Posted: Monday 11 December 2023

We think our beautiful alpine resort is a pretty special place to be – and there are many other creatures that feel the same!

Falls Creek resort is one of the few places in Australia that is home to the mountain pygmy possum, an endangered species with fewer than 2,000 left in the wild. The possum is Australia’s only hibernating marsupial, living among the rocks and boulders of the Bogong High Plains for up to seven months each year.

This week, our team will be supporting the roll out of Falls Creek Alpine Resort’s mountain pygmy possum habitat improvement project by planting 500 small native plants around a historic quarry in the ski field, just below Pretty Valley Road.

This location near Ruined Castle chairlift was selected by biologist, Dean Heinze, as an area of importance for maintaining suitable habitat into the future. The possum population in this area and out at Mt McKay are surveyed each year by the same biologist to inform the long-term management of this threatened species.

So far 3,492 plants have been planted since the project commenced in 2021. The additional 500 plants going in the ground this week have been provided thanks to funding from Zoos Victoria's Totes for Wildlife Program.

With this habitat revegetation project, we are helping to infill the slow natural shrub growth at the historically damaged quarry site. This will improve connectivity for the mountain pygmy possum, provide valuable shelter from predators, and increase food resources to replace the now scarce Bogong Moth.