Treasure's Huts, Alpine Huts 1994-5 sheet 27 8
Victorian Alpine Huts survey, for Parks Victoria 1994-5.
In 1865, E George Treasure married Emily Langford and by the early 1870s had moved to Victoria to work at a Seymour vineyard. George Treasure junior had been born to the family at Wangaratta, in 1873, and the next two children at Wandiligong, in 1875 and 1877, as a mark of their gradual progress towards the Dargo area. Treasure worked on reef mining at Wandiligong, doing underground work as he had done in New South Wales. He moved to another mine, the Alpine, for a healthier working environment, in 1877 { Stapleton: 28-}. In 1878, E George Treasure (then described as a Harrietville miner), selected land at Kings Spur on the Dargo High Plains{ Stephenson: 107-}. The family (3 boys, one girl) made an arduous journey on horseback via Mt Freezeout and the Lankey's Plain, to a bark roof two-room log hut built on the High Plains near Kings Spur on the eastern edge of Gow's Plains, by George and his mining associate, Harry Stitt in late 1877. The hut had a verandah at the entry, a slab chimney `stoned up' to 7-8 feet high, two modified armchairs and bush furniture made on the spot. This served as the residence for a small dairy farm which provided for the miners who crossed to the Grant and Crooked River goldfields{ Stephenson}. The house became a licensed hotel and a store was added. Three miles south there was also Gow's hotel, the `half-way house'. Cessation of mining around 1900 meant the store was wound down. George and Emily purchased a 700 acre property at Lindenow (Grassvale) while their son Harry remained at King's Spur. George senior died at Lindenow of cancer in 1901, aged 58 { Stapleton: 116}. Emily then arranged the gradual transfer of the High Plains holdings to her sons who managed the properties and stock in the interim. Emily died in 1939, aged 90. Harry L Treasure (George's son) selected the 200 acre property Castleburn (45 miles distant on the Stratford side of Dargo, later enlarged to 3000 acres), c1904, to serve summer grazing. This was after his marriage in 1903 to local girl, Clare Gamel. About the same time he and his father-in-law built a new shingle and paling house at Mayford, east of the King's Spur property, as a winter base. From 1907 Harry's brothers sold him their shares and eventually departed north. Gamel built Harry another house, Rockalpine, in 1910 - located further to the south on the Dargo Road. The family spent the winter at the house in c1912 after the house at Mayford was burnt, leaving only some old huts. Harry, Clare and family developed their High Plains holdings in the inter-war period, including a near 100,000 acre grazing lease, George's 600 acre selection, a fenced freehold at Riley's Creek to spell the cattle on their way to the mountains in summer, and `a sheltered saddle near Mt Ewan…another substantial hut and set of bush yards capable of holding large mobs' { Stapleton: 159}. The 1939 fires meant losses for the family as for many others in the region but they saved the homestead complex, losing 700 stock, fences, and several huts and yards. The family worked hard to replace them, splitting some 4000 snow gum posts in the following season along with woolly but rails for yards and gates but wire and snow gum droppers replaced the old logs in the fences. Harry and his three sons (Don, Jack & Jim) rebuilt the Mt Ewan hut and yards as a `magnificent new log hut' { Stapleton: 214}. The paling hut beside the 1939 log hut was reputedly built for Freda Treasure (Harry & Claire's daughter) as her bedroom in about 1945- presumably allowing the men to sleep in the 1939 log hut { Kosciuszko Huts Association website 2004}. However a picture of Freda at Mt Ewan (in her 20s-30s?) has her seated on her bunk, next to her saddle, knitting in the log hut. Educated at MLC in the 1930s, Freda married Wally Ryder, from another pioneering cattle family, in 1957. She shifted to Tawonga as a result but maintained a keen interest in the High Plains along with her brothers{ Stapleton: 219}. Harry gave her a paddock at Castleburn, known as Bryce's and she became known by local scribes as `Maid of the Mountains' or `Cowgirl of the Alps'}. Harry gave her a 28,000 bush grazing block to work after 1939, known as Jones' where she used an existing hut and yards. She lived there through winter with her cattle, visited occasionally by her mother. Freda died in 1988, one year after Wally { Stapleton: 267-}. Harry Treasure served as an Avon Shire councillor 1918-1949, often riding to the council meetings at Stratford. Harry made many submissions to government inquiries concerning the causes of the 1939 fires and alpine grazing. He died at Rockalpine in 1961{ Stephenson}. As a postscript, Sydney (Jack) Treasure (son of Harry) sought a selection on the High Plains in the 1940s but met with government opposition{ HO15895}. Some 20 years later the Treasures tried again stating that they had added many improvements to their grazing block (4A) and desired some freehold security. Their father and grandfather had held it for some 80 years{ HO15895}. The improvements on the adjoining freehold which served the grazing lease then included four residences (Harry's sons), sheds, fences, stockyards (CAs 2,2A,4,5){ HO15895 }. The department granted a seven year lease instead, noting the good management of the property.
Treasure's Huts, Alpine Huts 1994-5 sheet 27 8
Victorian Alpine Huts survey, for Parks Victoria 1994-5.
In 1865, E George Treasure married Emily Langford and by the early 1870s had moved to Victoria to work at a Seymour vineyard. George Treasure junior had been born to the family at Wangaratta, in 1873, and the next two children at Wandiligong, in 1875 and 1877, as a mark of their gradual progress towards the Dargo area. Treasure worked on reef mining at Wandiligong, doing underground work as he had done in New South Wales. He moved to another mine, the Alpine, for a healthier working environment, in 1877 { Stapleton: 28-}. In 1878, E George Treasure (then described as a Harrietville miner), selected land at Kings Spur on the Dargo High Plains{ Stephenson: 107-}. The family (3 boys, one girl) made an arduous journey on horseback via Mt Freezeout and the Lankey's Plain, to a bark roof two-room log hut built on the High Plains near Kings Spur on the eastern edge of Gow's Plains, by George and his mining associate, Harry Stitt in late 1877. The hut had a verandah at the entry, a slab chimney `stoned up' to 7-8 feet high, two modified armchairs and bush furniture made on the spot. This served as the residence for a small dairy farm which provided for the miners who crossed to the Grant and Crooked River goldfields{ Stephenson}. The house became a licensed hotel and a store was added. Three miles south there was also Gow's hotel, the `half-way house'. Cessation of mining around 1900 meant the store was wound down. George and Emily purchased a 700 acre property at Lindenow (Grassvale) while their son Harry remained at King's Spur. George senior died at Lindenow of cancer in 1901, aged 58 { Stapleton: 116}. Emily then arranged the gradual transfer of the High Plains holdings to her sons who managed the properties and stock in the interim. Emily died in 1939, aged 90. Harry L Treasure (George's son) selected the 200 acre property Castleburn (45 miles distant on the Stratford side of Dargo, later enlarged to 3000 acres), c1904, to serve summer grazing. This was after his marriage in 1903 to local girl, Clare Gamel. About the same time he and his father-in-law built a new shingle and paling house at Mayford, east of the King's Spur property, as a winter base. From 1907 Harry's brothers sold him their shares and eventually departed north. Gamel built Harry another house, Rockalpine, in 1910 - located further to the south on the Dargo Road. The family spent the winter at the house in c1912 after the house at Mayford was burnt, leaving only some old huts. Harry, Clare and family developed their High Plains holdings in the inter-war period, including a near 100,000 acre grazing lease, George's 600 acre selection, a fenced freehold at Riley's Creek to spell the cattle on their way to the mountains in summer, and `a sheltered saddle near Mt Ewan…another substantial hut and set of bush yards capable of holding large mobs' { Stapleton: 159}. The 1939 fires meant losses for the family as for many others in the region but they saved the homestead complex, losing 700 stock, fences, and several huts and yards. The family worked hard to replace them, splitting some 4000 snow gum posts in the following season along with woolly but rails for yards and gates but wire and snow gum droppers replaced the old logs in the fences. Harry and his three sons (Don, Jack & Jim) rebuilt the Mt Ewan hut and yards as a `magnificent new log hut' { Stapleton: 214}. The paling hut beside the 1939 log hut was reputedly built for Freda Treasure (Harry & Claire's daughter) as her bedroom in about 1945- presumably allowing the men to sleep in the 1939 log hut { Kosciuszko Huts Association website 2004}. However a picture of Freda at Mt Ewan (in her 20s-30s?) has her seated on her bunk, next to her saddle, knitting in the log hut. Educated at MLC in the 1930s, Freda married Wally Ryder, from another pioneering cattle family, in 1957. She shifted to Tawonga as a result but maintained a keen interest in the High Plains along with her brothers{ Stapleton: 219}. Harry gave her a paddock at Castleburn, known as Bryce's and she became known by local scribes as `Maid of the Mountains' or `Cowgirl of the Alps'}. Harry gave her a 28,000 bush grazing block to work after 1939, known as Jones' where she used an existing hut and yards. She lived there through winter with her cattle, visited occasionally by her mother. Freda died in 1988, one year after Wally { Stapleton: 267-}. Harry Treasure served as an Avon Shire councillor 1918-1949, often riding to the council meetings at Stratford. Harry made many submissions to government inquiries concerning the causes of the 1939 fires and alpine grazing. He died at Rockalpine in 1961{ Stephenson}. As a postscript, Sydney (Jack) Treasure (son of Harry) sought a selection on the High Plains in the 1940s but met with government opposition{ HO15895}. Some 20 years later the Treasures tried again stating that they had added many improvements to their grazing block (4A) and desired some freehold security. Their father and grandfather had held it for some 80 years{ HO15895}. The improvements on the adjoining freehold which served the grazing lease then included four residences (Harry's sons), sheds, fences, stockyards (CAs 2,2A,4,5){ HO15895 }. The department granted a seven year lease instead, noting the good management of the property.