Club History

Conceived in 1962 and established with our original building works in 1964, we are one of the oldest clubs on Mt Buller and still retain the original feel of what it was like to stay on Mt Buller in the 60’s and 70’s with a modern twist.

In 1962 a group of friends decided to build their own ski lodge because of the shortage of beds available at short notice, and the costs of those that were available. A group of 20 people were at the first official meeting held at the Prince of Wales Hotel in St Kilda.  A preliminary plan was designed and a second meeting was held at which a committee was elected and a name was decided. The name Nutcracker was chosen. A “Nutcracker” was an implement used on the old rope tows that were on Mt Buller at the time and used to attach to the rope as the tow pulled the skier up the hill.

The initial members were:- Mike Morcom, David Langworthy, Max Cooper, Stan Darnley, Laci Toth, Don Williams 1 and Don Williams 2, Greg Anderson, Lee Chapman, Ian Thompson, Don Murray, Lou Jones, Imre Faraday, Joska Banhidy, Roman Sigel, Peter Coulson, Geoff Larkin, Ken Gaylard, Marie Anthony, Marilyn Garvey, Ross McIntosh, George Camakaris, Mike Lolagis and Geoff Wilkinson.

The necessary applications were made, plans lodged and construction details mapped out. The site was surveyed and in early 1964 work began on clearing away the trees and earth that needed to be removed. By Easter 1964, the first stumps were installed.

The Nutcracker building grew rapidly. One wonders whether we would have built it faster if we used the empty bottles from the beer consumed on site to add to the quality of the building.

In 1964 saw a tremendous snowfall and the framing was buried to within a few inches of the roof as some of our photos show. Due to the help of various people we managed to ski as a Club in 1964 usually staying at Mt Buller lodge. In those days, Saturday night was Club party night at one or other of the various clubs on the mountain. The Kooroora hotel had just been rebuilt after the fire that destroyed the original hotel in 1963. Alberg in its present form didn’t exist and “The Whit” was king and centre of the social life.

Came Spring 1964 and work recommenced. Work proceeded rapidly and despite some setbacks by early in 1965 the walls were complete and we proceeded to lay the roof. On the Labour Day long weekend of 1965 the whole roof was laid. First canite, then the roof battens, electrical wiring, followed by ACI pink bats, the prettiest insulation. (Pity you can’t see it coz its turned yellow with age.) After the pink bats the corrugated iron was laid and screwed down. We then had to wait to see if any of the screws had penetrated the electrical wiring. Fortunately none did. With the roof on the laying of the floor commenced and the rest of the building was completed without accident. All of the construction was done without the aid of power tools. 

Easter 1965 saw a memorable event when Mike Morcom, David Langworthy, Lee Chapman and Ken Brain became the first people to reside in the building whilst others attending the work party stayed at Mt Buller lodge. On Good Friday the temperature fell to around minus 3 and the lodgers tried to get warm with hot toddies beside the kerosene heater that had been set up in bunkroom one. Huey sent it down and in no time snow covered the mountain.  With no front windows the snow swirled through the main room which was only half floored.

However, by the Queen’s birthday weekend we had an operating lodge with temporary bedding, hot water and heating. An on site generator supplied electricity until connection to the state grid a couple of years later. The following summer saw further improvements but the loss of some members.

By the 1966 season was the Club was fully functional party when about half the people on the mountain wandered through at various stages of the night to partake of our hospitality and the ski tows opened an hour late next day due to operator hangovers. The club has over the past 50 years seen many members come and go. Members got married and divorced moved interstate and overseas, became successful and bought bigger and more luxurious apartments on the mountain. The seasons have been good bad and more often than not indifferent. Over the past 20 years snow making has contributed to the ongoing viability of the mountain so there is always something to do some turns on even if the real stuff fails to come.

All during these years many of the Nutcracker members contributed to the development of Mt Buller by joining the ski patrol or serving as a members of the Mt Buller Rate payers association, the Victoria Ski Association and the Mt Buller Planning committee.

In the 1980’s the Club decided that it should have a resident manager for the ski season to welcome guests and ensure that the essential tasks around the lodge were completed. After a succession of people who did the job for a year the Club was fortunate to find Carol Renwick was the manager for many years. More recently Warren (Wozza) Smith was our manager and could be regularly seen performing all round the mountain either for the kids at the skischool or in one in one of the bars late at night.

Over the years the Club’s facilities have been modernised and updated to ensure a pleasant and comfortable stay.

Like all organisations, the membership changes over time and the Club lost a number of members and gained some new ones. Jess and Margie O’Brien, Mick Sheehan, Peter Georgiadis and Phoebe Moore are the more recent additions to the membership whilst the Club has lost Roman and Dianne Sigel, George Long, Jimmy Colias, David Lester and Bob Jamieson as members. Sadly, in 2020 two of our long standing original members Laci Toth and Don Chisholm passed away.

In 2020 and 2021 COVID presented huge challenges to the operations of all businesses on Mt Buller. Constant updates by government as to how we could operate made life extremely difficult as well as the huge increases in the cost of insurance. Consequently, this necessitated changes to our operations to rein in costs in order to ensure our sustainability. We chose to no longer have a full time lodge manager, and for health and safety reasons we chose to sell rooms only to 3rd party guests instead of single beds. We also introduced a laundry service so guests no longer had to bring their own linen/bedding. Through all of this the club has remained resilient and has survived.

Sadly, Mt Buller legend Hans Grimus passed away and Nutcracker contributed to the wonderful sculpture that now sits at the entrance to the village. (See picture below on the unveiling day of the Grimus sculpture)

In 2023, our only current Life Member, Lee Chapman, his picture is below, celebrated his 60th year with our club and was one of original pioneers, as noted above, when the current building we occupy was built on 1964. He remains a very active and inspirational member of our club, and provides great guidance and insights to our committee and can still ski the pants off most of us!

The future challenge for Nutcracker is to adjust to the new market demands where people who ski, seem to want apartment or motel type accommodation rather than experience Club life. However, if you want to experience a truly great ski experience then a Nutcracker Ski holiday is for you.  

Lee Chapman, Life Member and Legend of our club at the unveiling of the Grimus Sculpture on the 20th May 23.

Mt Buller Ski Patrol Celebrates 75 Years in 2025 &

Nutcracker Ski Club members have been proudly involved

Nutcracker was invited to have members join the Ski Rescue Service, forerunner to the current Ski Patrol. Don Murray and Lee Chapman joined up 1966 and did the Apline Rescue course conducted by Ambulance Victoria as SRS members would be dealing with major trauma within six weeks of finishing the course. The SRS operated out of what is now the medical centre which was staffed by volunteer doctors. The SRS didn't have radios or skidoos so injured skiers had to skied in an “akja” (this is a german word for rescue sled used by mountain guards) to the medical centre where patrol members would prepare patients for the doctor and assist in stitching large cuts and applying plaster casts to broken legs and arms. Patients would then be driven in the ambulance based on the mountain downhill to meet an ambulance from Mansfield. Trilene was the mild anesthetic used then. Conditions then were a lot more icy than in recent years and there was no snow grooming so patrollers ski bindings were set to maximum as they couldn't afford to come out of a ski whilst towing an akja down a slope.

Patrollers skied in all conditions. They established good relations with the tow operators who were essential when loading an akja to a lift.  For T bars and Pomas a rope system was used with a quick release for when the akja reached the top of the run.  When the tow operator declared last run the ski patrollers on that run would sweep it to ensure there were no injured skiers. They would then come up the run just in front  of the tow operator.  One day the operator said he would be shovelling snow at the bottom of Bull Run for a while and we could continue to ski so Alan Terrens and I skied Bull for another hour, just the two of us.. It was fabulous. After skiing patrollers would go to the Ski Club of Victoria (The Whitt) for a beer and most became members.

One evening whilst there they were summoned to a serious accident. The snow plough had run off the road just below White Bridge. Patrollers recovered the body of the driver who had been crushed in the accident. The double ended Poma lift that ran from Bourke St to below Kofler's saw many head injuries as skiers would swing out at the high point and release the Poma which would swing into skiers heads coming from the other end. That Poma was replaced.

Sadly the head of the SRS, Mike Pendergast died in a car accident and John Phillips took over. As SRS members were volunteers there were times when patrollers were few in number, particularly midweek so the Forests Commission which administered Mt Buller appointed a number of paid patrollers. Eventually the current Ski Patrol format came into being. When Medicare was introduced a full time doctor and nurse were appointed and eventually the ski patrol relocated to its current building below the medical centre. When Ambulance Victoria ceased to provide the training the Australian Ski Patrollers Association did the training. Later Alan Terrens of the Mt Buller patrol became the training officer. Lee skied with the SRS for seven years by which time family and work responsibilities reduced the amount of time he had to participate.

Other Nutcracker members, who skied with Ski Patrol in its current format were Bob Jamieson and Jill Morcom.

Nutcracker Ski Club has therefore made a significant contribution to the Ski Patrol, with four members involved over many years.

Other contributions from our members to the Mt Buller Community over the years have been Lee Chapman (Treasurer of the old Victorian Ski Association) and also was on the (MBRA Committee for two years), while Sue Ellem, a life member was on the first committees of the MBRA.