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Klaus Hueneke

The Mountain Huts: A Lengthy Involvement

Klaus seems to have been linked to the Kosciusko Huts forever. He is the well known author of "Huts of the High Country", generally considered the definitive book on the topic. Klaus is a long time member of KHA and one time HMO. Here is his account of his life, in a nutshell!

  1. 1944 I was born near Hameln on the river Weser in Germany.

    2.

  1. 1953 I was nine years old when my father came home from three weeks of skiing in the Austrian Alps. Saw many 8 mm home movies featuring skiing and mountain huts in the Austrian and Bavarian Alps. There were also lots of photo albums to look at and many adventures to listen to.

  1. 1958 After arriving in Orange in 1955, we went skiing at Thredbo. It had about twelve half finished lodges. We made a day tour to Mt Kosciusko.

  1. 1967 My first long bushwalk in the high country - started on Mt Kosciusko and followed the main range to Jagungal. It finished at Perisher and took in about eight mountain huts.

  2. 1968 First long ski tour. Stayed at Albina, Mawsons, Tin and other huts.

  1. 1973 Moved to Canberra and joined the KHA in 1974. Many long bushwalks and ski tours to huts. Started making notes and taking photos at Four Mile hut. I had a hunch that the more we knew about the huts the more likely we were to save them.

Discovered that much of the history of the huts was in the heads of old timers and that I had to interview them, In time, myself and others made about 100 interviews.

I began to write feature articles about the mountains and the huts - there are now about fifty.

  1. Celebrated 50th Anniversary of the first winter crossing from Kiandra to Kosciusko. Bill Hughes, my first interviewee, came to Kiandra. The 75th Anniversary is next year and there is talk of celebrating it again.Made a twenty minute feature film about the huts. It was 'premiered' at a Labour Party gathering in Queanbeyan. It is on a KHA video.

  1. 1977 Became Huts Maintenance Officer for three years. In those days this meant looking after all the huts in KNP. Arrangements with NPWS were pretty loose, there were no conservation plans. If work needed doing all I usually did was notify the ranger of the date and the nature of the work. I was involved in work on Boltons, Witses, Four Mile and Boobee, amongst others.

  1. 1980 NPWS released a draft policy document in which they proposed to remove half the huts between Kiandra and Kosciusko plus all the huts on the Main Range except Seamans. The shit hit the fan (to put it quite bluntly) and we conducted a big campaign to save the huts. I became president of KHA and had my hands full. Hundreds of people supported "the Cause" and we were successful in saving all huts except two sacrificial lambs, Albina and Rawsons.

  1. 1982 ANU Press published 'Huts of the High Country', selling 5,000 copies in the first year. I've kept it in print ever since. Many people still consider it the bible and refer to it whenever they go on a bushwalk or ski tour.

  1. 1987 In doing the research for the huts book I discovered many interesting and well written articles about journeys across the high country. They became the foundation for the book 'Kiandra to Kosciusko'. I started to contemplate a three volume history of the high country.

  2. 1988 Paddy Pallin and I (to a lesser extent) attracted a wall to wall crowd to a talk and slide show at the Griffin Centre. It was one of Paddy's last talks.

  1. 1991 Published 'Kosciusko - where the Ice-Trees Burn', a book of colour photos including many huts. Neville Reece organised the taping of slides and voice for a KHA video.

  1. 1995 I finally found the courage and the helpers to finish 'People of the Australian High Country', the third volume of a history of the high country. Pauline Downing, Graham Scully, Chris Moger and many, many others, helped with transcribing interviews. The book's launch in Berridale was the biggest gathering of old timers in a long time. Donated 10% of sales to KHA.

  1. Published 'One Step at a Time', an autobiography centred around journeys into the bush including those of my parents in Europe in the 1930s. KHA purchased 120 historic photos for the Collection.

  2. Donated sets of my books to be placed in five huts - Mawsons, Wheelers, Grey Mare, Daveys and Burrungubuggee.

2003 Published 'Huts in the Victorian Alps and the people who care for them'. As a result of its success, donated $1000 to the Victorian High Country Huts Association.

2004-8 Produced annual calendars on 'Huts' and 'High Country' from 2004 to 2008.

2006 Published a book of photos 'Mountain Landscapes and Historic Huts - Namadgi, Kosciuszko, Victorian Alps, Tasmania' .

2007 Archived ten boxes of notes, correspondence with mountain folk, other letters, various manuscripts, photos, scrap books, newspaper clippings, articles written, source material, field recordings, family history, radio interviews, academic theses, diaries, early writings, etc into the National Library in 2007.

2008 Klaus is working towards a book of landscape photos about the South Coast of NSW. His book distribution business Tabletop Press is now 21 years old. It supplies books on the high country to about 50 shops.'

2027 The 100th Anniversary of Kiandra to Kosciuszko ski journey will be in 2027.

Profile last updated 28 April 2008.

 

 

 

 

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