Guest writer Paula McCulloch
Introduction
Paula joins us again with the exciting news that she has found Stretcher Hut. She started her hunt years ago after reading a story by Simon Cubit.
We all know Simon’s gift for weaving history and mystery together into a captivating story. He described a bushman carried to a hut after a bad axe wound. He was snow bound for four weeks before other bushmen could take him on a stretcher, and then on their backs, to safety through kilometres of snow. This event in 1923 gave Stretcher Creek and Stretcher Lake their names.1
Simon searched for the hut near Stretcher Creek with the Deloraine Walking Club without success. He concluded that the hut had burnt down and the stones of the chimney were covered in scrub. For most people that would be the end of the story. Not for Paula.

Paula is the most dedicated and forensic hut hunter we know. She made eight searches around Stretcher Creek. Then she reconsidered the clues and moved to Stretcher Lake. After four more trips she was sure that she was in the right area. Her first blog can be found by clicking here – Peter
Paula continues her story
Back in March 2023 I wrote a story on finding the area where the Stretcher Creek Hut was situated, but never found the actual exact site itself. The evidence that a hut had been in the area was from the extensive number of tree stumps in the area, a small rock structure that I thought was a dog kennel or hide (a place to conceal out of season skins) and the remains of a shovel. Well after about fourteen visits all up in the area, I can finally say that I have found the hut site.

The scrubby terrain made anything on the ground very difficult to see and I recall that I found the shovel only because I stepped on it. I returned to the area again about a month later in April and spent a lot of time combing the area between the shovel and the creek. This visit was not without reward as I found part of a broken milk bottle down near the creek and about 20 metres from the shovel. I then headed back towards the shovel and again stepped on something metal. On inspection I discovered a billy. It was about 10 metres from the shovel and on the flat area above the drop into the creek. I knew I was close now and that the hut had to be somewhere very close by. Now all I had to do was find it.



It took three more visits to the area before I finally found the site. Two trips revealed nothing new and I became quite disheartened and it was some months before I visited again. In November 2024, I decided to have one last look and I was determined to go over the area around the shovel with a fine-toothed comb. I found myself on my hands and knees feeling under the scrub and about a metre south from the shovel I found a hook made of metal. I am not sure what the hook was used for or if it came off something, but it renewed my interest and I knew I was very close.
I moved my search under the scrub to the east of the shovel and there I found a few rocks. They were piled up on top of each other. I instantly thought that they were not naturally positioned, but placed on top of each other for a reason.

The chimney was found. And it was only 3 metres from the shovel. It was only stacked two rocks high so I would not have seen it when wading through the scrub. In fact, I reckon I probably walked over the site multiple times without seeing the stones. A bush grew in the fireplace so it made it even more difficult to locate. The rocks were semicircular like a chimney would be and there was charcoal in the centre. Also, I found a small piece of melted glass and a nail in the charcoal.

Now that I knew where the hut site was and where it lay, I scoured the ground for any more evidence of the hut. I found one big nail, but no outline of the hut or any timber or stone foundations. My guess was that there was a big hot fire that went through the area and completely destroyed the hut structure, then time rotted anything that remained. The hut was east-west facing with the chimney at the eastern end of the hut. It is hard to guess the size of the hut as there are no foundations present.
This hut took a long time to find and took a lot of determination and dedication in the searches and was the most rewarding thing for me to have found. Some may say that I need to be a bit obsessive to keep looking for the number of times that I have, but to me the reward of finding and laying a story and a hut to rest is the best feeling. So now onto the next one…….
Copyright Paula McCulloch 2025
1 Simon Cubit, Mountain Stories, Echoes from the Tasmanian High Country, Volume 1, Forty Degrees South, 2016, pp 88 – 91.
Interesting, well done