On my way down to Melbourne to run my courses I decided to make the most of the trip and stop overnight at Mansfield which is about a 45 minute drive to Craigs Hut.
We stayed at the Mansfield Motel and by chance the owner Ash (great bloke) was an avid photographer and was keen to head out to the hut as well and see if the snow had remained from a recent dump.
As luck would have it Ash was also the owner of a Landcruiser Sahara, talk about a luxury 4WD with balls so the trip to the hut was a breeze. Far better than my last memories of my trip to the hut many years ago where is was foggy and raining.
The snow had pretty much melted and only small patches remained but the warm light that was present as the sun slowly dropped was amazing. A photographers delight.
The hut which was never used as shelter for travellers was part of the movie set for The man from Snowy River and was moved to this location as a tourist attraction. Unfortunately it burnt down on the 11th of December 2006 by bush fires and was later rebuilt under a bit of controversy with it not being re built to the same design as the last one and budget blow outs… link
But to the first time visitor you wont know the difference and it is a worth while trip and the hut looks great.
This is just one of many shots and compositions from the afternoon. I will post more soon.
nice post Matt.
i didn’t realise this hut burned down.
it seems like a tough place to get a new composition.
love the light on the fence rail you’ve got here.
i really do love all these high country huts.
would love to get around and see more of them 🙂
Wow! That is a really good news! I didn’t know that it was rebuilt recently. Thanks a lot for letting know, Matt!
Steve… yea it is hard to get a unique composition. I still have a few images to process so hopefully there is an original one in there. Stay tuned.
Ilya… yep all rebuild and ready to be photographed. They will close the road to the hut soon for winter so get in soon.
A beautiful photo Matt of an iconic scene, one day i hope to visit this site and take an image for myself.
You did well Matt, that is a great version of the classic Craig’s Hut. I also like Ric Steinigers version, he caught some awesome light and clouds. I like how yours has the sun lighting up the scene though, very good.
lovely light on the scene and fence in particular in this image Matt. It has that cold/wintery type of tones to it and I can feel the dry crispness in the air by looking at it…