This column's recent exposé on the doomed Alpine Way to Charlotte Pass Chairlift prompted a bulging mailbag.
Most of the correspondence was from readers who vividly recalled their memories of the ill-conceived lift during its brief life of operation in the mid-1960s. But there was also a missive from Jack Kennedy of Kambah who took umbrage with this column's claims that the military "blew up" the chairlift's Top Station in the 1990s.
"Why haven't I heard about this before?" he asks. "I can't find any reference of such an event happening - surely it would have been headline news?"
Well, Jack, I can assure you it did happen, but yes, details are scarce. Firstly, it was before the proliferation of social media and the internet. These days an increasing number of people, especially younger generations, seem to think if it's not on the internet it never happened. But this did. Secondly, while it wasn't a top-secret operation, for safety reasons, it also wasn't widely publicised at the time.
During the week, I tracked down Peter Windle, a retired NPWS senior ranger who, in the early 1990s, was responsible for vetting proposals received from the military for training exercises in Kosciuszko National Park.
"We received all sorts of proposals, from skiing into Guthega to 'take it over' to search and rescue exercises on the main range," reveals Peter.
By the early 1990s, after three decades at the mercy of blizzards, the ruins of the abandoned Top Station were posing a serious threat to public safety.
"It wasn't illegal for backcountry campers to seek shelter there, but it wasn't the safest place to camp," explains Peter.
"In particular, there was a large concrete slab balancing on six-metre-high steel girders, on top of which was a stone fireplace that wobbled in the wind.
"We needed to fix that, but we couldn't drive equipment in summer as vehicles would damage the sensitive alpine environment, so winter with over-snow vehicles was our only option. But even then, we couldn't get cranes or heavy steel cutting equipment in there."
Given these challenges to demolishing Top Station, not surprisingly Parks jumped at the military's proposal. It would be a win-win. Parks would have their safety concerns mitigated and the military would have a snow training operation under their belt.
"The original plan was for a group of commandos to take off from Canberra in a Hercules [aircraft] and for them parachute out on the Ramshead Range, form a perimeter around the former Top Station, and blow it up," reveals Peter.
Heck. Sounds like the opening sequence of a James Bond thriller.
"Unfortunately, on the day of the manoeuvre, due to gale-force winds the operation was cancelled," says Peter.
However, Parks were still keen to complete the job.
So, the next week the military drove in explosives on over-snow vehicles. They also took in a broco, a specialised steel cutter which would allow the remaining steel girders to be cut into smaller pieces for removal.
On the day, after the charges for the explosives were set, Peter remembers hiding behind a boulder. "We weren't supposed to look but I did poke my head around the corner a few times to see what was happening," he recalls. "It all went up in a puff of black smoke."
While the explosion part of the operation was a success, the use of the broco was not.
"It ran out of battery after only two cuts so that was abandoned," recalls Peter.
That partly explains why, even today, it still looks like the remote site could do with a clean-up.
The case of the ruined lighthouse
There are several other high-profile landmarks purposefully destroyed by our military in our region, including the Cape St George Lighthouse, a popular destination in Booderee National Park for adventurous Canberrans.
In 1860, to curb the mounting number of shipwrecks along the south coast, an 8.5-metre-high lighthouse was built at Cape St George, on the southern side of Jervis Bay.
At the time of construction, there was controversy about where the lighthouse ought to be positioned, with many believing it should have been built on the northern side of the bay instead.
These concerns were realised when once built, the light couldn't be seen by ships heading south and was barely able to be seen by those heading north. To further confound the bungle, to reduce costs the builder had constructed the lighthouse closer to the quarry he was mining the stone from than where originally agreed. In fact, when completed, authorities found the lighthouse to be about four kilometres north of the intended site.
After 23 further shipwrecks in the vicinity between 1864 and 1893, eventually authorities saw sense (or should that be 'the light'!) and in 1889 the Cape St George light was replaced by a new one at Point Perpendicular on the northern side of Jervis Bay.
However, the troubled Cape St George lighthouse continued to cause navigational problems even when unlit, especially on moonlit nights when the sandstone tower glowed in the dark, confusing some passing ships.
To fix the problem, between 1917 and 1922, the Royal Australian Navy used the lighthouse as target practice, reducing it to rubble.
Today, if you visit the site, be sure to stay well clear of the precipice where Francis Hammer, a 10-year-old boy who lived at the lighthouse with his family in the late 1800s, toppled over while playing, plummeting to his death on the rocks below.
Chairlift memories
Steve Doney, now a resident of Young, recalls a trip on the ill-fated Alpine Way to Charlotte Pass Chairlift in the winter of 1964.
"That day the trip up to Ramshead was uneventful," he recalls. "The Top Station wasn't open and the ski down to the chalet at Charlotte Pass was superb."
However, after a day's skiing and with the wind rising, it looked like the chairlift would close, leaving Steve and his group stranded on top of the mountain. "Dad and his mate, Charlie Brettle, somehow persuaded the operators to let us on before it closed," recalls Steve. "The deal was we had to use every second chair ... They even gave us blankets.
"Halfway up, the buffeting became worrisome, especially as we knew chairs had blown off here in the past, and near the top we travelled through trenches in the snow that were at least six feet deep" recalls Steve. "Thankfully on the other side (down to the Alpine Way) of Ramshead it was contrastingly mild." Phew.
Jan Reksten travelled on the chairlift in the same year. "It was just after the blizzard that dumped more snow on the mountains than has ever been recorded since and I remember the snow below the lift line being littered by the broken canopies that had been installed on each chair and that had been destroyed by the blizzard," he recalls.
"We stayed at the Chalet at Charlotte Pass, where the snow came up approximately to the level of the windows on the second floor."
Meanwhile, Barry Mayfield of Hackett recalls riding the chair after a bushwalk at Christmas 1964. At Top Station "there were very few customers using the lift so after ordering milkshakes, the two Welsh staff gave us complementary Christmas cake."
WHERE IN THE SNOWIES?
Rating: Hard
Clue: 'At the T'
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday June 22 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Ken Moylan of Dickson who was the first of many readers to correctly identify last week's photo as 'new' Broken Dam Hut, south-east of Kiandra near Table Top Mountain in northern Kosciuszko National Park. "I've only ever seen it in winter and only the rebuilt version," reports Ken. "I have watched it over the years as the wood darkened from a fresh light brown to a more aged dark brown." Ken, who just beat Brian Combridge of Hackett and Peter Harris to the prize, reports he was "last there in July last year, on a day trip with the Canberra Cross-Country Ski Club. We skied the usual route, from the freshly rebuilt Selwyn Resort, along the Tabletop Fire Trail and then across country to the hut".
The photo was taken in 2011 by Matthew Higgins who reports "the original hut was built in the 1910s but was destroyed by a fire lit by persons unknown in 1997. After prolonged negotiation between the Kosciuszko Huts Association and NPWS, and policy change following the 2003 bushfires, the hut was rebuilt in 2007 and is used by bushwalkers and cross-country skiers."
Matthew recalls a stay at the original hut in summer 1985 "when friends and I played cricket outside, using a snow-gum bat and a found (!) tennis ball. Great place, great memories."
Bill Crawshaw of Fadden who "was a regular visitor to the original and has visited the new hut a few times" submitted these photos of a group of ski tourers leaving the original hut in 1978 and another of the new hut under construction.
- CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
