E C H O F R O M T H E M O U N T A I N S Echo from the Mountains Victorian High Country Huts Association Inc - A0043804Y A Quarterly Newsletter Volume 15 Number 2 June 2017 Another Bumper Edition August Special General Meeting The rate of work on huts has been frenetic through the An invitation is extended to all members to attend a autumn and we have more wonderful reports to bring you. Special General Meeting for the VHCHA, to be held on the As promised, we have a moving tribute by HMO Shannon 26th August in Erica, at the Erica Memorial Hall, 14 School Peters to Albert Nelson with whom she spent some Road. The Quarterly Committee Meeting will follow the treasured time researching and planning the restoration of Special General Meeting. the Glenmore Huts. Her article is written with passion and We will begin at 1.30pm with the Special General humour. Meeting. We have some Association rule changes requiring The unstoppable Lachie Gales has been busy coordinating a vote by members. These rule changes need to be ratified the first phase of the works required to preserve Cope Hut. prior to our AGM on 18th November 2017. There will be more works required in the spring. We will Formal notification and documents will be posted to all keep you updated. members shortly but please save the date in your busy Our 4WD Club members have been very busy on the diaries so that we can ensure we have a vote. Lunch will ground. Read about MJOC and Geelong 4WD Club be held at a local venue prior. involvement in 15 Mile Hut rebuild and Idlers 4WD works Please confirm your attendance with Secretary Stephen on Stones Outstation. Renfree by email to [email protected] Finally, we bring you the story of the works to repair the burnt out fireplace at Howitt Hut, completed by former Welcome New Members HMO Peter Page. Thanks again Peter for your service. Our Association continues to grow. Without the support of If you're feeling inspired to get your hands dirty, read on our membership we could not achieve what we set out to pages 11 and 12 how you can get involved. do. Thank you for supporting our Association and the Happy reading continued work in hut preservation and restoration which Sue Paterson - Editor occurs through out the Victorian Alpine area. Welcome to our newest members: Red Dirt 4WD Club Alexander White In this Issue Russell Thorsen Michael Johnson August Special General Meeting 1 Janet Skilton George Bradshaw Welcome New Members 1 Jessica Fleming Bronson Gulliver 2018 Calendar Photo Submissions 1 Damien Hutchinson Feature: Albert Nelson & Glenmore Huts 2-3 Saving Cope Hut - The Journey Begins 4-5 Call for 2018 Calendar Photos 15 Mile Hut Restoration 6-7 On your marks, get set, GO! Competition is always fierce Idlers 4WD Club Restore Stone’s Outstation 8-9 and we get fabulous submissions for your photos to be Howitt Hut Fire Damage Repair 9-10 selected for each year’s calendar. Standards are always high, so now is the time to dig out your best images and ACT Heritage Skills Workshop 10 email them to [email protected] We Need a Hand - Upcoming Workparties 11 Submissions close on 15th July 2017 Other Recent Maintenance Works & Plans 11 Marion Hair RIP 11 Donations 11 HMO Contact List 12 Become a Huts Maintenance Officer 12 Contacting Us 12 Echo from the Mountains June 2017 Page 1! E C H O F R O M T H E M O U N T A I N S Remembering Albert Nelson Glenmore Logging Camp Hut Shannon Peters recalls mee-ng Albert Nelson. Restoration Project Albert Nelson worked with his brother at Glenmore for The old logging coupe at Glenmore lies above the many years. He was busy logging the area long before the township of Buchan, East Gippsland; about 30-45 minutes huts were erected. The brothers built their business on a from the Timbarra/ Nunnett Road intersection, along a strong footing of hard work and determination and so mostly 2wd dirt road. There are four huts remaining today, Nelson Bros. Logging Co. was born. The boys began with but during its life there were over 30 huts in the camp. not much more than a converted ex-army tank and a Ford Blitz but quickly expanded to own more vehicles and machinery to effectively harvest timber from the area. When I met Albert I remember driving up the driveway to his house wondering what he would be like, when I came around the corner and there he was, sitting behind the wheel of a grey Fergie singing a tune I couldn’t quite hear. That memory to me was the very beginning of the Glenmore Project. We had many ‘meetings’ where I would sit for hours and look at photo albums and listen to all of his stories, until one day I asked Albert if he would like to accompany me on a quick run up to the huts to grab some measurements. To say Albert was excited about the trip to Glenmore was an understatement. I picked him up in the morning and off we went. The whole way up and back he would spot a tree or a certain S-bend in the road and it would trigger another memory. Some of the tales he told were nothing short of incredible feats and others were funny anecdotes, like how he had 4 Ford Blitz Trucks but only one registration plate because in those days ‘the coppers couldn’t tell the bloody difference’. Or how he was carting a load of logs back from Glenmore on the same day that one of the Buckleys was completing an aerial burn-off, It was just another day on the job until ‘That bloody Buckley lad set the logs on me truck on fire’. Unfortunately, that trip to Glenmore was the last time I would see Albie. He passed away peacefully not two weeks later on the 23rd of December 2016. He was a kindly and funny character that touched the lives of many in this district and his legacy will last forever in the form of The huts before restora-on the Glenmore Logging Camp. Lower Photo: credit Shez Tedford VHCHA send our condolences to the Nelson Family. There is a rich history that encompasses Glenmore. As soon as you step into the camp you can feel the hustle and bustle of a bygone era, wherever you look is a reminder of the hard work and adventures that once occurred here almost daily. For example a winch cable stuck in a tree that has been there so long the tree simply grew around it. Remnants of vehicles and old equipment lie underneath thick beds of fallen leaves, waiting to trip you up the minute you step beyond the camp, as if to show you ‘here I am, find me!’. An abnormally flat spot in relatively undulating country depicts the old log dump site, or maybe even a stump on the side of the road - most people would drive past it and think nothing of it but for Albert Nelson it was almost his undoing in one log loaded Ford Blitz in the middle of winter with brakes that had the stopping capacity of a racehorse at top speed… Albert Nelson standing next to the pride of his fleet, Albert and his brother weren’t the only ones to have ties to the Glenmore District. Amongst many others, the Radford which he paid for with cash and had the receipts and Fulton families were also heavily involved in the area. framed for the wall. Echo from the Mountains June 2017 Page 2! E C H O F R O M T H E M O U N T A I N S The idea behind the strategy was that visitors to the area Glenmore Camp Project Cont: would see immediate changes, and not only raise Des Radford and Ned Fulton had two of the huts that awareness but maybe respect the site a little more than remain standing today. Ned’s hut was the furthest north they had previously. facing hut and he has told of how he built the fireplace The stage we are up to now is a little more complicated. At using an egg lifter because he didn’t have a trowel. the moment one of the jobs we are working on is to jack Adjacent to this hut was also a fire bunker which has each hut up using mainly high lift 4wd jacks and replace unfortunately fallen in, but in Glenmore’s heyday it had the rotted stumps with logs, placed lengthways. For the last hessian blankets in the doorway which could be wet down two working bees we have had an excavator on the jobsite in the event of a bushfire to stop smoke and embers from to manoeuvre the logs around. Most of the logs are about 5 entering the dugout. metres long and 300mm wide so having the excavator Chris Radford and Ned Fulton are two of our current onsite to move the logs made it less stressful and time- volunteers. Chris’ father was Des Radford, he operated in consuming. Each log is then checked out by hand to fit the the Glenmore district for many years carting logs with his beams and rolled into place, then the jacks are let off and good friend and co-worker, Ned Fulton. Des unfortunately the hut sits back down on the new log.