This is one of the hikes we did this day, a 10km (return) walk from Selwyn snowfields down to 4 mile hut. ...a beautiful walk through a vast changing landscape in the snowies. This would have to be one of my fav huts that we visited over the 5 days spent in the snowies. I love it's design, character, rust, textures & of course, it's gorgeous setting - well worth all the ups & downs of the mountains to get there. Inside the hut was very cosy & practical & also has a few basic supplies for emergencies when skiers & the like happen to be caught out in bad weather.
Here is a bit of history on Four Mile Hut :-
The hut was built by Robert Hughes in 1937. He mostly used it in the non-winter months, as a base for gold fossicking, fishing and rabbiting. The hut was made from anything left lying around, but its main elements included slab walls and floors and corrugated chimney and roof. Many of the materials come from the former Elaine Mine which Hughes managed from 1926 to 1936. Use of flattened five gallon cans is a feature. There is a pot belly type heater, in the old stone hearth fireplace, one of the key reasons it still stands. A unique feature is that a small leather washer was put under every nail used to hold the roof (and much of the timber work) together. A recent renovation team had to duplicate this work.
