski the whole mountain. In 1985, the two lift companies merged, allowing skiers to ski the whole mountain with one ticket. Today, Mount Buller is serviced by 24 lifts covering a wide range of terrain. In 1993, with an increasing number of visitors, the ski resort built a new quad chairlift called Wombat Lift on the skiers right of Little Buller spur to relieve the traffic on Federation triple chairlift. 2005 saw the addition of the Emirates quad chairlift to the lift network. A new six-seater chairlift — the Holden Express — was installed over the 2007/08 summer and is operational for 2008. This addition saw the decommissioning of one of the oldest chairs of the mountain — the Abom (previously known as Helicopter), along with Blue Bullet 2. A list of every ski tow to ever operate at Mount Buller can be found at wikiski.
Facilities
There are around 80 km of groomed trails spread over more than 300 hectares of terrain. 25% is beginner terrain, 45% intermediate and 30% advanced. There are also 9 km of cross-country trails accessible from the village. These trails also connect Mount Buller with Mount StirlingMount Stirling
Mount Stirling is a cross-country and backcountry ski resort in the Australian state of Victoria approximately 230 km from Melbourne. Mount Stirling is a popular location for beginner backcountry skiers and snowboarders due to its distance from Melbourne and proximity to the Mount Buller...
. Australia's first resort-wide wireless internet service is available in the village, operated by Whispar.
24 Lifts at Mount Buller include:
Blue Bullet 1, Holden Express, Skyline, Emirates, Bull Run, Federation, Southside, Summit, Grimus, Boggy Creek, Tirol, Spurs, Burnt Hut, Wombat, Howqua, Koflers, Chamois, Bluff View, Burke Street Carpet, Horse Hill Access, Baldy Rope Tow
Events
Mount Buller usually hosts two International Ski FederationInternational Ski Federation
The International Ski Federation, known by its name in French, Fédération Internationale de Ski is the main international organisation for ski sports...
Aerial Skiing
Freestyle skiing
Freestyle skiing is form of skiing which used to encompass two disciplines: aerials, and moguls. Except the two disciplines mentioned earlier Freestyle Skiing now consists of Skicross, Half Pipe and Slope Style...
World Cup events every year in September. However, these events were cancelled in 2007 due to lack of sponsorship. Every year Mount Buller also hosts the Victorian Snowsports Championships, which has with over 3000 competitors.
The Mount Buller summit and faces are also popular with ice climbers
Ice climbing
Ice climbing, as the term indicates, is the activity of ascending inclined ice formations. Usually, ice climbing refers to roped and protected climbing of features such as icefalls, frozen waterfalls, and cliffs and rock slabs covered with ice refrozen from flows of water. For the purposes of...
especially in winter.
Snowmaking
Snowmaking began on Mount Buller in the 1970s with a pilot system on Enzian Ski Run, which was later moved to Bourke Street. The main snowmaking infrastructure was installed in 1994 at the Snowflake Factory on the top of Baldy. This included the water storage reservoir, air compressors, pump station and distribution pipelines for water and compressed air. The snowmaking system infrastructure and distribution pipelines were designed and built to accommodate future increases in capacity as coverage areas are increased.The Mount Buller snowmaking systems use a combination system of fan and air/water guns. The system is based around a central high level water storage reservoir, pump station and central air compressor station. Large distribution pipelines deliver the water and compressed air to the various ski runs. Water and compressed air delivery hydrants are located down the edge of the runs where the snow guns are coupled using flexible snowmaking hoses. The system currently has 223 snow gun connection hydrants around the mountain, of these, 81 are connected to snowmaking guns - 57 fan guns and 58 air/water guns.
The coverage of snowmaking at Mount Buller includes:
- Bourke Street
- Baldy
- Skyline
- Magic Forest
- Chamois
- Snowtubing Park
- Spurs Beginner Area
- Burnt Hut
- Koflers
- Summit
- Scott Talbut Downhill
- Howqua
- Howqua Extension
- Family Run
- Little Buller Spur
- Whiskey Creek Trail
- Wombat
- Shakey Knees
- Access trails
Total ski able area of snowmaking: Over 74 hectares
Climate
Mount Buller experiences an alpine climateAlpine climate
Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....
with an influence of the oceanic climate
Oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
.
Miscellaneous
The area between Mount Buller and Mount Stirling is the primary catchment for the Delatite RiverDelatite River
The Delatite River is a tributary of the Goulburn River in Australia.The river rises between the ski resort mountains of Mount Stirling and Mount Buller on the Western edge of the Victorian Alps...
.
During the summer the resort has a number of Mountain Biking tracks.