Pioneers, Legends, Community
by Chas Keys
“. . . what Thredbo reveals is a unique story about the migrant experience in Australia, and how these men and women, by looking for a place to call home, transformed the Australian Alps, and Australian culture in turn.”
—The Weekly Times
Coinciding with the 60 year milestone, Thredbo tells the incredible story of visionaries in the 1950s who brought a sophisticated alpine village to life where shortly before there were only scrubland and rocks.
For many the name Thredbo means winter holidays and skiing on crisp white snow beneath clear blue skies. But for others it has been home all year round. Pioneers and trailblazers from Australia and from Europe built Thredbo and generations who have enjoyed the slopes have left a permanent architectural record of their times.
Chas Keys explains how men and women of nine nationalities were brought together by an extravagant dream. One was Elyne Mitchell, the poet and bestselling children’s author. There was Tony Sponar, the refugee from Czechoslovakia who dreamt of an Austrian-style village by the Thredbo River.
This beautifully illustrated coffee table book recounts the triumphs and tragedies, to the present day. But its profiles of larger-than-life characters who seemed to be able to see into the future, are its most telling revelations for 21st century readers.
Hardback, $65.00