The Mount Buffalo Chalet - Mount Buffalo

            Built by the Public Works Department for a princely £7,000.00, the Mount Buffalo Chalet was opened in 1910 by the Victorian State Government as Australia’s first ski lodge, and it quickly became a popular destination within the alpine region.  Initially leased to private enterprise as a guest house, The Chalet was taken over by Victorian Railways in October 1924.  Described as the “last word in luxury”, The Chalet featured large sitting rooms, ample fireplaces, a smoking room, well ventilated rooms of capacious size and hot and cold baths.  They offered holiday packages with train services running to Porpunkah railway station and then a connecting Hoys Roadlines service.  It was a very popular destination for newlyweds as the perfect place for a honeymoon, and over the years traditions began to emerge such as an elegant dress code within The Chalet, a dinner gong to announce dinner, costume parties and grand balls in The Chalet’s ballroom. 

Originally intended to be built in granite, cost blowouts of £3,000.00 meant that instead The Chalet was built of timber.  To this day, it is still the largest timber construction in Victoria.  It was designed in the fashionable Arts and Crafts style of the period.  Reminiscent in style to northern European Chalet architecture, the Mt Buffalo Chalet is built on a coursed random rubble plinth, with a series of hipped and gabled corrugated iron roofs.  Originally designed as a symmetrical, gabled roof building, early additions were carried out in a similar style and continued the symmetry of the front facade. The second storey addition to the central wing altered the appearance of the building, however the bungalow character was retained.  Slender rough cast render chimneys with tapering tops and random coursed rubble bases, a decorative barge board over the main entry, decorative timber brackets supporting timber shingled gable ends, exposed rafters and double hung, paned windows are all typical architectural details of the Arts and Crafts Movement.  It was constructed over a thirty year period during which time extensions, extra wings and outbuildings were added and removed with the changing times and its tourism demands.  Improvements were made soon after construction and these included a golf links in 1911, a north wing addition in 1912 and a south wing and billiard room in 1914.  Heating and lighting in The Chalet was improved and upgraded in 1919.  Between 1921 and 1922, an addition to the south wing increased bedroom and bathroom facilities.  The billiard room was moved to the front of the house and the terraced garden, with rubble granite retaining walls, was laid out at the front of The Chalet.  The present dining room, the kitchen and billiard room wings were constructed in 1925, and the original dining room was converted to a ballroom, with a stage.  Balustrading along the front of the building was removed and large windows inserted to provide uninterrupted views.  Between 1937 and 1938 major alterations were made with the extension of the south wing and a second storey added to the central wing of the building.  At this time the provisions for two hundred guests at The Chalet was noted as more than equalling the best Melbourne hotels.  Internally, some remnants of decoration remain, reflecting various stages of The Chalet’s development, and these can be viewed through The Chalet’s large windows, where several suites, the lounge and the dining room are all set up to display what the accommodation was like.  The formal terraced gardens built around the Mount Buffalo Chalet were seen as a civilising image within the context of the wild and relatively harsh Australian landscape.  The key built features if the gardens seen today remain intact.  The garden’s shape and form remain largely unchanged from when they were created including the stonewalling, terracing, central set of stairs and exposed bedrock.

The Mount Buffalo Chalet is lovingly sometimes referred to as the “Grand Old Lady”.  If nothing else, she is a unique survivor of the earliest days of recreational skiing in Australia.  It was included on the Victorian Heritage Register in 1992 and is maintained today as a time capsule to show what life was like when tourism was done on a grand scale.

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / Brookside (show map)

Taken on: May 1, 2021

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/3.2, 1/640 sec, 7.2mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/3.2
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	7.2mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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