On my way down to Melbourne to run my courses I decided to make the most of the trip and stop overnight at Mansfield which is about a 45 minute drive to Craigs Hut.

We stayed at the Mansfield Motel and by chance the owner Ash (great bloke) was an avid photographer and was keen to head out to the hut as well and see if the snow had remained from a recent dump.

As luck would have it Ash was also the owner of a Landcruiser Sahara, talk about a luxury 4WD with balls so the trip to the hut was a breeze. Far better than my last memories of my trip to the hut many years ago where is was foggy and raining.

The snow had pretty much melted and only small patches remained but the warm light that was present as the sun slowly dropped was amazing. A photographers delight.

The hut which was never used as shelter for travellers was part of the movie set for The man from Snowy River and was moved to this location as a tourist attraction. Unfortunately it burnt down on the 11th of December 2006 by bush fires and was later rebuilt under a bit of controversy with it not being re built to the same design as the last one and budget blow out.

But to the first time visitor you wont know the difference and it is a worth while trip and the hut looks great.

Canon 5D Mark II | 7 image stitch.

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All images are © Matt Lauder Photography, All Rights Reserved. You may not use, replicate, manipulate, redistribute, or modify this image without my written consent.