History

Mid 19th century

Mitchell’s reports of rich pasture beyond the Murray River initiated a rush by land-hungry graziers. Thomas Buckland arrived in the 1840s to take up the Junction Run near Porepunkah, at the foot of Mount Buffalo. Buckland appointed a manager, Thomas Goldie, who reputedly cut the first track up to the plateau from the Buckland valley on the south west side of the mountain. Goldie's Track was thereafter used to bring cattle to the plateau each spring.  For the next one hundred years over 300 head of cattle grazed the alpine pastures at the foot of the Horn. The last summer grazing licence was issued by the  Mount Buffalo Committee of Management in 1956.

Gold miners, botanists and others also began to find routes up to the plateau, and government surveyors began to map the mountain.

The painter Nicholas Chevalier visited the district in the 1850s, returning in 1864 to paint Mount Buffalo from One Mile Creek. Ferdinand von Mueller explored the plateau in the early months of 1853, accompanied by the Superintendent of Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens, John Dallachy.  Only days after his appointment as Government Botanist, Mueller set off on horseback to explore the alps and describe its flora:

"I ascended Mount Aberdeen and another peak....and examined the rich, almost tropical vegetation that borders the rivers rising in these mountains.  It was in this locality that our exertions were rewarded with the discovery of the high, majestic Grevillea Victoriae and other rarities."

This was the first recorded ascent of The Horn, although it is likely that Buckland and Goldie had already visited the plateau.

Also in 1853 gold was discovered in the Buckland Valley at the foot of Mount Buffalo.  At the height of the rush over 5,000 miners were on the diggings, including the brothers James and John Manfield. It is likely that miners searched for gold amongst the granite of Mount Buffalo.  In 1856, according to W.F. Waters, the Manfields escorted the first parties of miners to the plateau. Although no gold was discovered on Mount Buffalo (see Geology), miners continued to visit the plateau, tempted by the cooler summer climate, the scenery and the magnificent views.

Mid to late 19th century

With tracks in place (albeit rough and difficult) word began to spread about Mount Buffalo as a scenic destination, and holidaymakers began arriving, initially from the southern end of the park towards The Horn. A better route up was found at the northern end of the park, which eventually became the the Mount Buffalo Road in 1908.

With the beginning of tourism in the 1880s, an area around the spectacular Gorge was reserved as a national park in 1898, thanks in part to successful government lobbying by the Bright Alpine Club. The park has been enlarged several times since and now takes in all the plateau and surrounding slopes.

Early 20th century

Today's Mount Buffalo Chalet was built in 1910, soon after the first road to the plateau was constructed, replacing some earlier more "rustic" accommodation. Despite its grand proportions the Chalet offered very basic accommodation. The building was unlined at first and had no heating. J.F. Wilkinson observed that guests came to meals wearing rugs and overcoats, and would rush their dinner in order to get back to the fire. The Chalet was nevertheless a popular resort. Lake Catani provided a venue for boating and fishing in summer and skating in winter. A golf course opened at Tuckerbox Corner in 1911.

With the opening of the Chalet, snow sports were pursued seriously.  For a time Mount Buffalo was the most accessible ski field in Victoria. Miss Hilda Samsing, lessee of the Chalet from 1919 to 1924, fostered the growth of skiing by importing hickory skis from Norway. She employed Fred Chalwell to teach guests, and soon skiers were journeying to Mount Buffalo each winter to try the new sport. Mount Buffalo installed the first ski tow in Australia at Dingo Dell in the 1930s.

In 1924 the lease of the Chalet was transferred to the Victorian Railways Refreshment Service.  Harold Clapp, Chairman of Commissioners of the Victorian Railways had spent time in the North American railway services, and saw a comparison between Mount Buffalo and the North American national parks, Banff and Yosemite, where tourist resorts had been built at the end of railway lines. Vowing to make Mount Buffalo the finest all-year round playground, Clapp refurbished the Chalet and greatly improved transport to the plateau.

Clapp also promoted Mount Buffalo as a ski-field. The first ski tow in Australia was built at Dingo Dell in 1937. A Cadillac engine drove a drum around which an endless rope was wound.  Skiers grasped the rope by a metal handle and were towed to the top of the slope. Also in 1936 Franz Skardarasy was brought to Mount Buffalo from Austria by the Victorian Railways to run the first ski school in Australia. He introduced skiers to the Arlberg technique which enabled better handling of deep snow than the Telemark technique then practiced.

Mid to late 20th century

A committee of management (appointed in 1918) administered the national park. Like many park management committees it focused on the recreational aspects of management, but stressed that the demands of outdoor recreation should not compromise the park’s natural values:

"While endeavouring to cater for the public under winter conditions, in providing buildings, etc., the Committee has not lost touch of its desire of not civilising the plateau and would keep to the spirit of rough grandeur by encouraging the walker and tourist rather than making it a paradise for the motorist and having buildings as far as practical conform to the natural surroundings and not despoiling the landscape."

The stone shelters at The Gorge, The Horn and at Lake Catani are evidence of the Committee's endeavours to keep the plateau natural.

Current

The national park is currently managed by Parks Victoria.

Key Mount Buffalo people

There are many interesting historical figures associated with Mount Buffalo. Here are some of them.

The Manfield brothers, together with "Buffalo" Bill Weston and Ted Carlile, pioneered early tourism to Mount Buffalo. Bill Weston built the first permanent building on the plateau in 1879. For several years he had brought tourist parties to the mountain. A group of Melbourne doctors were so impressed that they returned regularly.  At Echo Point, Weston built a log cabin which he called Doctors Hut, providing shelter for the many tourist parties he guided up the rough bush tracks to the Gorge.

Ted Carlile guided visitors to the plateau via Goldie's Track. He built Carlile's Hospice and Hotel near the Monolith, in 1891.  Not to be outdone, James Manfield constructed the Manfield Chalet near Bent's Lookout. The Manfield children also guided tourist parties about the plateau, and one daughter, Alice, became so competent that she is fondly remembered as Guide Alice.

Alice was a feminist figure in Victoria, a mountain guide, naturalist, author, Chalet owner (Pre the current Chalet) and photographer. She was a pioneer in the developent of tourism at Mount Buffalo and somewhat of a tourist attraction in her own right in particular with her work as a guide in the period from the 1890s to the 1930s. Alice was also a key player in lobbying for the establishment of Mount Buffalo as a national park. She was born in 1878 and died in 1960. She is known for wearing trousers at a period in history where for females this was both unusual and frowned on.

Enthusiasm for the beauty of the plateau gave rise to a concerted campaign to ensure permanent protection. The Bright Alpine Club and Bright Progress Association were formed in the 1880s. Under the energetic leadership of Dr. John Wilkinson and William Staker, the Bright Alpine Club actively publicised the values of the plateau and invited influential visitors to witness them at first hand. The club produced an Illustrated Guide to the Victorian Alps, and concluded that the best way to experience the plateau was to camp out:

"The complete isolation from the world of business, the exhilaration, the wildness and magnificence of the surroundings brings the tourist in close sympathy with nature."

The Bright Alpine Club commissioned Weston and his brother George to cut a more direct route to the plateau from Bright. It was named Staker's Track in honour of William Staker.

Sources

Many of these words were provided by Daniel Catrice, circa 1999

Johnson, D. The Alps at the Crossroads: The Quest for an Alpine National Park (VNPA, 1974)

Mount Buffalo National Park, Resource Collection Files F/C:3/2, Historic Places Section, DNRE.

Scougall, B. (ed.) Cultural Heritage of the Australian Alps: Proceedings of the 1991 Symposium (AALC, Canberra, 1992)

Waters, W. The Buffalo Mountains: A Brief History of The Melbourne Walker, 1967.

Webb, D. & B. Adams, The Mount Buffalo Story, 1898-1998 (MUP, Melbourne, 1998)