CLAIMING THE DATE: SUNDAY 12TH APRIL 2009 (EASTER SUNDAY) AT DAVEYS HUT ON SNOWY PLAIN
Kosciuszko National Park DEC formerly NP&WS & KHA caretakers of Daveys Hut extend an invitation
YOU ARE INVITED! BRING A PLATE for an old fashioned country morning tea BYO LUNCH
KHA Christmas Party
Saturday 6th Dec
Join
other KHA members for a lunchtime Christmas barbeque at the historic
Gudgenby Homestead 'Readycut' cottage continuing with drinks and
nibbles in the afternoon and an overnight stay for those inclined.
A Saturady afternoon walk to Hospital Creek Hut is proposed.
Following
completion of the new Delaney's and Patons huts, KHA's Huts and History
Sub-committee is working on updating the history associated with huts
scheduled for rebuilding. To listen to extracts of interviews with the
builders of Brooks hut click on the link below. The two attached sound
files are
The KHA Publicity Officer is Peter McGaghey
who can be contacted on 02-6291 9676 or via email to
publicity@kosciuskohuts.org.au
NOTE ON EPIRB's - Emergency Positioning
Radio Indicator Beacons, sometimes known as PLB's (Personal Locator
Beacons) - the 121MHz system will be closed on 1 February 2009. Please
replace your EPIRB with a 406MHz Device, available now!
Over
500 members of the Kosciuszko Huts Association work within the
Kosciuszko, Namadgi and Brindabella National Parks to retain, restore
and re-build the mountain huts and homesteads, that form a key part of
Australia's cultural heritage.
The Kosciuszko Huts Association was formed in
1971 and on May 26, 2001 celebrated its 30th anniversary at
Sawpit Creek in Kosciuszko National Park. The first meeting was held
there in 1970 by a group of concerned people, bushwalkers and skiers.
Their greatest fear was the deliberate destruction of the vernacular
huts and homesteads that lay within the Park Boundary. These structures
were built by our pioneer graziers and gold miners, and suited their
basic needs. Many of these buildings were aged and desperately needing
conservation.
In the hard years, our committees and members
struggled to hold onto the High Country huts, in an age before
Government or Australians benefited from recognising and appreciating
their history, albeit a short space of civilised history compared to
the rest of the world. Now we share a partnership with National Parks
and Wildlife Service that respect the huts and their heritage value.
Today, we recognise Australia's heritage in many ways
from grooves in sandstone shelf near a watercourse to stockman's huts.
The huts we help to conserve and caretake are a polygon of styles
suited to the needs of pioneers, of grazing and goldmining. Basic
structures mostly, but each one as any caretaker knows, imbued with the
character of the scavenging capabilities or leanness of wallet of the
builder.
There are huts still standing that seem to defy
gravity. Over the passing years since grazing ceased, there are many
which have succumbed; a pile of weathered timbers and corrugated iron.
In some places is just a pile of stones, the remains of a crude chimney.
The remaining 100 huts have become a haven for safety
from blizzards, a social centrepiece and a full dimension of history, a
heritage of how people lived in the first half of the 1900s. They are
not relocated to a "village" or reconstructed, they are maintained as
close as possible to the original fabric, structure and method of
construction as the owners built them.
Destructive fires in January and February 2003
destroyed more than 20 of the huts remaining at that time.
2003 Fires - A list of burnt huts is shown here. Also
see the VHCHA website
for details of those lost in Victoria.
