Talbot Hut – Alpine Walking Track.

In 1906, prominent surveyor and geologist, William Baragwanath, was commissioned by the Public Works Department to identify a tourist track along the Baw Baw Plateau from Warburton to Walhalla.

In February 1907, the new 51-mile route was ridden by a small party of eminent dignitaries including the Governor of Victoria, The Hon. Sir Reginald Talbot and his aide-de-camp Captain Richard Crichton, together with the Minister for Lands, John Mackey and the Surveyor-General, Joseph Reed, accompanied by surveyor John Goodwin.

On arrival, the party were greeted on the Thomson River Bridge and made guests of the President of the Shire of Walhalla, John Finlayson, and Dr. Edwin Allester, President of the newly formed Mountaineering Association. They were hosted to a lavish civic reception at the Empire Hotel which was followed by a very convivial “smoke night” of port and cigars.

Several tourist huts were later built as staging points along the way including Yarra Falls, Mt Whitelaw and Talbot Peak – named in honour of the Governor.

Each hut was a simple structure with two rooms, walls made of spIit-timber palings or corrugate iron, a concrete fireplace, an earthen floor and a corrugated iron roof. Each hut was equipped with wire mattresses and cooking utensils and fenced paddocks were Iocated nearby for horses. The track was also marked and promoted with tourist maps.

In 1938, the Talbot Peak hut was destroyed in a storm while many of the others were destroyed later in the 1939 bushfires.

Walkers lost interest after the bushfires.  The shutting of the route from Warburton through the Upper Yarra catchment in the 1940s and the closure of the Walhalla mine which forced the cessation of the passenger railway service, all combined to seal the fate of the track.

The current Alpine Walking Track begins at Walhalla and incorporates part of the original 1906 alignment along the Baw Baw Plateau including a camp site at Talbot Hut. It was developed in the 1970s by the Forests Commission which played a lead role in the planning and on-ground works.

Note – Talbot Hut is sometimes called Mt Erica Hut.

Main Photo: Talbot Peak 1919. https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/768589

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196150105

https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/community/recreation/556-the-alpine-walking-track.html