page_title: Scott-Kilvert Memorial Hut
section_title: Hut construction
hierarchical_section_title: Scott-Kilvert Memorial Hut / Hut construction
caption_attribution_description: English: North West Walking Club members, digging for gravel, working bee at Scott-Kilvert Hut, Lake Rodway, November 1965. From left: Peter Piper (background), David Duff with shovel,&#160;?, Les Hope,&#160;?,&#160;?, Malcolm Grant in lake.
context_page_description: The Scott-Kilvert Memorial Hut commemorates teacher Ewen Scott and student David Kilvert, who died in near-blizzard conditions at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, Australia on 20 May 1965 on a Riverside High School walking trip. After their deaths, Riverside High School and the Launceston Walking Club submitted plans to the Scenery Preservation Board for a memorial hut at Lake Rodway. Assisted by members of the North West Walking Club, work began in September 1965. The hut was dedicated by headmaster John Walker on 3 April 1966.
context_section_description: The hut was financed by a public appeal, which raised $3,000. It was built by Riverside High School and Launceston Walking Club with help from other organisations, such as the North West Walking Club. Plans were drawn up by architect Arnold Rowlands, a member of the North West Walking Club whose wife Mavis was a cousin of Scott. The plan was approved by the Scenic Preservation Board, and work began at the Lake Rodway site in September 1965, under the cliffs of the southern face of Cradle Mountain. The Board had wanted a hut on Lake Rodway for some time, but had been unable to finance it.
  Near the hut was a good supply of building material. King Billy pines for timber required came from nearby, gravel for the foundation came from the lake, and stone for the hut walls came from a small hill 100 metres away. Due to the size of the hut and the distance from the nearest road at Dove Lake (6 kilometres, with a 500-metre climb), a helicopter was used to move material which could not be sourced locally. An Ansett-ANA helicopter made 53 round trips in one weekend, moving 14 tons of material to the site at a cost of about $1,000. After several alterations to the plans, and with the support of the North West Walking Club, an additional six tons of timber was carried in by pack.
  Work parties, supervised by professional builder and keen bushwalker Stan Brodziak, were on site every other weekend during the construction period. A total of 15 weekends were required. In January, ten people stayed for a week and transformed the hut from a bare frame to an almost-liveable hut with a porch, asbestos roofing tiles (supplied at a discount by a local cement company), and a fireplace. The inglenook fireplace had seating around a central hearth.
  The A-frame hut was designed to withstand severe weather. For its main supports, eight King Billy pine trees were felled and floated 300 metres across Lake Rodway. Each support, weighing about 750 kilograms (1,650 lb), was moved into place by hand. The hut accommodates about 30 people in the upstairs sleeping area.
  It took 10,000 man-hours and 38 working days to complete, and was officially opened on 3 April 1966. The weather was poor, and walkers began arriving in steady rain at 10 am. At noon, almost 300 people had assembled to see the hut and hear speeches. The plaque was unveiled by Riverside High School headmaster John Walker.
caption: North-West Walking Club members digging for gravel, Lake Rodway (November 1965)
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5373", "Image ImageLength": "3707", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Adobe Deflate", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Nikon", "Image Model": "Nikon COOLSCAN V ED", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "4000", "Image YResolution": "4000", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2018:11:20 21:28:37", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "470", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7300", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3213", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2000"}