Changes to fees and concessions at Mt Buller and Mt Stirling have generated discussion across the district, with former Tourism Victoria chair Andrew Dwyer AM among those calling for the decisions to be reconsidered. The concerns follow changes to free resort entry arrangements for visitors over 65, the introduction of camping fees at Mt Stirling and questions raised about new fees for local school groups. "ARV will be arguing that all they are doing is implementing the same policy across all the resorts," Mr Dwyer said. "The sensible outcome is not to remove free entry for seniors at Mount Buller, but to extend it across all Victorian alpine resorts. "The financial impact would be negligible, but the goodwill generated would be enormous." Mr Dwyer said the issue was about more than a single concession. "The Mansfield seniors concession existed because it recognised a unique local partnership between Mount Buller and the Mansfield community," he said. "'Consistency' has become a convenient excuse for stripping away locally-earned benefits." He also questioned changes affecting resort entry arrangements for Mansfield Shire school groups. "If the answer is a rounding error in ARV's budget, then they have sacrificed decades of goodwill and community trust for virtually nothing," he said. "This program has been running for over 30 years - my kids were on it when they were at Jamieson Primary." The changes have led to an online petition calling for the reinstatement of free resort entry for seniors and Mansfield Shire school students, which attracted 364 signatures within three days. However, ARV said the changes followed the introduction of a new resort entry booking platform and vehicle monitoring system across Victoria's six alpine resorts. "With the introduction of a common platform across the resorts, ARV has also standardised its approach to resort entry permits, so that the same concessions are equitably applied at all locations," an ARV spokesperson said. "While Mounts Buller and Stirling previously offered complimentary resort entry for visitors aged over 65, other resorts provided a discounted rate or no discount at all. "As a middle ground between these approaches, ARV has introduced a 20 per cent discount on Resort Entry Season Permits for people with a Senior's Card across every resort." ARV has also introduced year-round camping fees at Mt Stirling, which was previously free, now set at $17.30 per night. "The decision to introduce a camping charge at Mt Stirling Alpine Resort by ARV reflects the growing level of services and infrastructure provided on that mountain," the spokesperson said. "The fee contributes directly to the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of visitor amenities and services including the cleaning of toilets and huts, firewood supply to camping sites and maintenance of huts. "The recent replacement of the fireplaces and ovens in some of the huts is an example of the kind of maintenance that the fees will assist with funding." The authority said it would continue to monitor the impact of the changes as part of future reviews.
