The beautiful Ovens Valley

[Heather]

The best hey Marty?

One year we went from Hotham, then drove down to Bairnsdale and to Glenmaggie and then from Licola to Jamieson - so up and over and up and over again - amazing country.

For those up north, Mt. Buffalo has a chalet on top (I'll post a pic) which was really popular with honeymooners and the like. I think the railways own it or someone just as weird. Anyway the contract has run out and the place is all fenced and has been let go - it is such a shame. It was such an icon of Mt. Buffalo.

Chalet.jpg

[Bob Pacey]

I don't swim in the ocean with sharks and they don't come on the land with me.


Bit like that and mountain climbing as well.


Bob

[Heather]

I think from memory the chalet was threatened by fire that same year Marty. We were there in Oct 2008. I think the fires were the summer of 2006/07. There were ghost trees everywhere - and lots of new undergrowth.

[Vic Jefferies]

I am cursed with coincidence! These sorts of things are always happening to me:
recently a friend of mine recited a Henry Lawson poem called The Iron Wedding Rings which neither I nor anyone else present had ever heard of. The poem is remarkable as it mentions a place called BUCKLAND (which Henry later revealed was a fictitious name) and the poem does not make it clear where it is referring to. It is about some sort of uprising and in a closely aligned poem The Man Who Raised Charlestown which also mentions the fictional BUCKLAND one gets the feeling that both poems may have been written with the American War of Independence in mind. Henry said that Charlestown was also a fictional place.
Just seemed funny that Buckland should be mentioned at this time when I am researching the two poems that mention such a place!
Both the poems by the way are excellent and confirms Henry (in my opinion) as a great poet.

Vic

[Heather]

Haven't read that one Marty. I tend to only read biographies or books I can learn from these days!

[Stephen Whiteside]

Next town up the road is Myrtleford. I had a funny experience there earlier in the year. My son and I were planning to 4WD to the Wonnangatta Homestead. It was our first time, and I decided to drop into the Tourist Information Centre.

I explained we were where we were heading that night. The very friendly woman behind the counter asked if 'they' were expecting us.

I then explained the Homestead had been burnt down about fifty years ago!

She was very apologetic, explaining she was new to the job!

[Heather]

See, I should have that job!

Stephen when I was in my teens we were going to Wonnangatta Homestead. I know there was a group of us (probably the Landcruiser Club) and we stayed in a hut the night before - you may know where - I don't know the name of it. It was cold and very foggy and we had a naive Canadian teacher with us. My sister and brothers and I scared her with stories about the Bunyip and the poor girl was petrified.

Unfortunately the river (& I'm not sure which one), was too high at the time and we couldn't get in. The funny thing was, that my father had given we four kids ration packs for the weekend because we had to travel light! Never forgot that bit!

Heather

[Stephen Whiteside]

The Wonnangatta River runs close to the Homestead, but there are a few other rivers you have to cross, depending on which direction you have come from, so it could have been one of a number - or it could have been all of them, I guess! What was in the ration packs?

[Stephen Whiteside]

I've just been reading back through this thread. Vic Railways did not build the chalet, but they bought it from a private owner about ten years after it was built, from memory.

I gather a number of local businesses are getting together to try to restore and re-open the chalet, but it would be an enormous task, and you have to wonder if it is really possible.

[Stephen Whiteside]

I should also add that the Victorian Railways also took over the Hotham Heights Chalet in 1933, and ran it for many years. It was burnt down in the 1939 fires, but quickly re-built in time for the following ski season. It was burnt down again in the early '70s, and not re-built.