Historic Bluff Dump Hut

Management

Clarence Reserve, South Marlborough Area Office Nelson / Marlborough Conservancy, Department of Conservation.

Fabric

This hut is a simple rectangular 6 metre by 3 metre structure built of corrugated iron over a timber frame and concrete floor. It has a single tongue and groove door and four pane window in the north wall and a corrugated iron chimney. A small panel of corrugated Perspex has been fitted in this wall. Inside there are six bunks and a fireplace.

The hut is set in pasture beside the Clarence Reserve pack track half a kilometre below the junction of the track and the Seymour Stream.

History

The hut was built by Bluff Station which is further down the Clarence River on its northern bank. It was a depot for goods and provisions brought in over the pack track particularly prior to winter when all access could be cut off by snow or slips for significant periods. The wool clip was also taken out this way and the hut originally had a wider door to take the wool bales. The hut’s date of building is not known but 1928 has been scratched in the concrete floor. One reliable source has suggested it was built by a man named Laugeson around that time. Historic themes are pastoralism and farming.

DOC Officer Colin Davis outside Bluff
Dump Hut

Fabric significance

Of local significance. Typical corrugated iron musterers hut.

Historic significance

Remnant of the pack-track days of the Clarence Reserve a physical reminder of the isolation and limited communication of station life in the Clarence Valley. One of a significant group of 1920s huts on the Reserve.

Sources: Clarence Reserve File–SCO Historic Resources. Cowman 1995 Remedial Work Plans Clarence Reserve.

Future management

Bluff Dump is a public hut and is used by trampers. It will be maintained to protect its historic fabric and minimise deterioration. A conservation plan has been prepared to guide its management (Ian Bowan, 1995) and this contains more information about the hut.

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