With the expansion in place, Hotham anticipates an earlier opening and a late closing. The expansion will also increase snow coverage on Heavenly Valley, known for intermediate terrain, and beginner terrain in the summit area.

General manager of operations Len Dobell will oversee the AU$ 4.4 million project, which also includes the purchase of 18 TechnoAlpin fan guns.

“Those beautiful, bright yellow snowmaking machines are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dobell. “A lot of the magic of the new system will happen underground and behind the scenes, with a massive expansion of our pumping capacity and snowmaking pipelines, and a fully automated control system to take advantage of every possible snowmaking opportunity.”

The project is set to be completed by June 1, 2016, with the snowmaking expansion in place for opening day on June 11.