IF EVERYTHING had gone to plan, 13-year-old Taylor McMahon would have had lunch in the sun looking down on Australia from the highest point on its mainland, Mount Kosciuszko.
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Instead, she and fellow members of her church group spent yesterday at the leisure centre, playing table tennis and basketball, and frolicking in the heated pool.
''It's a bit disappointing, but we're still having fun,'' Taylor said, as rain, sleet and snow swept through Thredbo, which was sweltering last week, but shivering this week.
The Landel family, from Tamworth, braved the sub-zero temperatures to go to the top of the chairlift at Thredbo but were forced to take refuge in the cafe.
At 8am yesterday the temperature at Thredbo weather station was minus 3.9 degrees, and the snow was spreading fast. Camp leader John Tompson was astounded.
''I know the weather hereabouts can change suddenly but I've never known anything quite this dramatic. When we set up camp at Jindabyne last Tuesday it was 40 degrees. This morning it was zero.''
Few of the 300 campers -members of Seventh-day Adventist churches in southern NSW, ranging in age from four weeks to the late 70s - came prepared for such extreme swings in the weather. Some were staying in chalets, others under canvas, Mr Tompson said.
Locals were also taken by surprise. ''Four days ago I was sitting in the office with the air-conditioning on, wishing I was outside,'' said Alice Chilcott, marketing administrator with the operator of the Kosciuszko-Thredbo resort.
''Now I'm pleased to be sitting inside getting on with some work. And I've got the air-con off.''
Such changes, from ''Australia's nearest place to the sun'' to winter wonderland, were part of the resort's charm, she said.
Last night the weather bureau said the rapid fall in temperatures, in and outside the Alpine area, was unusual. It has snowed in Thredbo in January only eight times since records began in 1969.
Lower-lying Cooma, about 100 kilometres away, received its first January snow since its records began in 1973.
A forecaster, Jane Golding, said the snow was created by a combination of local thunderstorms and a rush of cold, southerly air, part of a low-pressure system over the Tasman Sea.
She said the cooler weather should continue today, before warming again on Wednesday and Thursday.
The bitter-cold change came as temperatures hit the low 40s in Perth, rain and cold caused the closure of the roof at the Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne, and Sydney had a warm, sunny day.
Church camp leaders quickly rescheduled indoor activities after checking mountain-top conditions with park rangers. ''Our first consideration always is safety,'' Mr Tompson said.
Today's plan was for the activities group to go water ski-ing on Lake Jindabyne. That, said Mr Tompson, was not ''such a good idea right now''.
