Lake Belcher Hut Repair
Another Ticked Off
For some strange reason the photos sometimes don't show. Click here for a different version
Friday 27 January 2017
It is not often that we walk to the Lake Belcher hut twice
in the one month, in fact it would probably be a rarity for anyone to do
so. Nevertheless, that is what happened
in our quest to replace some of the wall timber and repaint the hut. It is in
the high country and we can only paint the timber in warmer weather, as it is
very slow to dry if temperatures are below 10 degrees. But the main reason for our rush was to
fulfil a grant obligation.
 |
| Greg at the door of the repaired hut, ticking the work done or is it what needs doing next visit. |
The work resulted from a Tasmanian Community Fund grant at
the end of 2015, but circumstances arising from the logistics of obtaining
timber and getting onsite, together with the fires of that summer meant work
could not really get underway until this 2016-17 summer.
The timber was helicoptered to the site on 18 April 2016. As
it takes at least 5 hours just getting to and from the site it leaves a limited
amount of daylight outside the summer months for working. An extension to the
end of February 2017 was granted to get the job completed.
There were three of us on this visit and each walked in at
their own pace and this did mean that one could stop when they pleased and it
made the walk a quite pleasant experience, more so than usual. The flowers and
scenery were ever so nice and the temperature very comfortable. The bog in the Belcher valley, however, could
not be considered pleasant at all.
Greg Kidd and I were most impressed that Peter O’Hern also
came along again, even though he had to leave earlier than us. An admirable
contribution we reckon. The surprising
thing was that we got to the site quicker than last time; hard to nut that one
out. Greg actually took less than 2 hours.
As for the work, all the planned new boards were installed
and painted. The paint just made the
distance with the raw timber soaking it up very quickly. The new boards from
both the excursions only got a single coat, so will need a second sometime in
future; but not this summer.
The work on both the Belcher and K Col huts is now complete
and the money all spent. It has been a project driven by the desire of Greg Kidd
to preserve and improve the huts, and those people liking huts owe a debt of
gratitude to Greg. If it wasn’t for him it is unlikely the Friends of Mount
Field would have undertaken the task.
 |
| Billy buttons Craspedia alpina |
 |
| Boronia citriodora Lemon-scented Boronia Wombat Moor |
 |
| Coral Fern and gums on Wombat Moor |
 |
| Snow gums at the end of Wombat Moor |
 |
| Forest on Humboldt Ridge taken from the track to Humboldt River. It is hard to understand why some people only see money when they look at such sites. |
 |
| The Needles from Mawson Saddle |
Comments