The association is working with DSE on the future of two huts at Store Point, Donnelly's Creek to the east of the Thompson dam. We are very hopeful of restoring these mining huts, both of which have interesting building styles and provide a link to the ever hopeful in their search for gold. These huts were built in the 1970s by a prospector hopeful of again reviving the fortunes of the Donnelly's Creek gold fields.

We are keen to increase our knowledge of the history of these huts and the immediate gold mining area so please drop onto the forum where a topic has been started up, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or add something to our facebook page.

Our HMO for the Baw Baw area, Wayne Peterken, is leading the charge on this project and initial assessment work was completed a couple of weekends ago (in the rain naturally) and some temporary works completed.

Wayne is planning to undertake the major works on two weekends next year:

March 17th and 18th and

April 7th and 8th.

The Victorian High Country Huts Association was founded in February 2003 after bushfires swept through Victoria and destroyed many of the historic High Country huts. These huts were originally built by cattlemen, fishermen, loggers, and forest rangers. A small but dedicated team of volunteers does their best to provide a voice for the huts, to maintain and to rebuild the huts using traditional techniques, and to preserve our history. The huts of the high country are there for the free use of all and we rely on membership fees, donations and grants to buy materials and tools so that they can continue to be available.

The Association works with other groups concerned for the future of our huts particularly with caretaker groups that have formed to look after individual huts. Despite the effort of all of us since 2003 more than 90 huts have been lost to fires leaving some 190 that are in need of ongoing care.

The Association believes in and has a good working relationship with Parks Victoria, DSE and a number of private land holders. We are registered with Parks Victoria as a “Friends Group” and have affiliated with the “Friends Network” to promote our “hands on” work of hut maintenance.

We welcome involvement from any member of the community who wishes to assist to preserve our historic huts. The fight against bushfires, deterioration and vandalism is constant but since 2003 we have kept many huts from falling into ruin and restored and rebuilt others.  Even so sometimes we lose the battle, and another hut is gone forever.