Popular with cross-country skiers, bushwalkers, campers and school groups, Mt Stirling is also home to many threatened plant and animal species.
The Victorian National Parks Association has had a long running vision for the Mt Stirling area to be managed as a national park by linking it to the Alpine National Park and handing its management to Parks Victoria.
Currently part of the Mt Buller–Stirling Alpine Resort, this largely natural area has played second fiddle to the highly commercialised and developed Mt Buller. There were attempts in the 1990s to develop the area as a downhill ski resort, which was strongly opposed by VNPA and local groups. More recently, we have stopped the development of a damaging sealed road across the mountain.
Various studies have shown that natural snowfall may decline by 60%-80% under enhanced climate change, which makes it even more critical to ensure that the natural parts of the Victorian alpine region are properly protected and managed for nature.
Mt Stirling has few similarities with the Mt Buller Alpine Resort, doesn’t make profits for the downhill resorts and has the economic model of a national park. To include Mt Stirling in the nearby Alpine National Park will require the addition of a parcel of land to the north and east of Mount Stirling to form a seamless extension of the Alpine National Park. It can then be managed as an integral part of Victoria’s largest national park, improving ecological management, recreation experiences and the overall integrity of our alpine region.
More information
> Stirling Alpine Link: a vision to link Mt Stirling with the Alpine National Park