Oldfields Hut celebrates 100th birthday with National Parks staff, caretakers, family

Amid the cold and damp mountain weather, more than 60 Oldfield family descendants, hut caretakers and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) officers gathered at Oldfields Hut to celebrate its 100th birthday on Saturday 29 November.

Speeches, a sausage sizzle and cake flowed freely at the restored hut in the northern part of Kosciuszko National Park, just above Currango Plain near the Australian Capital Territory border.

It was a scene the original owners and builder could barely have imagined a century ago.

Jack Feeney built the grazier's hut back in 1925 for Bill and Emma Oldfield who held a grazing lease on the western side of the Brindabella Ranges, clearing bushland around Pocket’s and Oldfields’s huts and employing Jack Feeney to oversee the cattle. Jack lived in the hut over the summer months to oversee the cattle.

Like many of the mountain huts, Oldfields’ is well located in a sheltered valley and designed with its windows facing east to catch the morning sun. It has great views of Mt Bimberi and surrounding ranges and is significant as one of the few remaining huts with walls made of timber slabs split with a maul and froe.

Oldfields Hut still has its 1925 configuration and retains much of its original fabric, including timber cut from trees on site, fixed with nails and fencing wire. Later, a stable, stockyards and fenced vegetable garden were added.

Grazing continued in the area until 1958, when the Crown discontinued all snow leases above 1370 metres.

The hut continued to be used by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority, bushwalkers, and riders.

Today it is a popular visitor destination, being a short walk or ride from the track head at the end of Pockets Saddle Road and situated on the Alps Walking Track.

In the 1970s and 80s, hut repairs and maintenance were done by volunteer groups including the Bogong Group, the Coolamine Club, Mark and Stuart Garner and NPWS carpenters.

Pat Harvey from Kosciuszko Huts Association became caretaker in 1988 and today, the leader of the current Kosciuszko Huts Association (KHA) caretaker group, Trish Evans coordinates efforts.

Quotes attributable to NPWS Team Leader Ranger Megan Bowden:

“Oldfields is one of more than 60 huts in Kosciuszko National Park, many of these are like ‘living museums’, significant for their past use by miners, graziers or timber getters, and still valued today for visitor accommodation or emergency shelter.

“They are significant because of the way they have been built by people ‘making do’ with the resources at hand, including stone, split slab, logs and pise which is a type of stiff earth.

“They also demonstrate patterns of use in the landscape, with this historic network of linked huts and trails built for mountain weather and topography, reflecting the rich history and many land uses of what is now Kosciuszko National Park.

“A big thank you to Susan Learmont and the volunteers who helped on the weekend.”

Quotes attributable to Trish Evans leader of the current Kosciuszko Huts Association (KHA) caretaker group:

“We have enjoyed working on the hut for more than 30 years with our families and friends.

“It’s not just the fabric of the huts, they have social value to the many families who have used them over the decades years and are cultural icons to the Australian community.”

Quotes attributable to Lindon Oldfield, descendant of the original hut owner:

“It was great to get the Oldfield family together to celebrate the 100th birthday, including the latest seventh generation of Oldfields.

“The rain cleared and after some speeches, we cut the cake and many a story was told over a sausage sandwich.”