Skiing arrived in Australia during the gold rush of the 1860s, when Norwegian miners in the Snowy Mountains fashioned skis from local trees and raced downhill. But it would take another century for the sport to go mainstream. That only happened when the next wave of European migrants who came to ?The Snowies? to work on hydroelectric power schemes established permanent ski resorts at Perisher, Selwyn and Thredbo in what is today Kosciuszko National Park. Among them, Thredbo, 500 kilometers southwest of Sydney, stands out as the only ski resort in the state of New South Wales with lodges, restaurants, nightlife and shops -- an Alpine-style ski village that wouldn?t be out of place in continental Europe.
