Spring is a great season to experience a family snow holiday.

Our four Michelin mini-mes are rapidly shrinking as jackets are unzipped and scarves unwrapped. Despite the snow on the ground, it’s t-shirt weather at Mt Buller, in Victoria’s alpine region.

The early spring conditions are just what’s needed to form positive first impressions with the first timers in our little group. It’s also removed concerns about how our newly tagged ‘Bunyips’, aged from four to six, will cope with the cold – leaving them to concentrate on their snowploughs and turns while making new friends in the Magic Forest beginner area.

Once the kids are geared up and settled into ski school, we – the parents – plan our day. We watch as fellow skiers and boarders pump the air on their final turns down Bourke Street, the main artery joining Buller’s northern and southern slopes. Fewer crowds in spring mean we can hop on the nearby Holden Express six-seater chairlift faster – significantly boosting the average daily winter run tally. Mt Buller has the largest network of lifts of all the resorts in Victoria with 22 (including four magic carpets), providing access to 300ha of skiable terrain suitable for beginners to advanced. Three terrain parks and two toboggan parks raise the fun stakes.

While the warm conditions has meant the snow is a little patchy in the remotest advanced skier areas – extensive snowmaking across the resort still provides plenty of exhilarating options for the more experienced among us. So while our novice snowboarder hooks up with an instructor, her husband and I set off in search of a little more altitude.

We meet back up for lunch. While the kids give their ski legs a rest and happily tuck into chips, carrot sticks and hot chocolates in the Buller Kids Centre, we slip out of our bindings and into a comfy lounge chair to brag about our newest mountain conquests and toast freedom from the kids with a plummy Victorian red.

On either side of us the resort curves over the lower sections of the mountain in a gentle avalanche of smoking roof tops. Much of the on-mountain accommodation (a mix of hostel style and self-contained apartments) is conveniently mingled with over 30 restaurants and cosy bars – ensuring a wide variety of apres-ski options. Top choices include The Duck Inn, which offers an early sitting for kids and Tirols Cafe for the best views of the Sterling Ranges, homemade pastas and burgers. Diners who love appreciate a fine wine list should head to Black Cockatoo at the Grand Mercure Chalet.

Free shuttle buses regularly loop around the resort and from the public car park. Heated footpaths make walking safer and easy. In essence, Mt Buller combines the top assets of its nearest rivals. Like Falls Creek, it has a community village atmosphere and like Mt Hotham, has a mountain-top setting that inspires the most inept artist to take up landscape painting. Being closest to Melbourne it’s the most accessible of all the Victorian ski fields – which is ideal for interstaters or day trippers who can be on the slopes within three hours of checking the snow report from their city desktops.

Our two families fit both categories – having flown and driven from Queensland and New South Wales respectively – and chosen to stay a 30-minute drive away in Merrijig at the Grand Mercure (now Sebel) Pinnacle Valley Resort, near the rural centre of Mansfield – where we’re handy to explore the region’s other attractions on a much needed rest day.

The resort is equipped for family holidaymakers year round. Our one-bedroom apartments come with laundry facilities, master bedroom with en suite, pull out sofa for the kids and kitchen (where we cook each night) – ideal for a week’s stay. Once the kids are in bed, we can retreat to the public fireside lounge located outside our rooms.

Surrounded by kangaroos and vast gardens we also find a playground, mini-golf course, games room (next to the on-site restaurant), outdoor pool (closed in winter), hot tubs, sauna, steam room, tennis courts and bike paths plus a lake with ducks to feed and fish to catch in summer.

For those who want to save the daily trek up the mountain (and additional daily resort entry fees) spring is when you’re likely to grab the best on-mountain accommodation deals too. Bed and breakfast rates average around $100 a night while offers abound for the kids to stay and ski free. Some hotel providers also offer a no-snow money back guarantee!

Trip Notes

Getting there: Mt Buller is a three-hour drive north-east from Melbourne via the Hume or Maroondah Highways.

Where to stay: The Grand Mercure Pinnacle Valley Resort is a member of the Accor Vacation Club. Separate two-bedroom chalets sleep up to six, 1800 033 214, http://www.pvc.com.au

What to do: Check out ‘Kids’ Week’ Sept 22-27 (2015). Events include snowman making competitions, scavenger hunts and a chance to meet Blake the Flake.

More information: http://www.mtbuller.com.au

Five great things to do off-snow

1. The Gnome Roam is a self-guided trail to find the little people who’ve made the mountain their home. Maps are available from the post office or clock tower. Our first clue of their existence was a red door leading into an ash tree (the Gnome Home), half way up the mountain along the main road.
2. For a gold coin donation learn how Mt Buller was transformed from a Cattleman’s run into a premier ski resort; and check out the vintage skis and sleds, old photographs, maps and other historical memorabilia at the ski resort’s National Alpine Museum.
3. Ski sore? For a little TLC head to the country’s highest alpine spa, tucked away in Mt Buller’s Breathtaker All-Suite Hotel. Treatments range from massages, body wraps to facials.
4. The ski resort’s 180-seat cinema in the Mt Buller Central building shows the latest movie releases. At the foot of the mountains, Mansfield’s cosy armchair cinema kept our kids – nestled in beanbags – entertained for another couple of hours.
5.   A 15-minute drive from our accommodation at Merrijig, the Mansfield Zoo is home to two rare white lions, camels, llamas, fallow deer, monkeys and more. It made the perfect afternoon excursion on our rest day.