{"id":101929,"date":"2025-08-28T10:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T10:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101929\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T10:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T10:27:09","slug":"significant-snow-forecast-as-hunt-for-alleged-porepunkah-gunman-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101929\/","title":{"rendered":"Significant snow forecast as hunt for alleged Porepunkah gunman continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Snow enthusiasts have been warned to avoid Porepunkah, where a manhunt for a suspected gunman continues as Victoria’s alpine region prepares for one of the season’s most significant snowfalls.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police is urging anyone heading to the High Country to avoid travelling through the town as police search for 56-year-old Dezi Freeman<\/a>, who allegedly killed two police officers on a rural property in the area on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police Superintendent Brett Kahan said there were other routes to the snow.<\/p>\n

“This is an area of significant police activity,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you have an option not to go to the snow this weekend, take that option.”<\/p>\n

However, the lure of significant snowfall is too tempting for some.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melbourne man Sam Reeves, 28, has committed to visiting Mount Hotham, roughly an hour and 15 minutes south-east of Porepunkah, on Friday.<\/p>\n

“I was just looking at the snow report and thought, ‘Holy sh**, that’s going to be so much snow,'” he said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Sam Reeves has a day trip to Hotham planned. (Supplied: Sam Reeves)<\/p>\n

“I was talking to some people saying, ‘I’m going up,’ and they said, ‘You know there’s a shooter on the loose,’ [and] I went, ‘We’ll be all right.'”<\/p>\n

The search for Mr Freeman, who fled into bushland, continued into its third day on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Reeves said he trusted the police and other response teams were doing their jobs.<\/p>\n

“There’s almost 60 centimetres of snow forecast and that doesn’t happen that often in Australia,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mount Hotham is forecast to have some of its most significant snow of the season this weekend. (Supplied: Sam Reeves)<\/p>\n

Significant snowfall ahead<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the snowfall for area was expected to be significant.<\/p>\n

BOM senior meteorologist Angus Hines said there was “plenty of snow on the way”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sam Reeves is driving to Hotham from Melbourne on Friday. (Supplied: Sam Reeves\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“One of the most widespread and significant amounts of snow that we’ve seen through the season so far is forecast to move in tomorrow [Friday],” he said.<\/p>\n

“And it’s going to come in with a whole other array of really wintry weather as well.<\/p>\n

“The higher peaks could easily see over 30cm, perhaps more than that, 40cm.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bookings cancelled<\/p>\n

Restaway Holiday Units manager Gary Harbison said his business in Porepunkah had suffered minimal impacts so far.<\/p>\n

“This winter has had plenty of snow, we’ve had a very good July \u2026 and the warm months here have been amazing too,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Harbison said residents had been asked to stay indoors as much as possible, and he was happy to comply as the weather had been “atrocious”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The manager of Porepunkah’s Restaway Holiday Units (pictured) believes tourists will return to the town. (Supplied: Restaway Holiday Units)<\/p>\n

He believes people will still be keep to explore the region when it is safe to do so.<\/p>\n

“I have had other people in the industry talk to me about people wanting to cancel bookings for this weekend \u2026 which I can understand,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you’re not here for the autumn leaves or the snow in winter, well it’s a beautiful place in spring too.”<\/p>\n

A short distance from Porepunkah, Mount Buffalo National Park\u00a0remains closed until further notice.<\/p>\n

Parks Victoria said anyone with plans to visit the national park should find an alternative.<\/p>\n

Businesses impacted<\/p>\n

Bright Chamber of Commerce president Marcus Warner said the police operation in Porepunkah was impacting some local businesses.<\/p>\n

“Especially in the surrounding area outside of Porepunkah, where the manhunt is currently occurring,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Marcus Warner has urged people to follow police advice and support locals where they can. (Supplied: Marcus Warner\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“The business I’m running here in Ovens, we’re 20 kilometres from Porepunkah, [and] we’ve seen in the last three days a significant drop off in visitation and obviously income.<\/p>\n

“So it is having an impact.”<\/p>\n

Mr Warner said local businesses hoped visitors would return when it was safe to do so.<\/p>\n

“We’re looking like we’ve got some really decent snow into the spring,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We really, really do encourage people to come and enjoy it while it lasts.<\/p>\n

“It’s just tragic that the events of this week are still unfolding.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Snow enthusiasts have been warned to avoid Porepunkah, where a manhunt for a suspected gunman continues as Victoria’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[821,61838,72303,43,73974,73973,73975,44,7452,4905,5837,31190,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-101929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alpine","tag-bom","tag-dezi-freeman","tag-headlines","tag-hotham","tag-man-hunt","tag-mount-hotham","tag-news","tag-search","tag-shooting","tag-snow-season","tag-snowfall","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}