ski fields in Australia are located in Tasmania, a mountainous island off the southern coast of Eastern Australia. Much of the State is subject to at least occasional winter snows. Mount Ossa is the highest point on the island at 1614m but Tasmania has eight mountains exceeding 1500m and 28 above 1,220m. Also notable is the Central Plateau, at an elevation of around 900m. The capital city of Hobart is built at the base of Mount Wellington, which at 1270m is snow-capped in winter. Skiing began in Australia at the goldrush town of Kiandra, New South Wales around 1861. The Kiandra snow shoe club founded around that time (now called the Kiandra Pioneer Ski Club (1861)) remains the world's first identifiable and ceaseless Ski Club. The Club held separate ski races for both ladies and children as early as 1885. In 1908, the club held the first ever documented International and Intercontinental Downhill Skiing Carnival. Results- America first, Australia second, England third. The first Kosciuszko Chalet was built at Charlotte Pass in 1930, giving relatively comfortable access to Australia's highest terrain. The first Australian ski tow was constructed near Mount Buffalo, Victoria in 1936. It was the construction of the vast Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme from 1949 that really opened up the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales for large scale development of a ski industry and led to the establishment of Thredbo, Perisher and Guthega as leading Australian resorts. Australian skiers competed in the Winter Olympics for the first time in Oslo 1952 and have competed in all subsequent Games, winning medals at every Games since 1998. Malcolm Milne became the first non-European to win a ski race world cup in 1969 and Olympic medalists include Zali Steggall, Alisa Camplin and Dale Begg-Smith. Australia has extensive skiable terrain during the southern hemisphere winter in the south eastern states and Australian Capital Territory, between elevations of around 1250m to 2200m. Elevation of the snowfields in Australia varies with latitude, however viable winter snows are generally found above 1500m: Thredbo, near mount Kosciuszko, has Australia's highest lifted point at 2037m and its base elevation is 1365m. Kiandra, in the Northern Skifields, has an elevation of 1400m, while Mount Mawson near Hobart, Tasmania is at 1250m. A number of well serviced resorts have been developed, including: Thredbo, Perisher, Charlotte Pass and Selwyn Snowfields in New South Wales; Mount Buller, Falls Creek, Mount