Explore the real-world places that appear in Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Perisher Valley Resort Village, Smiggin Holes, Blue Cow Mountain, Mount Kosciuszko Summit, Charlotte Pass and 5 more.
Kosciuszko Road — real-world setting for the family reunion resort
The Cunningham family gathers at a remote ski resort for a reunion, and narrator Ernest Cunningham, who writes guides to writing mysteries, sets out to explain how a family where everyone has killed someone ended up snowed in together. The resort is cut off from the outside world, which creates the locked-room atmosphere of the whodunit. The book's fictional hotel is best matched to this real alpine village.
Perisher Valley developed from the 1950s as a ski area in the Snowy Mountains, boosted by the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme. It grew into the largest ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere by skiable area after merging with neighboring resorts.
Perisher is a busy winter ski village with lodges, restaurants, ski schools, and lifts, and in summer it serves hikers and mountain bikers. Visitors can reach the village by road or the Skitube railway from Bullocks Flat.
Visit: Perisher Ski Resort (landmark)
Perisher Range — alpine village near the resort
The novel's resort is a cluster of lodges, slopes, and isolated buildings where family members who have killed, or been touched by killing, are forced into close quarters. A neighboring village like Smiggin Holes is a plausible real-world equivalent for the secluded lodges where the tension builds. Ern's narration treats the compact, snow-bound setting as a stage for secrets.
Smiggin Holes takes its name from a local pioneer-era name, and it became a ski village in the mid-20th century. It sits within the Perisher Range and is linked to Perisher by lifts and runs.
Smiggin Holes offers ski-in ski-out lodging, a beginners' area, and cafes within the Perisher resort area. It is accessible via the Skitube Alpine Railway.
Visit: Smiggin Holes (landmark)
Perisher Range — high-altitude slopes and Skitube terminus
The resort's slopes and lifts form the backdrop for the book's outdoor scenes, where the characters could be separated from one another and watched or misled. The ski setting supplies both the isolation and the weather that trap the Cunningham family together. Mountain terrain like Blue Cow stands in for the resort's high ground.
Blue Cow opened in the late 1980s as part of Perisher's expansion, linked to the Skitube railway built to keep cars out of the alpine zone. The railway opened in 1987.
Blue Cow is a major hub for ski runs, with a Skitube terminus, a cafe, and lifts to the Perisher ranges. In summer the area is quieter and attracts hikers.
Visit: Blue Cow Mountain (landmark)
Kosciuszko National Park — Australia's highest peak
The surrounding snow-covered wilderness is the threat hanging over the Cunninghams: leaving the resort in a storm is dangerous, which keeps everyone, including the murderer, inside. The harsh alpine landscape underlines the novel's locked-room premise, since no one can easily escape. The summit area represents the vast, unforgiving mountains around the resort.
Mount Kosciuszko, at 2,228 metres, was named by Polish explorer Paweł Strzelecki in 1840 after Tadeusz Kościuszko. The area is sacred to Aboriginal peoples of the region, who gathered there seasonally.
The summit is reached by a popular walking track from Charlotte Pass or Thredbo. It sits inside Kosciuszko National Park and draws hikers, especially in summer.
Visit: Mount Kosciuszko (park)
Kosciuszko National Park — Australia's highest and most remote ski village
An isolated alpine village like Charlotte Pass reflects the novel's idea of a resort cut off from help, where a family with a violent history cannot simply leave. The remoteness feeds the book's classic closed-circle tension and Ern's wry narration about the reunion. It serves as a real-world comparison for the story's isolation.
Charlotte Pass was developed as a ski village in the 1930s and is known for its remote, snowbound position. In winter it is historically accessed by over-snow transport.
The village has a small ski area and lodge and is a trailhead for the Main Range walk to Kosciuszko. It remains one of the quietest alpine destinations in the region.
Visit: Charlotte Pass Snow Resort (landmark)
Lake Jindabyne — gateway town to the snowfields
Travelers to the Cunningham reunion pass through lakeside gateway towns on their way into the mountains, where the ordinary world gives way to the snowbound resort. Jindabyne is the typical last stop for supplies and last cell signal before the climb. It frames the family's journey into isolation.
The current Jindabyne was built in the 1960s after the original town was flooded to create Lake Jindabyne as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The old town's remains can be seen when lake levels drop.
Jindabyne is a lakeside tourist town with shops, restaurants, and accommodation. It acts as the main base for visiting Perisher and Thredbo.
Visit: Jindabyne (landmark)
Thredbo Valley — nearby alpine resort village
Thredbo represents the other famous ski village in the same mountains and a natural reference for the setting of the novel's reunion. The Cunninghams' resort stays in the same snow country, with the same mix of lodges, lifts, and isolated slopes. It provides context for the alpine culture the book plays against.
Thredbo was founded in the 1950s by Czech-born Tony Sponar, who helped establish the area as a ski resort. The village suffered a tragic landslide in 1997 that destroyed two lodges.
Thredbo is a year-round resort with skiing, mountain biking, and dining. A chairlift to Kosciuszko Express lets visitors reach high country walks.
Visit: Thredbo Resort (landmark)
Monaro Highway — regional town at the foot of the mountains
Cooma is the largest town on the approach to the Snowy Mountains, and in the story the family's route into the high country passes through towns like it before the snow closes in. Its police and services stand for the outside world that the isolated Cunninghams cannot easily reach. It anchors the book's journey from ordinary life to the mountain retreat.
Cooma was a hub for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme from 1949, which brought workers from over 30 countries. It is nicknamed the Capital of the Snowy.
Cooma is a regional town with cafes, museums, and a visitor centre. The Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre tells the story of the Scheme.
Visit: Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre (museum)
Terminal Avenue — nearest major airport to the Snowy Mountains
Family members arriving for the reunion converge on the mountains from different places, and gateway hubs such as Canberra are a plausible starting point for the long drive to the resort. The journey builds the sense that a scattered, dysfunctional family is being gathered into one place. It marks the start of the trip before the snow and the secrets close in.
Canberra Airport began as a small airfield in the 1920s and grew into the capital's main airport. It serves as a gateway for visitors heading to the Snowy Mountains.
The airport operates domestic flights and car hire for travelers continuing to the snowfields. The drive to Perisher takes around two and a half hours.
Mascot — Australia's busiest airport
Many characters would be coming from Sydney, Australia's largest city, to reach the remote resort for the family reunion. The long journey out of the city into snow country sets the contrast between ordinary life and the claustrophobic mountain setting. It stands as the real-world point of departure for the story's travelers.
Sydney Airport opened in 1920 and is one of the oldest continually operating commercial airports in the world. It was named after aviator Charles Kingsford Smith.
The airport serves millions of passengers each year with domestic and international terminals. Travelers can fly to Cooma-Snowy Mountains or Canberra to reach the ski fields.
More by Benjamin Stevenson: All Benjamin Stevenson books
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