I was intrigued to discover that two boat builders and a lorry driver from my home town of Ulverstone played important roles in promoting tourism at Cradle Mountain’s Dove Lake.
SOURCE -TRIP ADVISOR
FIRST AFLOAT?
Although the indigenous Palawa people hunted in the area for thousands of years, there is no evidence of them using canoes on the lake. The conservationist and botanist Gustav Weindorfer, affectionately known as ‘Dorfer’, must have been one of the first to venture onto the water. After falling in love with the mountain and its unique flora and fauna, he and his wife Kate established a home there in 1912. Weindorfer had fashioned a raft from pine logs. It had a deck made from palings and served its purpose for quite some time..
In 1925 Weindorfer sourced sufficient pine for a small row boat. Ulverstone’s Tom Horsham made the trek to Dove Lake to build the craft, which is pictured below, behind the old raft.
Source – The Mercury, Jan. 4 1936,
THE PASSING OF A PIONEER
In 1932 an Ulverstone farmer rounding up cattle found Weindorfer lying dead beside his motorbike. It was believed he had suffered a heart attack while trying to start the machine a couple of days earlier. There had been no-one to raise the alarm. Despite a growing number of visitors, ‘Dorfer’ spent long periods alone after his wife died in 1916. His death was a great loss as he was still relatively young, at 58.
Source – Friends of Cradle Valley.
With his passing and the difficult times of the Great Depression it was felt that Cradle Mountain needed something more to offer bush walkers and Waldheim Chalet’s intrepid guests. It was decided to provide three new boats, which would be available for hire.
Three boats are being built at Ulverstone for the lakes at Cradle Mountain and should be ready in April. They are keel boats. clinker built, 16 feet, 14 feet, and 12 feet long. (Examiner, Mar 10 1938) The smallest was to be for Crater Lake.
The builder was Mr J. W. (Joe) Brown, who had a boatyard at West Ulverstone.
An effort had been made to improve the road into the Dove River Valley prior to the boats being transported. By May they were complete, and ready for what everyone knew would be a complicated journey to Cradle Mountain. There was much relief that the process would take place before the bitter winter weather set in.
George Stubbs, who had a motor lorry business in Ulverstone, offered to load the three boats onto a truck and trailer. They were then packed with wood shavings to avoid damage. The party setting out was quite large. Stubbs was accompanied by his three sons and a daughter. Major Smith, secretary of the Cradle Mountain Reserve Board, went by car, along with his own three sons and his wife.
When the road became really rough the car was abandoned and chains were fitted to the lorry. Those who couldn’t fit into the cab sat in the boats, often having to leap out to push the vehicle up inclines. At one point it slid down a hill into the undergrowth. Axes were used to clear roots and logs and heave it back to the road.
Finally, Weindorfer’s old home, Waldheim Chalet, was reached and there was a warm welcome from the custodian Mr Lionel Connell and his family.
Lionel Connell and family at Waldheim Chalet in the late 1930s. (Source – Friends of Cradle Valley)
The following is a low quality newspaper photograph, but you can see one of the unloaded boats at Waldheim on its trailer.
The end of the journey, well at least to Waldheim Chalet.
When spring came, the boats were moved to the lakes by horse and sled, another difficult process.
Outboard motors were later purchased for the two Dove Lake boats. The ranger and his son would take passengers on excursions at a cost of 6d per person. The photo below is from the 1950s. I wonder if that’s one of the Ulverstone boats, or a later version? The boat shed in the picture remains to this day.
Tourists at Dove Lake can now hire hand-crafted kayaks made of King Billy pine. For more information, CLICK HERE
