Frank and Jacks Hut
June 2015
This is a beautiful area of the National Park, with so many different walking tracks to suit all ages and levels of fitness.
Walk Rating: Level 1 - Easy. Flat walk with one steep hill section of around 400 metres. Great for families from an ACT bushwalk perspective Total distance 10.45km.
Map: Yaouk 8626-2N Topographical and Orthophoto (1:25 000)
Directions to the Hut
To get to the hut, you drive to Tharwa. Once over the bridge, swing left onto Naas Road. From here it's around 32 kilometres,so enjoy the beautiful picturesque scenery and the wonderful mountains!
Conintue on Naas Road until you pass the interesection with Apollo Road (Leads to the old Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station - another beautiful spot). From this point, Naas Road ends and Boboyan Road starts.
Follow Boboyan Road and pass the turn-off to Orroral Valley and a little further on you will pass the Glendale Depot. This is a National Parks depot and services the needs of the Rangers and Parks personell with upkeep and maintenance of roads and infrastructure.
Continue past the depot and go past the carpark at Rendevous Creek. From here it is only a little further. Keep an eye out for the small sign (Old Boboyan Road) on the right side of the road. If the road changes from tar to dirt, you have gone too far! Turn off to the right and the well-maintained dirt road will take you to the Yankee Hat carpark. See attached map.
The walk to the Hut
There are a number of walks from the carpark, including Yankee Hat, which takes you to some very old Aboriginal rock paintings. This is a very pleasant and easy walk; I'll bring you that blog another time.
From the carpark, go through the gate at the south-eastern side and walk the road for 2.5 kilometres. You will come to a dirt road intersection with a sign to Jack and Franks Hut. Walk up this road (to the right from the intersection) and it's another 600 metres to the hut (total walk 3.1 kilometres one way).
It's a great place to stop for lunch. Don't forget to sign the visitors book.
Our Walk
We went a different route on the day of our walk. If you walk to the hut, you will probably notice a number of tracks and dirt roads in all different directions. I'll bring you more blogs about the different walks, but if you are really interested it is probably best to get a map of the area.
From the Yankee Hat carpark we walked towards the hut and veered to the right onto one of the tracks. The intention of the walk was to travel past the Bogong Creek swamp area towards the west and then loop around behind the hut and ascend the hill at the back of the hut to take in the views of the valley. We were not dissapointed!.The loop walk took in an array of landscape and started with the swampy area in the valley to the forrested backhills of the old back paddock of the hut.
The climb to the high point was steep in parts but worth the wonderful view once up top. From here you have a panoramic of the valley looking back towards Canberra as well as the surrounding mountains. On the day we were there, the mountain peaks were snow covered.
Apart from the prolific population of eastern grey kangaroos that are thriving in the National Park environment, there was also an abundance of red necked rock wallabies. We even got very close to two wedgetail eagles perched in a nearby treetop and were lucky enough to watch them circle up and away on the up-drafts. They really are a majestic bird and surprisingly large when you get up close!
From the high point we came down the hill for another kilometre and reached the back of the hut, where we stopped for lunch and a cuppa. It's a very peaceful place to sit and take in the outdoors as well as enjoy the well-maintained hut. It also has a very well constructed and modern pit toilet.
After lunch we didn't head back down the main road but walked to the left down a dirt road and, at the interesection, turned right and came out on Old Boboyan Road, where it was another 1.5 kilometres to the carpark. Great day and a great walk!
Frank and Jacks Hut (History)
There is a fair bit of history available on various sources on the website, so I suggest, if you want more information than provided below, googling the hut.
I found this information on the Kosciusko Huts Association website, which gives a brief overview of the hut. You can find the website at:
Frank and Jacks Hut, Old Bobeyan Road
Snow on the peaks of a nearby mountain to the west of the hut
Brief History
Franks Hut was built in 1954 by Cecil Hopkins of Queanbeyan for Frank and Jack Oldfield.
The land was originally purchased by the Oldfields from the Bootes of Gudgenby in 1948. This hut replaced the old Sinclair hut. The hut appears to be substantial, but has never been used as a permanent residence. Used to support grazing of sheep, mainly breeding ewes. It was resumed in the late 1950's to allow ACT Forests to develop the pine plantations. It is now a great take off point to climb Mt Gudgenby.
Construction
A three roomed hut, with weather boards and timber floors, plus an iron roof and brick fireplace.
Value
It is very popular with walking and school groups. It also makes a great place to ride a bicycle too, following easy firetrails. Popular campfires outside have now been banned by the National Parks, as there is not a secure fireplace, nor good supply of wood.
For more information on the area or the Namadgi National Park, drop into the visitors centre or visit the website at: http://www.tams.act.gov.au/parks-recreation
Above: The walk back on an alternative route. The road to the north of the hut.
Right: The swampy grasslands looking west.
