Mountain Hut

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Issue_52_April_2022-66

This year Klaus Huenke's Huts of the High Country book is 40 years in print and in the public eye. Klaus writes:

It is worth celebrating for me personally and, I hope and trust, for others. It was first published by ANU Press in 1982, then continued by Pergamon Press and finally my own Tabletop Press. There have been eight reprints and sales total about 14,000 copies. The first 5000 were hardbacks and the others were paperbacks. A few hardbacks still turn up in second hand bookshops. I’ve got about 250 left and then that’s it.

I think it’s made a difference for the perceived historical and heritage value of the huts, the continuing existence of a huts network and the ongoing post-fire rebuilds and restorations. I may not have dotted all the ‘i’s’ and crossed all the ‘t’s’ but I did tell the bigger story in an entertaining style. A few told me they read it from cover to cover. Others even carried a hardback on long bushwalks.

I am wondering if in whatever medium/organisation you are part of, you would like to highlight or feature this event. I’m heading towards 80 (to be honest, a bit worn out) and have been pushing my own subjective barrow for far, far too long. It would be good if it did not come from me (essential even), ie was more objective. “The truth and nothing but the truth, even if it hurts”, so to speak.

The preface of the book gives some details of how it came to be.

It took another 40 years of quiet dreamy contemplation to crystallize a deeper meaning of huts as in the cheeky and humorous poem I wrote opposite

Mountain Hut

Klaus Hueneke, AM

66 | BWA April 2022

Klaus in front of a simple shelter hut, Grindelwald, SwitzerlandUnknown photographer

If I was a Mountain Hut

If I was a mountain hut I wouldbe warmed by the morning sun,be protected from icy westerly winds,be close to a gurgling mountain stream and have a view across a snowgrass plain.

If I was a mountain hut people wouldrenew my scarred and tired old skin,replace my worn out, tottering legs,leave some food for me to eat,replenish my wood supply,build a fire to keep me warm andtell me stories, tall and true.

If I was a mountain hut I would neverhave to move house,pay rent, get a divorce,be in a traffic jam,put my clothes away,or have to wash the dishes.

If I was a mountain hut I would hearwombats scratching and scuffling under my floor,swallows building and tending their nests,the wind swishing in nearby snowgums,currawongs composing melodious tunes,snow settling like a butterfly kiss and later sliding off with an oooompphh.

If I was a mountain hut I would be famous inpeople's minds and memories,their photographs and archives, their videos, movies and books,and their sacred management plans.

If I was a mountain hut I couldmeditate all day and night,sleep whenever I like,be silent if I wish and never write another damned word.

If I was a mountain hut I couldlive foreveras long as people loved me andno joker burnt me down.Amen

BWA April 2022 | 67