Snow Gums and Open Slopes at Smiggin Holes

Overview

Smiggin Holes sits within the Perisher Range area of Kosciuszko National Park, high in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales. It is one of the smaller alpine resort nodes in the park, with a distinctly compact feel and a setting shaped by open ski slopes, surrounding ridgelines and the broader alpine landscape. Planning for the area keeps that smaller-scale, family-oriented character in place while limiting expansion to already identified sites so the surrounding environment is disturbed as little as possible.

Highlights

The appeal of Smiggin Holes is its alpine setting. Open slopes run up into the surrounding hills, and the village sits in a landscape where built areas quickly give way to broad snow country. Around the resort, the character of the higher country is defined by subalpine flats and valleys, snow gum woodland and the larger sweep of the Perisher Range.

Even within a developed resort area, the sense of being in Australia’s highest mountain country is strong. The contrast between treeless runs, rolling landforms and pockets of snow gum gives Smiggin Holes a softer, more rounded alpine look than the sharper rockier country closer to the Main Range.

Best Time to Visit

Smiggin Holes changes a lot with the seasons. Winter is when the snow country character is at its clearest, and that is when the open slopes and alpine atmosphere are most defining. Outside winter, the appeal shifts to the broader mountain setting, with the subalpine landscape, open valleys and snow gum country more visible once the snow has cleared.

Seasonal conditions vary from year to year at this elevation. Snow cover here can be more marginal than in the highest parts of the park, so the look and feel of the place can differ quite a bit between one winter and the next.

Plants and Animals

Smiggin Holes sits in a part of Kosciuszko known for sensitive alpine and subalpine habitat. Around the resort, the landscape includes snow gum woodland, frost hollows with grassland, and wet areas such as bogs and fens. These communities are a major part of what makes the area feel different from lower mountain country.

The wider Perisher Range area also supports important threatened species habitat. This includes one of the few populations of the mountain pygmy-possum, and Kosciuszko National Park more broadly is home to alpine specialists such as the southern corroboree frog. In a place like Smiggin Holes, even small changes in snow cover, drainage or vegetation can matter because these high-country ecosystems are so specialised.