Thredbo Days

Description

Fiona Jane Ellingsen has spent over three decades gathering information about her family. Her interest in genealogy was sparked by her son’s desire to find out more about his maternal grandfather. In the process, the years growing up in the early days of Thredbo in the Australian Snowy Mountains became an inevitable part of her family’s history. Through interviews with family members, her own recollections and extensive research, this story crystallised into a chapter in her family history book.

After visiting the Ski Museum in Thredbo with her sister Netty, early in 2017, it became apparent that this chapter was of interest to a wider audience than her own extended family. (A transcript of this oral history can be found here.)

When Fiona lived in Thredbo from the age of four until her late teens in the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, she was one of very few village children who lived there permanently. It was a unique time when Thredbo was established as a ski resort, mostly by migrants starting a new life in the aftermath of World War II. Her mother spent her holidays skiing at the Chalet, where the idea of building a commercial lodge in Thredbo first arose, and which eventually led her family to become a part of the history of Thredbo.