People

The inaugural dinner provided an opportunity to take three-time Olympic skier and former resident of The Chalet – Bill Day – back to the ski slopes and home he grew up in at Charlotte Pass. Although at boarding school, home for Bill was The Chalet, which was managed by his father George between 1932 and…

Christine Davy was a member of the 1956 and 1960 Australian Winter Olympic teams.  She competed in Downhill, Giant Slalom and Slalom. Following retirement from competitive skiing, Christine became a pioneer female in commercial aviation.

Fritz, Margot & their daughter Mandy about 1973. Fritz is playing his harp taken at Marritz Alpine Inn.  

In May, 1970, Hans Zollinger – proprietor of Hans Oversnow – set out to fly from Zurich to Cooma. Skiing attracts a fascinating range of people, very often their stories involve personal successes of determination and are enthralling.  Hans is one of these people and he has written the following account of the journey. My…

Henri de Vouassoux was a Frenchman who taught the Emile Allais method at the North Perisher Tow Hut in 1959 and also did some instruction at Guthega on weekends.

Johnnie Abbottsmith, ‘Abbo’ to his friends, was born in 1918.  The son of a surveyor, he first came to the Snowy Mountains in his teens, working as geologist’s offsider for a gold mining company around Cooma. He then went on to work at the Hotel Kosciusko, first as a grease monkey in the engine room…

Ken Murray, known to all as “KG” was the initial major developer of Perisher Valley.  His company K.G. Murray Publishing Company from 1959 until 1973 built (except for the North Perisher T-bar) and controlled, both ski-lifts and hotels, operated the ski school, established retail outlets and initially held responsibility for all liquor sales.  The company…

Another story of life and work in Perisher. Uwe arrived from Germany in April 1960 and, after a year in Mt Isa, began travelling around Australia on his BMW 500 motor cycle. He rode into Perisher Valley in  ctober 1961, noticed a new timber lodge called Eiger Chalet, and continued up to Charlotte Pass where…

Rick Walkom came from the Blayney district of NSW where his family were 4th generation graziers.  After university, it was expected he would return to the land.  Alas, like so many before and after him, Kosciuszko seduced him in 1975 and his life went off in an entirely different direction.  The ‘R.M’s’ became ‘moon boots’…

The marriage of Dianne Robertson and Kurt Brulisaur made it into the Canberra Times on 26 May, 1970.

Snowy Mountain’s tourism pioneer Ron Deane passed away in 2009 aged 82 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Ron’s links to the region go back to the fifties when he purchased Beaver Tours and conducted popular Snowy Hydro tours from Cooma. Spurred on by this success and the interest in the snowfields generally he went…