stepbystep wrote:Have you contacted the HWC directly?
There are still many members or past members still alive that were walking in the 70's.
I'm sure they'd be happy to provide you with some contacts.
Good luck!
I have sent an email directly to the HWC and am awaiting a reply.
Swifty wrote:Meyer Landsman wrote:- Do you have any background information on when the first and second huts were built?
- The history of the terraces and wall?
- Who was Victor? His age? life story? Why did he build the huts? Where was he from (I have reason to believe he immigrated to Tasmania from the Ukraine in the 60s/early 70s)? What were your interactions with the man? Is he still alive (the audit states that he returned to the Ukraine and became an orthodox priest after the fall of the Soviet Union)
- Stories that you have of the hut(s)?
- What was the layout of the hut?
We first saw the refelction off the roof of the hut on the lower slopes of Mt Arthur in 1978. This prompted us to wag school and investigate. We couldn't find a way through the trail bike network at the top of Tolosa Street and eventually found it by direct descent from the Lost World. (If my memory is not mistaken). We made several trips there over the next year or two, meeting Victor on one or two occasions. At that time I guess he was in his thirties or forties, hard to recall, plus he was bearded so difficult to guess his age.
The fencework surrounded a series of terraced garden beds with the main building in the upper southwest corner. It was a double story cabin, living and dining downstairs with a carpeted "retreat" upstairs. The religious theme in the retreat would change sometimes between trips, ranging from Christian to Hindu to Buddhist or other mystic cults. We were just kids so we were stoked to meet such a cool character, Victor was friendly. He did not pass on details of his background however, so I can't comment on that. As far as I know, Victor did the whole lot with regard to construction, but I may be wrong there.
The purpose of the hut was I think primarily as a sort of hermitage for Victor. The man was an aesthetic.
Hope that helps, I will have to refer to memories of my other friends for more details.
Impressive anecdote, thank-you for sharing.
The hut was certainly built for its utilitarian design and that is something that has intrigued during my research. Were you aware that during his stays at the hut, Victor slept in a tree house that was located on the fifth and highest terrace just behind the major dwelling itself? This was because of the precariousness of a particular giant gum that was perched directly above the hut and was seen by Victor as notable danger when sleeping, particularly during heavy winds and storms.
It's hard not to romanticise about the individual known as Victor, regardless of his history or disposition. He had a unwavering yearning for the wilderness and the inherent pleasure that comes with building and maintaining a home (illegal or not). I think this is what has evoked in my research and discoveries of the hut a man made from experience, or as you said
Swifty[b][/b] an aesthetic. While he clearly devoted his time to religion and mysticism, it is indicative from the hut's various modifications in religious totems and insignias that Victor was not tied down a single belief system (e.g. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam). His faith, it seems, was diversity and the ability to apply certain branches of each faith to his own lifestyle and to the hut itself.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”
- Henry David Thoreau
If you have more information, I'd love to hear it from you.