Who is this? and when was it? Why are they up there?

I am not sure when this photo was taken, do you know? Do you know who it could be up there? The lodge looks near complete, I wonder what was going going right or wrong at this stage?

Do you remember your first night in the lodge? When did the first sleep overs begin? Was there a celebration party? or a series of parties?

Who is in this photo?

Who is in this photo? Do you know who is in the this photo? I am not sure where it came from and why the kids are dressed in crazy outfits.


Do you have other fun group shot photos that you could share?

Single story Gunuma inital drawing

Single story Gunuma inital drawing, originally uploaded by tina.barclay.

This is a drawing by Jim Caddaye was originally called Karooda Alpine Lodge. I think it is early 1975 and was given to Parks during the first negotiation for the lease. Note it is a 10 room lodge, single story only.

Early History

To begin this project I have recently spent a few evenings searching through several lumps of 30 year old documents held by my father. Amongst these I found three statements that were written in 1976 and about 1978.

"It started as a crazy idea , early in April 1975, and with the help of willing and interested people it was founded on a basis of a privately owned family ski/holiday lodge. Designed, built, financed and owned by its members, it was to be economical as possible to make it accessible to all.

The company was incorporated on may 26 1975, granted a site at Smiggins on 6 June 1975 and on 24 June 1975 the final design by Jim Caddaye, was selected from twenty-two entries. members made their first payments on 22 August 1975 while design and drawing application and approval s stretched from July 1975 to November 1975.

On site construction started 10 November 195 with framing and roof sheeting being completed by January 1976. All services were operational by ski season 1976 which allowed limited use during that season, and final Building occupancy Approval was given on April 1977.

Behind these impersonal dates lies an enormous amount of time-consuming effort, personal and financial sacrifice, lots of satisfaction and a great bunch of tired workers."

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"The initial idea and preliminary investigation began in April 1975.

Within three months we had formed a legal non-profit company, a full list of members, an active and enthusiastic committee, and had a leased site from the Kosciusko National Parks. We had accomplished in that time a feat which many hundreds of other clubs set out to do but few ever accomplished. It was started as a family lodge on the basis of easy weekly payroll payments, a theme also often tried yet we were the first to succeed."

Don Waring

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The Grand Experiment - Housing and Construction is constructing its own house - bgins in October and like many others I'm looking forward to creating our holiday lodge. With the expertise in our group, we must be successful in building a comfortable, pleasing facility, not of course without expending a great deal of enegy.

However, the rewards will be twofold. Firstly, we'll have a place in teh snowfeilds within the financial reach of us all and secondly, will have been part of some of the greatest Saturday night parties Smiggins has seen.

Fortunatley, the Snowy Mountains are relatively durable.

With diligence and cooperation our ideas will become a reality and this time next year, the members of Gunuma Lodge will be contributing their fair share of stizmarks to the ski trails of Smiggins.

Tim Jones

Getting Started

Gunuma Lodge has been our holiday playground for more than 30 years. Hundreds of members have put in substantial work to design, build, maintain and develop Gunuma during that time. However, much of this community history has been, until now, shared with each other around the fireplace.This project aims to publish a book that Gunuma members and friends can print-on-demand and that contains a record of Gunuma's first 30 years.

I hope that many many members share their stories and photos of the lodge and that the book reflects the hard work, enthusiasm and joy that we have all brought to the place during the last 30 years.