Historical information
MEYER COLLECTION - FALLS CREEK PHOTOS
In 1947 a determined group of like-minded State Electricity Commission (SEC) staff including Ray Meyer, the chief surveyor of the Kiewa Hydro-Electric Scheme, had a common interest that revolved around the skiing potential of the snow-covered high plains which included what is now the resort of Falls Creek.
The six SEC employees, Toni St Elmo, Ray Meyer, Jack Minogue, Lloyd Dunn, Adrian Ruffenacht and Dave Gibson (together with their families) banded together to secretly build a 'hut' that was the first ski lodge at Falls Creek.
Using a road built in 1930s to gain access to Falls Creek, their hut project was carried out in secret as efforts by other skiers were blocked by H.H.C. Williams – the engineer in charge of the Hydro Scheme.
In 1946 Ray Meyer made a trip to the Lands Office in Melbourne. He came away with a 99-year lease on three acres that was ideally suited for a hut designed by Lloyd Dunn.
Adrian Ruffenacht (Design Engineer for the KHS) had suggested where the group should build because of easy access to a spring for water. Much of the building material required was scavenged from derelict huts on the high plains.
Due to the need for secrecy, the determined group worked on the hut in the evenings and weekends to avoid detection.
During the building period the group had met at Echidna Rock (now known as Eagle Rock) where Skippy St Elmo announced, "This is my favourite ‘Skyline’.”
And so the first lodge in the area at Falls Creek Ski Resort came into existence. With the development of the International Poma in the 1970s, the Skyline Lodge, which was sited between the ski-lift’s pole one and pole two, was demolished.
However, the legacy of Ray Meyer, Toni St Elmo, Jack Minogue, Lloyd Dunn, Adrian Ruffenacht and Dave Gibson and Skyline lives on in the vibrant atmosphere of Falls Creek Resort.
The MEYER COLLECTION documents developments on the Kiewa Hydro Scheme and their life at Falls Creek from the mid 1930s to 1960s.
Significance
This image is significant because it depicts aspects of the life of a pioneering family of Falls Creek and the founders of "Skyline", the first lodge at Falls Creek.
Physical description
Black and White Images taken at Cleve Cole Hut
Photo 1 Outside Cleve Cole 1951 - From Left: Ray Meyer, Wal Johnson and other people from a visiting group
Photo 2 Cleve Cole Hut Mt. Bogong
CLEVE COLE HUT was built in 1937 for the Ski Club of Victoria, to commemorate pioneer skier, Cleve Cole, who died on a disastrous ski trip across the high
In August 1936 three men, Cleve Cole, Mick Hull, and Howard Michell, skied from Mount Hotham across the Bogong High Plains to Mount. On reaching the mountain they became trapped for four days on the summit ridge by appalling weather conditions.
For three days they followed the Big River through rough country before deciding that Howard should continue alone to find help, leaving Mick to care for Cleve who was barely able to continue. Three days later a search party, raised after Howard had reached Glen Valley, found Cleve and Mick.
Within two days the group arrived at Glen Valley where, tragically, Cleve Cole died later that night. In memory of Cleve’s life and his pioneering work in the Victorian alpine country it was decided to build a refuge hut on the mountain. It is called the Cleve Cole Memorial Hut.
