i remember it well

 

Hi

Looking forward to a good year in 08.

Put the pics back linked in earlier thread, had a server crash badly restored by host co.
Only just noticed the buller pic folder missing.

Enjoying the newer pics posted since.

Couple of notes to other posts re history..

Ernest Foras re: notorious womaniser.
Mum reckons the sleazy bugger couldn't keep his hands to himself and pretty keen on himself too.

The Whit was so named as far as I know after Ivor Whitaker who was one of the founders of sorts of the Ski Club of Vic.
They put the rope tow on Bk St, soon after started using the nut cracker to hold on to the rope.


SimoninAustralia
"Nice, do you do any 360 degree panoramic images with these poles?"
I don't, but some owners do, one in particular that is very good at it. (they all do RE, be a nice change to see someone doing landscapes with the pole but its a bit spendy for a rig.)
My new bluetooth wireless cam mount system incorporates "pan bot" features in the control software.
So cam mount fits the pole for seqeunced pano or spherical or a ground stand with level to do interior VT's

Anyway, here's to a good season.

Have to see if I can rake up anymore pics.

Cheers
Dave

 

Thanks Pole Cams.
Ivor Whitacker was only a slightly significant pre-war skier. When hostilities broke out, he joined the army and was promoted as high as Major before he was killed in action. He left 500 quid (a lot for the time) in his will to develop a replacement for the 50 bed Buller Chalet which burnt down circa 1942.

Other skiers who died in the war such as Nathaniel "Fanny" Strauss (RAAF) also left money to the SCV for ski field development. The Ivor Whittacker War Memorial Lodge was built partly with these bequests and partly with loans. The estimated cost in late 1946, just before it was built was £1053/16/1.

Hmmm, the days when I can show off this knowledge of Buller's history are numbered. The Buller history book will be on sale in 6 weeks for $70. After it comes out this sort stuff will be available to everyone.

 

Bogong

Thanks for the info

I was told he had very little involvement in the club over its life, not being alive explains that.
Some oldies from those days (like my parents) found it odd that the place was named after him.


24th April I come back here after not being here since last year jus to put the pics back of buller.
Was looking at the cams and the dirt roads thinking about June coming around.
A day or so later and its snowing.
Good timing.

 

I heard the history book will have its official launch on opening weekend.

 

Has anyone purchased the Mt Buller history book?

 

The lodge I was at last week purchased it and I had a good read. If you have some spare cash and like the mountain, you'll like the book.

 

Yes I did - it's fantastic.

 

excellent book
and my photo is in it

 

bought a copy last trip up

amazing book, a MUST buy!

 

echoes!

 

Book is well worth buying.

I can also recommend an Hour long DVD, which I purchased at the museum, which has some fascinating historic 60's 70's footage of the mountain, particularly construction of the lifts .

Well worth the $30 price

 

I really want the book but $70 come off it!

 

You're lucky it wasn't made of glass...
*ok I'm peeing off now*

 

have you had a flick through one?

worth every cent!

 

Na not yet! So tempted to grab one. But when your 18 $70 seems like alot

 

sounds like you need to dust off the christmas stocking

 

Our ski club has its 50th Anniversary celebration this weekend and I'm told there will be an archive of photos produced. Will post a few up here in the coming weeks.

 

dibloc. I'm about to resume writing my history of Australian skiing from 1900 to about 1975. I'm especially interested in anecdotes about club life and skiing (both lifted and unlifted runs) pre 1960. So if your club produces anything, even just a brochure with a couple of anecdotes or photos, I will happily pay the price plus postage, etc.

Even better, if an old timer is prepared to talk about their experiences into a tape recorder, I will travel anywhere, anytime to chat with them.

 

Bogong, there's a swag of ol Schuss Mags at USC Hotham Lodge, and many at AWSC. People whose marriages were covered are still uuum alive and espousing the virtues of Trotsky'ism. They're worth chatting to, but don't mention the war

 

Thanks WIZO, the state library has had many copies of old Victorian ski mags like Ski Horizon and Schuss stolen, but the museum at Buller has an almost complete collection.

But if you have copies of those mags for sale, I will pay well above the going rate for them.

I will start hunting people down for interviews and do some serious writing about March, after I finish renovating the house.

 

This one belongs here, old pics post too old to edit
(Moved from Hotham Forum)

The old Buller Summit lookout, now replaced by the stone lookout.
Was secured to ground with fencing wire.

 

i scrolled up and saw FW. ARGH!!!! ... then i looked at the date..

 

I think one contributor to this forum picked on her because she was upset by something and got their friends to do so too.

I thought that person's behaviour was rather nasty, a bit like a schoolyard bully picking on a kid who has suffered a misfortune and getting all the wannabe bully acolytes to join in.

That sort of thing happens all the time in schoolyards, but I've never seen adults behave that way before.

 

Bogong

I was friendly to her - she then demanded i delete certain people from facebook if i ever wanted to speak to her again.

Ive never known adults to make such demands before...

 

MX, I understand she was distressed about the sort of thing that knocks us all around occasionally.

But I wasn't specifically defending her, more identifying the really nasty bullying,
the "kicking her when she was down" behaviour that pushed her into less than ideal behaviour herself.

But let's not divert this thread from Buller history, anyone can PM me if they want to chat.

 

A day tripper’s impression

Started at Buller one sunny day in the late ‘60s on Little Bourke Street.
Hired lace up leather boots and timber skis with cable bindings from Auski,
at the village entrance.
Straight into a lesson with the Blue's “French Ski Schoolâ€
ESF top man Alexis, black from the neck up, so the ladies said.
The family parked the caravan at the Bonnie Doon municipal caravan park
Around $2.00 per week for a powered site.
We bought ex rental timber skis and lace up leather boots.
I bought myself a new pair of LaDolomite 5 buckle leather low cut boots.
The Boot hook.
Broken ankle, the frequent skiers injury.
Next year, May school holidays dump. Buller open to Baldy.
First rides on a poma, grabbed the spares after the Bull Run tunnel,
No ticket, and out of Hans’ view.
Kids day ticket: $4.00, pocket money $0.50
Leave Bonnie Doon by 7:30 and make it into the day car park.
Horse Hill, a hill, nothing more.
Walk up to the village; spend the land rover fare on a lift ticket.
Miss the day park; miles down below the overnighters …
LWB Land rovers then. Toyotas later.
A Bonnie Doon neighbour bought a ’50 SWB Land Rover.
Soft-top with a village permit. Cold trip, but door to door.
Make it to John Hilton-Wood’s door by 8:00am, and get a Blue day ticket for
pulling t-bars over the towies lunch break. Bargain.
The Blue Lifts ticket, coloured card with a code stamp on a string
Almost strangled in a couple of runs.
Cheapest lunch: The Whitt. Spag bol, goulash, shaslicks etc
The oldest, 16, I bought the beers for the others.
A kid could buy a drink almost anywhere on the mountain.
Boilerplate ice, the whiteout.
The big net across the bottom of Federation.
Three died on Feder in one week, two on the Saturday. Then they closed it.
Skiing over to summit, plant a pole only to realise I wasn’t moving.
Corrugations on Bourke Street. Grooming was the next dump.
The Kooroora guest lounge fire, a covert day-trippers thaw.
Abom table carving “Charlesâ€
Following the junior squad down the funnel.
The Boggy Ck 45-minute pre lunch queue.
Spring skiing cleavage.
The Summit to Boggy staff downhill.
Howqua poma launching my 7-year-old brother a metre into the air
End of season party with Captain Grimus on skis.

 

You are indeed a Buller skier.

 

WOW !
My entire life from age 5 (1965) just flashed before my eyes.
With one exception.
We got the lace up boots and wooden skis from Bill Duff.

 

Pretty legit huh.

Hans Still gets shitty with himself for selling a site to my dad for £10 in 1963!

 

Its everything Buller
for sure.

I just found this
Melb Age Ski pages
Fri May 15 1970

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=13...pg=6318,3169418

Check the adverts, classic
Mark Adams New Twin Towers, apartments available from $11,500

"If You Want To Build (Anywhere in the Snow), contact Aurel Farrass"

Bill Duff Ad there

A mid Week Ski package staying at Kooroora 5 daqys
Accomodation, Lessons and Lift included, $65

"New Duplex Poma to Baldy"

"Arlberg New just opened"
"Right where the action is"
"Swinging Disco Weekends"

ED
Reading more
"Blue Lifts and Orange lift considering (1975) having a joint day ticket for $6"

Sadly they never ever did.

Love this Bit
"Bill Duff Ski Hire has added a couple of pairs of Fischer President Skis
to his Hire range this year and also has plastic clip up boots for the first time"

 

Too funny. I met up with Pete Forras today!

 

awesome, just had a flick through

love the twin towers pad for $11.5k, and molonys apartment FS. the parents were regulars in those days, but i was a few years off with my first week being in 1990

 

dates wrong, should be 1970.

I was suspicious because I first skied in 1973 in plastic boots from Bill Duff. Baldy was a duplex poma then too. Checked the link and it said 1970

 

Thanks
Fixed now.

 

Got more pics

But first one correction from old pics

This one
It is not the Summit looking down
It is from Baldy looking down Bk St, a close look you can see the Top of the Bk St rope tow in it.



(Have the original I might crop the lift so it can be seen.)

New pics to add.

Tyrol Rope tow




YHA Lodge AKA "Shiver Shanty "situated at Skating Rink (pre Village)




J Hilton Wood over snow trips to the summit (pre lifts on or to summit)




Above tour Arrived at Summit

 

Wow, we used to hire from Bill Duff when I was a kid. We used to keep a locker there too, and our boots would be freezing in the morning. Those were the days when Abom was the original Abom and the food was good, open fireplace and wooden logs with cowhide as seats.

We stayed in the original CSIRO lodge which of course has gone and is now a car park..... we would walk up to Bill Duff's every morning to ski, and it was some walk!

I have such fond memories of getting a nasty front wedgie from the pomma in Bourke Street (I think it was anyway - so long ago) - it was evil....

Ahhh memories....

 

Thanks for the memories PP.
Any of the original weatherboard Alberg ?

Bill & Judy Duff's lockers, down the east corner, in the basement.
They ran a smooth show.

 

Excellent to see this thread continues. I hired gear from Duff's.

 

Got this off a photo hanging on a wall in the lodge.

Bk St Rope tow
(early 1950's)



Note the lift line.
Had them back then too.

Also note there is no lift line fences, people just seem to know how to line up behind one another back in the old days.

 

This set of images are from Buller 1950's and 60's

Village Sign



API ski club rear (note peak roof of sun room)



API ski club front, snow up to bottom of sunroom windows



API member Skis the Roof



Arlberg from Baldy



Arlberg



Arlberg



Baldy Rope Tow



Bluff from Top of Rope Tow



BMW ski club

 

Bottom Tyrol Rope Tow



Bourke St & Rope Tow



Bourke St Rope Tow



Bourke Summer



Bourke St T-Bar bottom



Bourke Street T-Bar engine house



Bourke Street T-Bar



Bourke Street T-Bar



Building Arlberg



Ski jump, (faced top of Bk St from Top of what is now Emirates chair)

 

Bull Run Canteen



Bull Run Races



Bull Run Rope Tow Shed



Buller Summit Hut



Cow Camp from Helicopter Flat



CSIR Onetree Hill



Jumping from above jump.



Kofflers

 

Kooroora Chalet Entry



Kooroora Chalet



Kooroora Deck



Kooroora Entry



Kooroora with Icicles



Little Bourke St Top



Little Bourke St



Little Bourke Street



Loading Bourke Street T-Bar



Loading Rope Tow

 

Loading T-Bar



McLachlan Shoulder



Merrijig from Summit



Merrijig from Summit2



Moose & Womens ski clubs



Moose Ski Club2 Carousel



Pole Line from theSummit



Pole Line to Summit



Races at Tyrol



Rebuilt API & Engine Shed

 

Awesome!

Thanks PP

 

Riding Bourke St Rope Tow



Riding Tyrol Rope Tow



Road Out of Village



Bk St Rope Tow Queue



Rope Tow Queue Bourke St



Rope Tow Queue



Ski Jump



Snow Gums



Snow Pole Top of Bourke St



Summit at Sunset

 

Summit Hut



Summit Hut2



Summit Hut3



Summit View



Top of Bourke St Rope Tow



Tyrol & Rope Tow



Tyrol Pole Line



Tyrol Rope Tow



Tyrol Tow Half Way



View from Roof of API ski club

 

View from Summit



Walking road in to Village



West Face View



West Face



West Face2