Perisher Valley

Harold Droga

Harold Droga (“Black Harry”) (1930-2008) was the Managing Director of the Perisher Valley and Smiggin Holes Resort from late 1972 to 1981, a golden age in the growth and transformation of the Resort from its original 1950s and 60s construction era facilities and older style mountain management to the more modern resorts that exist today. Harold joined from Thredbo where he worked for Lend Lease (early 1968-late 1972), initially as the General Manager of the Thredbo Alpine Hotel and then as General Manager of the Thredbo Resort overall . A colourful and imposing character and natural showman, Harold brought a high level of professionalism, vision and innovation to the development and management of the Perisher/Smiggins Resort, establishing Perisher as the largest and most popular and innovative ski resort in Australia.

At the time of his arrival in late 1972, the resort’s business also included the four main hotels – The Man From Snowy River, The Valley Inn, Sundeck and the Smiggins Hotel – in addition to the mountain operations and various retail ski shops and food outlets. The hotels were subsequently sold off in the late 70s to separate owners to allow the resort to focus on its core ski businesses.

One of Harold’s first key jobs at Perisher was to turn the loss-making business into a profitable enterprise for owner Murray Publishing, a subsidiary of the Packer family controlled Australian Consolidated Press. Harold achieved this with great success through a clever combination of very effective multi-media marketing campaigns to build skier interest and visitation, upgrading facilities and mountain services to improve capacity and skier experience and by raising the very low lift ticket prices. Harold’s Sydney based boss, the formidable Kerry Packer, shared and backed Harold’s growth vision for the Resorts with capital and marketing support from his media empire. The initial ticket price increases prompted a loud protest from many of the local Monaro skiers and earned him the sobriquet “Black Harry”. Harold responded, in good humor, by embracing the nickname and wearing his signature black cowboy hat and T-shirt with the name on it.

During his highly successful management period, Perisher went through major expansion and development including the installation of new and modern Doppelmayr lifts (including Australia’s first 3 seater chairlift) , the construction of the existing large Valley Terminal complex known as the Perisher Centre (to replace the previous much smaller wooden building), major car park expansion (to create increased capacity for the swelling number of buses and cars) and the upgrading and modernisation of multiple other mountain side facilities.  The resort was also at the forefront of implementing innovative new advertising and marketing programs and flexible ticket pricing structures. In contrast to the more specialist appeal of Thredbo, Harold understood the value of the “mass market”.

For the up-market clientele (including the Packer family), Harold developed the then uber-luxe Perisher Valley Hotel as part of the new Perisher Centre development. Situated directly in front of the front valley lifts and with few expenses spared, the new 100 bed hotel – with gourmet dining – was designed to provide a level of modern mountain side luxury not seen before in Australian ski resorts.

Under Harold’s management, the resort also encouraged and sponsored the development of freestyle skiing into Australia, establishing Perisher as a clear leader in this area with its freestyle competition and exhibition events showcased on the front valley areas, highlights of which were often shown on local and metropolitan TV news channels.

 Outside of Perisher, Harold expanded the resort’s ski wear retail business to include multiple ski shop retail outlets in Sydney and Canberra, along with a related wholesale import business.

The high level of capital investment and innovation under Harold’s management introduced a much stronger level of competition and professionalism into the Australian ski fields, encouraging other resorts to improve their own facilities and services.

To improve skier choice and break the Austro/Swiss dominated “lock” on the Perisher/Smiggins ski school, Harold also (controversially) introduced a mini-ski school of very flamboyant French ski instructors (with separate special one-piece black ski uniforms) . The initiative, which lasted 2 winter seasons, upset the established Austro-Swiss “cartel” and contributed over time to a gradual opening up the main ski school to other nationalities, as well as an improved negotiating position for the resort in its dealings with the well regarded incumbent.

During their time in Perisher, Harold and his much admired and respected Danish wife Vibeke (1938-2020) and their large family of 6 children – Marcus, Ari, Daniel, Bo, David and Annika – lived in the family owned and very beautiful Valhalla Lodge.

All of their 6 children (and many of the grandchildren) remain keen skiers, spending their “ski time” between Perisher and nearby Thredbo.

After leaving the resort, Harold married Patricia Connolly (a well-known and highly regarded Sydney based media marketing executive) and had a 7^th child Jessica.