Return to the High Country

Here's the continuation of the list of High Country Huts I visited. 

Kelly's & Holmes Plains

Kellys Hut – Holmes Plains, was built by Jim Kelly in 1934 and is located on Kelly’s Lane (I had to walk Kelly's Lane as the road was still seasonally closed), at the northern end of Holmes Plains in the snow gums at the edge of the plain. James Vincent Kelly owned this hut. It was built for him in 1934 with materials brought in by pack horse. J Norton had previously held the lease but Jim Kelly took it up as soldier settlement after the first World War in 1920.

The hut has been modified many times over the years. Originally a drop slab building with a gabled roof and half a skillion shed. Vertical slabs and an iron roof were later used, plus an extension to the shed. The slabs and stone chimney were reclad in iron.

Guys in morning light

Guys Hut is located on Bryce’s Plain near Bryces Gorge. Alex Guy acquired Wonnangatta Station and the Snowy Plains freehold in 1934. The hut was built in March 1940 to replace the nearby Bryce’s Hut, now gone, for mustering. Alex died in 1949 and was succeeded by his sons, Jack and Arthur, and the lease transferred to the Gilder Family in 1970, thereafter bought by the Victorian Government.

The hut was originally built three logs high, and later extended to seven logs high. The timber frames are adzed snow gum found locally and form a gabled roof, covered with corrugated iron. The floor is paved with basalt blocks, and the chimney is dry stone construction.

Guys illuminated by evening light

Howitt Plains Hut Also known as Howitt Hut is located on the edge of the Howitt Plains in the Alpine National Park and is surrounded by snow gums and overlooks grassy plains and the head waters of the Caledonia River.

William Bryce held the leasehold for Wonnagatta Station and the Howitt and Snowy Plains from 1870 to 1914. He built the hut on the lease in 1899 and it was located very near to where the body of John Bamford was found after the Wonnangatta murders in 1918 [see below].

Howitt Plains Hut

The hut was first built with drop slab walls. It appears the hut was completely rebuilt in the 1920's to 30's. Then the gabled design roof and walls were re-clad with corrugated iron over the shingles in 1938. It is also the only hut I found with graffiti plastered over the exterior.

Easily recognisable - Wallace Hut

Wallaces Hut called Seldom Seen Inn and Seldom Seen Hut.This is the oldest complete structure in the Alpine National Park, built in 1889 by the Wallace bothers, Arthur, William and Stewart from snow gum slabs and woollybutt shingles. It measures 4.5m by 3.7m and consists of a pole frame and slabs for the floor and a pole framed chimney. Since 1931 many changes have occurred including new windows. The SEC added the shed and corrugated iron about 1946. The National Trust classified the hut in 1967.

Part of the Rover Scout Chalet

Located on the Bogong High Plains beside the Langford West Aqueduct and the Cope Hut track is the rambling  Rover Scout Chalet or Rover Scout Lodge. Built by the Fitzgerald family in 1940, it has been extended many times since. It has been constructed with modern materials including concrete blocks. The hut has a refuge for the public.

Cope Hut amidst the snow gums

Cope Hut was built 1929, after a proposal by Robert Wilkinson for the Ski Club of Victoria. Designed by the Victorian Public Works Department, it was the first hut built for “recreational use”. Materials came by dray, then by sled to the High Plains. The original hut had the main entrance coming into the ski room, but it was regularly snowed in, so a new door was cut into the "back" wall, and remains to this day. The hut has a steep gable and measuring about 5m by 3.5m for the core building, flanked by bunk areas and a ski room. The rafters are adzed softwood and the floor of hardwood. The fireplace, around the slow combustion stove, is of rough granite and the walls and roof of corrugated iron. The hut was classified by the National Trust in 1988.

The Langford SEC hut in the early morning

SEC Hut was built by the SEC, beside the Langford East Aqueduct at Langford Gap about 1958, and used as a gauging station. Weatherboard clad, with a wooden floor and iron roof, it had a slow combustion stove, chairs etc.

Edmonsons Hut beneath a threatening sky

Edmonsons Hut is located at Nelse Creek, on the Bogong High Plains. Jim Edmondson built his own hut in 1960. The materials were pre-cut and carted to the plains. The small chaff shed at the rear of the hut was added later by Jim's son, Robert in 1961. When Jim finished with the plains he gave the hut to the Education Department.

The hut is a gabled iron clad building and is lined with masonite. The mezzanine loft floor is particle board and the ground floor is  T&G hardwood. There are corrugated fibregalls in the roof for light wells.

Johnston's Hut, there's a snow depth gauge beside the chimney

Johnstons Hut located at The Big River Fire Track, on the Bogong High Plains. (Also known as Telemark Hut). The first hut was built in the early 1930s and was popular with skiers. It was the only hut built in the Alpine Area for sheep grazing. The Ski Club of East Gippsland acquired the permissive occupancy in 1966. The hut burnt down on 17 May 1976, and the new hut built in June 1976, was of almost identical appearance. The hut is 5.5m by 5.6m and was re-built on concrete piers, with a skillion to one side, with hardwood boards and a corrugated iron roof. 

Kellys Hut on Kelly Track

Kellys Hut - Marms Point, located at the Kelly Track (as distinct from Kellys Hut on Holmes Plain) near Cemetery Spur, Marms Point near the head of Wildhorse Creek. Bogong High Plains, about 700m from Fitzgeralds hut. Also known as Rocky Valley SEC Commission Survey Hut.

The first hut on the site was built in 1901. Patrick J Kelly built the second hut on this site in 1901, after grazing began on the lease in the 1890s. This hut had vertical slab walls, a paling roof and gabled structure, but was burnt down in 1956. It was replaced with an SEC hut, removed from the Rocky Valley site in 1958. A typical pre-fab SEC hut in three sections, with considerable modifications, the walls are shiplapped weatherboards over a hardwood frame. The roof is corrugated iron and the floor of T&G hardwood. The iron chimney has been restored. The Kelly family owned the lease until taken over by the National Park in 1982.

Fitzgeralds Hut through the rain

Fitzgeralds Hut located at Kellys Track, Marms Point, the Bogong High Plains. George Silas Fitzgerald built the hut in 1903. Originally it was shingled and he covered it with corrugated iron in 1928. The hut was destroyed by fire in 1991, after the chimney caught alight on a school camping trip. The hut was rebuilt in 1993, 6m to the south of the old, and is of drop slab construction, made from recycled timbers and salvaged railway sleepers. The floor is hardwood butt jointed, and the roof is gabled iron.

Most of the hut information and histories from the great site by the Kosciusko  Huts Association, which shows there are still heaps of huts to visit!

Wallace Hut

The Wonnagatta Murders - In December 1917 James Barclay (Manager of Wonnagatta Station – one of the most isolated cattle stations in Victoria) hired John Bamford as a cook/odd job man (a wiry man with a violent temper, suspected of strangling his wife). Bamford & Barclay were last seen together at Talbotville on 21^st December 1917. In February 1918, Barclay’s friend Harry Smith organised a search where they found Barclay’s decomposing body south-west of the homestead near Conglomerate Creek. He had been shot in the back. Bamford was missing and suspected, until November 1918, when Bamford’s body was found hidden under a pile of charred logs 400m north of the Howitt Plains Hut (16km east of the homestead). He too had been shot. The murderer was never found. The homestead burned down in 1957 and a hut was built on the site from the remaining salvaged materials.