From first tracks to last drinks

The  Ormond Ski Club was established in 1967 because of a chance remark that the only way to access inexpensive skiing was to build one’s own lodge.

It lit a spark for a group of young men in their early twenties who were resident in Ormond and who had known each other from school, had hiked together and rowed together. Although only some of the group had skied before, they began ambitiously by creating a ski club which would of necessity require a lodge on a mountain. 

Initially they wouldn’t have realised it would take great trust and commitment, unflagging enthusiasm in the face of major challenges, thousands of kilometres of travel, and months and months of backbreaking work over a ten year period before the Lodge was completed, but in retrospect no-one regretted a single minute. Nor did they realise the project would provide most of them with first-hand experience of work in their chosen careers, since all professional and practical skills were needed along the way. 

Skiing was opening up in Australia in the sixties, but it was still early days for private lodges. They chose Mt Hotham because it was the least developed mountain, and they wanted an adventure in wild uncharted country, where independence and freedom was assured. They inspired others to join them, and their dream of providing cheap skiing not only for themselves but for future Ormond students would never have been achieved without outside help from many others.

The formation of the Ormond Ski Club and the building of the Lodge expanded the group, knitting bonds of deep friendship which lasted through each person’s lifetime. The Lodge remains as a rite of passage for generations of Ormond students, and it is the touchstone for a powerful community of people with a shared purpose, and where the pulling together to achieve something of great value is celebrated. Over the years that community has bent and swayed with the times to maintain at all costs that which was created.

Sarah Martin is a longtime member of the Ormond community. She is a former College staff member, a member of the Ormond Ski Club and married to Ormondian Peter Martin (1965). Sarah is also a historian whose publications include Davis McCaughey: A Life, a biography of the former Ormond Master and From First Tracks to Last Drinks – the first 50 years of the Ormond Ski Club.