WAS THIS BUSH HUT AT ALANVALE (GREAT LAKE) ??

[Mike]

I have just been reading the following book "CIDER GUMS AND CURRAWONGS", A history of the lifetyle, people and places of the Lake Country of Tasmania to the 1950s.
On page 216 I came across a picture of a postcard "A Bush Home in Tasmania" The caption states that the picture is THOUGHT to depict the cottage at Alanvale.

The book states "Alanvale was among the very early and more remote holdings used for summer grazing. Records show that it was owned by Charles Headlam of Egleston in the Tasmanian midlands, and was near the north western end of Great Lake. After the second dam at Miena was built and the subsequent rise in the level of Great Lake, much of the valuable marsh grazing land of Alanvale was lost"

Can anyone confirm that this bush hut is indeed Alanvale?

[Ross Ewington]

Mike ... here's the location of the present day Alanvale Bay at the NW corner of the Great Lake.
I'll see if I can get a photo of the eucalypts growing in the area in order to "tie" the hut to the location.

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[Ross Ewington]

I have just completed a "trawl" through a considerable quantity of photos featuring views of early dwellings in the Central Highlands but have been unsuccessful in "tieing" the house on this postcard to the Great Lake area. I am of the opinion that house was not at the Great Lake but more likely to have been in the Ben Lomond / Mt Barrow area which would have provided a similar view and explain the older style of construction of the house (these areas were opened up for grazing decades before the Central Highlands).

The jury will have to remain "out" on the exact location of the view on this card I feel.

[Mike]

I can now positively confirm that this Bush Hut was indeed located at "Alanvale" Great Lake. Thanks to a new book by Simon Cubit and Nic Haygarth, titled "Historic Tasmanian Mountain Huts" which has just been published.

See pages 92 to 99. The photographer was Howard Drew who practised as a chemist at Westbury. The original photograph was taken c1903/04. The hut was known as Brandum's cottage. The people in the photo are shepherd Dan Brandum and his wife Margaret. The Allandale high country property was owned by Charles Headlam of Egleston near Campbell Town.

See (or buy) the book for the full story.


Item Information

ISBN: 9780992551339
Blackgum Item Code: FS24
Title: Historic Tasmanian Mountain Huts
Author: Simon Cubit & Nic Haygarth
Imprint: Forty South
RRP: $49.95
More information:
The introduction of portable dry plate cameras in the late 1870s marked the
beginning of a golden age of Tasmanian landscape photography. With cameras on their backs, adventurers explored the wilds of Tasmania, recording not just the dramatic physical features they found but also the typically rough shelters of the miners, hunters, stockmen and piners who lived or worked in the bush. In this beautiful book Simon Cubit and Nic Haygarth use this rich photographic heritage as the basis for a series of extraordinary stories about human enterprise in the Tasmanian highlands.

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