I've was distracted tonight by a handful of old club magazines from the Warrigal Club, early efforts from the 1930's generously lent to me by Col Gibson, and in one I stumbled on a very interesting article about "Hughie Montanus".
I've always loved old trip reports, and from my early days of bushwalking I discovered Hughie. I still remember my first multi-day trip out from Kanangra - a favourite stomping ground of Hughie - where three days of soaking rain gave me a first-hand insight into this personification of nature. At the time I had a limited view of this bushwalking deity - focused mainly on the rain - but over the years have discovered his / her / its great depth of character, from Hughie's dominion over everything from the Pooken to the very geology and ecology laid out before us walkers that can so inspire or torment us.
But in reading this magazine, from 1938, it became clear to me Hughie's origins are far more ancient that I'd imagined. (Here's a couple lines below from the magazine):
Believe me, Hughie Montanus is not merely a figment of the imagination invented to conceal blasphemy, but a definite and vivid personality...
Hughie, with all his sardonic humour and fawn-like frolic, is the special creation of the walking fraternity...
No god is more given to practical joking. He it is who panics the camp at meal time with a dozen drops of rain and then clears the heavens with a throaty chuckle - after we have spent an hour making things snug.
So my question is this. What are the origins of Hughie? Does anyone know which bushwalker first coined the name? And how did it catch on so thoroughly that nearly a century on (or possibly more than a century on) we still speak his name? And is this just a NSW thing, something the rest of you lot will be left scratching your heads over, or has the gospel of Hughie spread further afield? Or perhaps Hughie originates elsewhere and is a transplant in NSW. Anyway, any and all feedback from the amateur historians or notorious yarn-spinners on the forum would be greatly appreciated.
Tim
