Australia's ski season runs June to September across Thredbo, Perisher and Charlotte Pass in New South Wales and Hotham, Falls Creek and Buller in Victoria. Hiring happens in one autumn wave, months before the snow.
What roles do resorts hire for?
More than the obvious ones, and the pay differs sharply. Lift operations, ski and snowboard instruction, ski patrol, hospitality across bars and restaurants, accommodation housekeeping and reception, retail in hire and clothing shops, snowmaking and grooming on overnight shifts, and ticketing and bookings.
Two require qualifications before you apply: instruction, which needs Australian Professional Snowsport Instructors certification or a recognised international equivalent, and patrol, which needs both medical and snow qualifications. Everything else is trainable on site, which is why lift operations and hospitality take the largest share of working holiday makers.
When do you have to apply?
March and April, for a season starting in June. Resorts recruit in a single autumn wave and most positions are filled before the first snow, so an application in May competes for whatever is left.
Staff accommodation is allocated with the early offers. Housing on or near the mountain is scarce, and an offer without it turns a profitable season into an expensive one. What improves your odds is an RSA already in hand for hospitality roles, prior snow experience for lift operations, and flexibility about which department you land in.
Which award covers you?
The one that matches the work, not the fact that it happens on a mountain. The same resort employs people under three or four different instruments at once.
- Hospitality roles: the Hospitality Award, with evening, weekend and public holiday penalties
- Retail in hire and clothing shops: the General Retail Industry Award
- Lift operations: commonly the Amusement, Events and Recreation Award, or a resort enterprise agreement
- Instruction: arrangements specific to the resort or ski school
- Snowmaking and grooming: overnight and shift loadings apply
Weekends are the resort's peak, so casual staff commonly work Friday through Sunday, precisely when penalty rates are highest. A roster loaded towards the weekend is worth materially more than the same hours midweek.
What should you check about staff accommodation?
The deduction, in writing, before you accept. Some resorts provide accommodation free or heavily subsidised, some charge a weekly rent taken out of wages, and some leave you to find your own where there is almost nothing available.
Where rent is deducted it has to be a lawful deduction: agreed in writing, reasonable, and shown on the payslip. Work out the net figure before you commit, the wage less the accommodation charge divided by the hours you will genuinely be rostered, against a job in town. Our guide to what deductions from wages are lawful covers the test.
Does ski work count towards the second year visa?
Generally no, and this is where people are most often misinformed. Tourism and hospitality work counts as specified work only in northern Australia or in designated remote and very remote areas, and the alpine resorts in New South Wales and Victoria do not sit in those zones.
So a season pulling beers at Thredbo is unlikely to advance your 88 days. Some construction and maintenance work at a resort can fall into an eligible category on its own terms. Because the postcode lists and eligible categories are set by Home Affairs and change, verify your specific role and location against their current lists before you rely on a ski season for a second year.
Are you covered if you are hurt on the mountain?
Yes, as an employee. Workers compensation covers medical treatment, weekly payments while you cannot work and lump sums for permanent impairment, from the first shift, with no relevance to your visa.
The injuries are not only the dramatic ones. Falls during instruction or patrol, slips inside resort buildings, lifting injuries in hire shops fitting gear all day, and cold related injuries on overnight snowmaking shifts are the pattern. Report anything at the time rather than at the end of the season, because an injury not recorded when it occurred is far harder to establish later. Our guide to workplace injury rights covers the framework.
What can you claim at tax time?
More than most seasonal roles if you instruct, and very little if you do not. The ordinary ones are sun protection, non slip footwear for indoor roles, uniform items you had to buy, a work share of your phone, and travel between separate mountain locations during a working day.
Instructors are the exception. Course fees for the instructing qualification, goggles and eyewear used for the role, and your own skis or board used in instruction are deductible, with apportionment for personal use. Equipment used 60% for instruction and 40% for your own runs is 60% deductible, and the apportionment has to be honest and recorded. A concentrated three or four month season can also sit alongside other income in the same financial year, worth knowing before the tax return is prepared.