Craigs Hut was never a cattleman’s hut, but built as a prop for the 1980s movie, The Man from Snowy River. This aside, the hut is set in a spectacular location on the edge of Clear Hills to the north-east of Mt Stirling.
The hut takes its name from Jim Craig, played by actor Tom Burlinson. Constructed for the movie as a shell — with walls, verandah and roof only — the internal scenes of the hut were shot in a studio. On completion of the movie the hut was left to deteriorate. But owing to its popularity with visitors and tourists, it was decided that the hut be replaced with a more permanent structure. This replacement hut burnt down in December 2006 from a fire started by a lightning strike. Again, due to its continued popularity with visitors, it was rebuilt in 2007 using traditional methods along with more durable timbers such as red gum and iron bark.
Constructed with drop slab walls and a corrugated iron roof, the hut consists of one large room with a number of windows. There is a timber floored verandah on both the east and west sides. Inside the floor is covered with brick pavers. The large fireplace is generally boarded up in summer, however come winter, the hut is used as a refuge for cross-country skiers and the fireplace is operable. Outside, the hut is surrounded by a post and rail fence and set amongst the granite boulders and native shrubs are the ‘graves’ of Jim Craig’s parents, remnants from the movie set.
Craigs Hut is just one of 50 historic mountain shelters described and beautifully photographed in this new paperback edition of Boiling Billy’s High Country Huts & Homesteads.
Author: Craig Lewis