Back in 1978, Rob Chapman and Alan Lance, both members of Collaroy Surf Club, came to hear of plans to expand the available accommodation in Charlotte Pass, and determined to start a club ski lodge there. Rob approached the company operating the village, and was able to secure the lease of a building site.
They invited two other Collaroy SLSC members, Barry Cripps and Mick Chapman, to join them, and Rob approached a solicitor friend, Michael Strickland, for help in drawing up the necessary paperwork. The five of them formed the first committee of the club, and became foundation directors.
The capital cost of the lease was $20,000 ($1,000 per bed) to which was added a contribution of $5,300 towards the cost of installing an electricity power line from Perisher. (Until that time, power for the village was provided by a generator, housed in what is now the ski centre building.)
The company, Burrawong Ski Club Limited, was incorporated on 30th November, 1978, and the lease from Charlotte Pass Village Pty Ltd was promptly executed, to run from 1st December that year until 1st March 2015.
After many meetings and discussions, it was decided to engage Trinder Alpine Constructions to build the proposed lodge, in part at least because they were already building the adjacent lodges, Snowbird, Arlberg, and Tar-Gan-Gil.
The basic building was priced at $77,000. Furnishings, appliances, utensils, tools, and equipment, called for an additional $13,000. But the usual ‘extras’ – additional excavation and other work which had not been anticipated – blew the cost out by about $13,500. Add the capital cost of the lease, and the total start-up funding required became a little over $130,000.
It was decided that this should be raised by the issue of debentures, requiring an investment of $2,000 from each debenture-holding member, and the aim was to enlist 60 such members, paying a total of $120,000. The balance would be funded by a bank overdraft.
The club’s constitution also provided for ordinary members – being the adult offspring of debenture-holders – and thirteen such members joined in the early months.
The first general meeting of the club was held at Collaroy SLSC on 11 March 1979, when the five foundation members were returned to office Membership subscriptions for members and ordinary members were set at $20 per year. And accommodation charges for both members and guests were set at $35 per week.
After six months, with snow on the ground and members waxing their skis, progress on the building had faltered, and relations with the builder had soured. It was to be another twelve months before the matters in dispute were finally resolved, but the NP&WS were persuaded to allow occupation from 12 July 1979.
The first members to use the lodge are recorded as being: Barry and Jan Cripps; Mick and his son Mitchell Chapman; Barbara and Gary Parker, with their children Michael, Richard, and Jane; and Andrew and Caroly Laurie with their son Sean.
The general atmosphere of celebration and congratulation at having got the lodge up and running was swiftly dispelled, however, when Andrew Laurie (who had been a member of the Australian Wallabies and would have made a great club member) suffered a massive heart attack after a day’s skiing in Perisher, and could not be resuscitated.
Lift tickets that year were $70 for a week; $12 for a day; and $8 a half day; and oversnow transport was $7 each way.