Last week's exposé on our beloved mountain huts prompted several readers to ask about which huts are closest to Canberra.
No one was more to the point than Jenny Black of Whitlam. "I can't walk far but would love to visit one of these huts you write about to see what all the fuss is about," she says.
It's a fair question. Not everyone is willing, or able, to undertake a long day (or overnight) trek to reach a remote hut.
My top pick for Jenny is Brayshaws Hut in southern Namadgi National Park, for while it is a bit of a drive (about 50km from Tharwa), the car park is less than a 200-metre stroll from the historic hut.
In fact, because of ease of access, Brayshaws is my usual go-to hang-out to enjoy the first snow falls of the season.
If it's a weekend, there are usually other snow seekers around, but if it's mid-week, I'm often the only one there. And that doesn't bother me one little bit. In fact, that's the way I prefer it.
On such bleak wintry days, I'm always drawn to the fireplace. Not to light a fire (although you can in an emergency) but instead to wait in anticipation for those first snowflakes to flutter through the large open chimney, where if they are fluffy enough you can hear them softly land on the fireplace. One at a time. Really! It's a subtle sound, a bit like eavesdropping on whispers from a bygone era.
I also regularly glance out the window adjacent to the fireplace, not only to check if any other cars have pulled up, the occupants of which may interrupt my selfish desire for solitude, but also to wonder just how many times life-long bachelor David (Davey) Brayshaw, who lived in this small hut for almost 30 years, enjoyed the same view.
"It would have been a lonely existence," admits Steve Brayshaw, Davey's great-great-nephew. "Although once a week he'd visit his younger brother Richard who lived at Bobeyan Homestead in the next valley." Gee, talk about a social butterfly.
Just as Davey lived alone, he also died alone. But not in the hut.
No, poor Davey died of 'shock and exposure' after he fell from his horse on August 31, 1931 while riding back from one of those weekly visits to his brother.
Indeed, if you know where to look, the exact spot where Davey's body was found, stirrup irons still on his feet, and hat and whip on the ground nearby, is still marked by a small cairn of white rocks on the old Boboyan Road.
On my most recent pilgrimage to Brayshaws, just as the snowflakes stopped falling (sigh), I thought I heard footsteps shuffling on the veranda.
I carefully prised open the door to sneak a peek, but there was no sign of anyone. And what's more, there were no footprints in the fresh snow.
Maybe my mind was wandering?
And then I saw it.
No, it wasn't Davey's ghost. Rather, it was the rump of a fast-moving possum as it scurried to take temporary residence in the rafters.
However, I'm far from the only one who has fallen under the spell of Brayshaws. Nor, for that matter, the only one who's tried to tune into its murmurs from its past.
"There's just something about old huts in the high country... maybe it's the silence. Maybe it's the history soaked into the timber. Or maybe it's the history people leave behind," says Nicky Myers and Craig Mikaere from Sydney who love escaping city life with road trips to the ACT and beyond.
"We pulled into Brayshaws Hut with no expectations and left with that feeling you can't really explain. David Brayshaw lived out here alone for decades. Different kind of a life. Died on a land he loved," Nicky reflects.
While slowly wandering through the hut, Nicky flicked through the visitors book. One entry jumped out: "Nice friendly ghosts... take care", it read.
"Now that is the kind of review you don't find on Google," ponders Nicky. "We love this stuff, not because we instantly believe every ghost story we hear but because of how strangely familiar they can feel. Different places. Different people. Yet the same little details appear over and over again, footsteps outside isolated huts, the feeling of being watched, strange noises in the dark, or that sense that someone else is sharing the space with you."
Nicky, I know that feeling. It's comforting, but also just edgy enough to heighten your sense of place. And as for Jenny from Whitlam, if you can make the drive to Brayshaws this winter, maybe you too will experience it.
But a word of warning. If you see drips on the wooden floorboards, be careful looking up, for while there aren't any leaks in the roof at Brayshaws, there may well be a nervous possum.
Happy winter!
If you go: Brayshaws Hut is located 50km south of Tharwa along the Boboyan Road. About 36km south of Tharwa the road becomes gravel. When I recently drove the Yowiemobile along this section of road it was suitable for 2WD, but conditions are dependent on weather events, so best to check at the Namadgi Visitors Centre (phone 6207 2900) before leaving home. If snow is predicted, take chains or a 4WD to avoid being stranded.
Did You Know? Brayshaws Hut was protected from the Black Summer fires by a temporary sprinkler system using water trucked into several inflatable water tanks.
It's all in a name: Although most refer to it as Brayshaws Hut, some call it Brayshaws Homestead or simply Brayshaws. Steve Brayshaw, great-great-nephew of David (Davey) Brayshaw, simply refers to it as "Davey's Hut because the family's homestead (Bobeyan) was in the next valley". Oh, and just to confuse matters, there is another, much smaller 'Brayshaws Hut' located in the far east of Kosciuszko National Park, named after Roy Brayshaw (Davey's nephew), and which according to Steve was the wash house from the former convent in old Adaminaby that was moved from the old town to its current location overlooking the Nungar Plain by Roy's brother-in-law Bob Venables in the early 1950s.
Next to move in: After Davey Brayshaw's tragic accident, Ted (Davey's nephew) and Roma (née Oldfield) Brayshaw purchased the hut from his estate. Several years later, in 1936, Henry and Iris Curtis acquired the hut. There must have been more than a few rabbits around at the time for high-country historian Matthew Higgins reports in Bold Horizon (Rosenberg, 2018) "that Henry paid for the transaction with earnings from a winter's rabbit trapping". The hut was later used as a shearers quarters.
Boboyan or Bobeyan? Although the well-known road through Namadgi National Park appears on official maps as Boboyan, the property after which the road was named is spelt Bobeyan (pronounced Bo-bee-yan, rhymes with Queanbeyan). "When the first road surveyors came through the area in the early 1860s it's believed they may have misspelt it," reveals Steve Brayshaw whose great-great-grandparents, William and Flora Brayshaw, owned Bobeyan at the time. "Flora had a thick Scottish accent, and William was from Yorkshire so that probably didn't help matters," muses Steve. "It's hard to understand a Yorkshireman at the best of times".
Rating: Medium - Hard
Clue: Doc Evatt was here.
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email received after 10am, Saturday June 6 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Andy Hogan of Bonython, who submitted his entry while sailing near Cockburn Sound in Western Australia. Andy was the first reader to correctly identify last week's photo as part of a plaque honouring pioneering Australian aviator Lawrence Hargrave at the Scullin Shops. Amongst his many achievements, Hargrave invented the double box kite, which due to its superior lift-to-drag ratio and aerodynamic stability, provided the framework for biplanes of the 20th century. Oh, and as pointed out by Rohan Goyne of Evatt who submitted the photo, "the naming theme for streets of Scullin is 'aviators'."
Weird things are afoot on the roads in our towns and villages to Canberra's east, and for a change it's not about finding the deepest potholes.
In Majors Creek following some fresh line marking near the village pub last week, residents were amused to find some of the painted markings extended onto a section of dirt road. "While at first glance it may appear as an error or a prank by council workers, it is most likely the operator was just ensuring the machine was working properly before they started on the bitumen," reports one Majors Creek insider.
Meanwhile, residents in Braidwood are lamenting the disappearance of one of their last 'silent cops' (remember those raised metal domes usually placed in the centre of an intersection and designed to prevent drivers from cutting corners) following the road resealing works at the corner of Wallace and Coghill streets. Brian McDonald of Majors Creek reports, "It was put there in the 1970s when I worked for Tallaganda Shire Council. I painted it regularly."
I just wonder where it ended up? Firmly ensconced in the council depot or on Facebook marketplace? I suspect the latter.
CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
