Fred Fry was a Master Bushman and builder, he built his Riverside High Country home in the late 1930’s. Using split timber and his own style of workmanship, he built many Huts including Jamieson Hut, Ritchie’s Hut, Gardiner’s Hut, Noonan’s Hut and even helped with the build of Bluff Hut in and around the Howqua Hills area.
Fred died in 1971 and now the hut is used for day use only, there is no camping in the Hut anymore.
Camping is aloud at Fry’s flat and around the Hut, with a 1.5 hour return walk to Sheepyard Flat along the river passing the old Chimney.
It was Queens Birthday weekend and I knew that Sheepyard Flat and Fry’s Flat was going to be busy, as it’s the last weekend before track closures. We had 12 vehicles on this trip so we had to get in there early to get a spot, so Andrew and John left Bendigo Friday morning and they got into Fry’s Flat just after lunchtime and got a spot on the river and right beside the Hut. While the rest of us headed up that afternoon and setting up camp, we made this trip a Base camping trip so some bought along camper trailers and tents.
The weather was very wet, with rain falling all weekend. That only meant one thing if its raining down here, it’s snowing up there.
Saturday 11th June
We woke to a wet foggy morning, cooked up breakfast and we were ready to go and find Snow, a quick briefing on what and where we were going and the safety aspect if we hit snow.
We headed out of Fry’s Flat at 9.00am, heading over and down into Sheepyard Flat,(which was very busy) then we turned right onto Brocks road. Brocks road is 2wd , passing all the other camps along the way, then the track climbs a bit but very easy drive, at the switch backs and looking back at Mt Buller with the Mountain covered in snow. As we got around 800m we got glimpses of snow on the Mountains and on the track. At the intersection of Brocks road and Bluff track there also was bits of snow on the ground. We headed straight onto Bluff track then we got snow covering the track, so into High Range 4wd, then just around a couple of bends there was 5 vehicles in front putting their snow chains on as the snow was about 300mm thick and icy. I could tell they had never put chains on before because they were struggling. It turned out they were actual members of the Sandhurst 4wd Club who come from Melbourne for the day. By now there was 25 other vehicles behind us, so I put my chains on and got everyone in our group to put chains on as well. In the end I got their front vehicle which was a old Army Land Rover to keep going as he had very good snow chains on, to make the track and the other 4 vehicles to pull over to let everyone through. Asanka in his Land Rover pushed his way through as the snow got up to 2 foot thick, myself and Andrew got around the vehicles and we headed up following the Land Rover, I had to winch at one section, then we made it to Refrigerator Gap, it didn’t stop snowing.
Just to give you an idea, it takes an hour to drive up to Bluff Hut in 2wd on a good day, this took 5 hours just to get all of our vehicles to Refrigerator Gap. Some of our vehicles didn’t have snow chains, so they had to winch and snatch up to the Gap, with other people in the other groups helping out, most of the people turned around because it took that long.
When we all made it to the Gap we decided then to take Refrigerator Gap track as Bluff track was practically impossible to keep going. I put Dale up front as one of my snow chains broke, it was Dale’s first time driving through virgin snow and he loved it, then Steven and Jane went Trip leaders as the snow did get thick and they were twin locked and snow chains. We got to another group coming the other way, they were stuck in the thick snow and trying to fit chains, but had the wrong size chains for their tyres, so they got off the track to let us through, even though some of our vehicles were having trouble back along the track. The snow started to faze out, so we took off our chains and headed down to the bottom of Refrigerator Gap track and back onto Brocks road. At the bottom I waited for everyone to get down while everyone headed back to camp, but when they got to the intersection at Brocks road and Bluff track a vehicle had gone over the edge on Brocks road down about 100m from the intersection, so everyone had to wait for a couple of hours while SES got the guy out to safety. So by the time I waited for everyone to get down to Brocks road then up to the intersection, I only had to wait for 30 minutes. It was dark now and when SES opened the road again, we had the long drive back into Fry’s Hut, we got back to camp at 7.30pm and thankfully Allen had turned up during the day and had the fire going. It was a late dinner and we sat around the fire for the night while it rained in patches during the night.
Sunday 12th June
Sunday morning we woke again to wet weather and then the sun came out for a look, we had some members heading home as the day before was pretty hard on them for driving through so much snow and they didn’t have snow chains, as we were heading back up to find more snow. We were heading towards King Billy at 1660m. So we headed out of Fry’s Flat just after 9.00am and back up Brocks road, up at the intersection we turned right staying on Brocks road still in 2wd. After about an hour of driving we stopped for a break just passed the Seasonal road Closure gate at the Cairn Creek track intersection. Here the guys who helped us winch the vehicles the day before turned up behind us, they decided to go up Cairn Creek track as we continued straight on Brocks road, up a bit we started to get snow covering the track, we ran into some hunters cutting up firewood and said “you probably won’t get through as the snow is fairly thick “. So we followed them up the track and just as you get to the switch backs the hunters stopped there, lit their fire as they were waiting for the dogs to return. I went around them only to make it another 20m, the snow was about 800mm deep just impassable. So we turned around and headed back out, we could hear the other guys trying to climb Cairn Creek track over the UHF radio, couldn’t make it up there either. So we just headed back to camp , cutting firewood for ourselves on the way back. We got back around 2.30pm lit the fire and we had a relaxing day around the fire with a few drinks. The guys who helped us winch came and camped with us to, so it ended up being a big night around the fire.
Monday 13th June
This morning everyone packed up camp slowly as they were heading home. Everyone headed home at their own leisure as the sun came out looking like it was going to be a great day. So I decided to head back up to Refrigerator Gap and camp in the snow. The drive up now was very easy, there had been so many vehicles gone through it was basically a track again.
At the Gap I set up camp and lit a fire, sitting around the fire camping in the snow, with the sun out and shining made it very mild and not cold at all.
Tuesday I headed home as well, going out through Sheepyard Flat then onto Mansfield.
Participants
Russell – 105 LandCruiser
Andrew – Triton
Dale – 105 LandCruiser
John – Triton
Karl – 105 LandCruiser
Luke – Hilux
Dave and Angela – Nissan Patrol
Wayne – Hilux
Steven and Jayne – 100 LandCruiser
Dan – Prado
Allen – Hilux
Tim Mc – BT-50
Deb and David – Isuzu
