Type Volunteer Headquarters Canberra, Australia | Founded 1971 Website www.khuts.org | |
Area served Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Namadgi National Park, ACT | ||
The Kosciuszko Huts Association (KHA - previously spelt Kosciusko) was formed in Canberra, Australia in 1971 with the purpose of saving the mountain heritage huts in the Kosciuszko National Park. The initial meeting was supported by the past Parks commissioner, Neville Gare and resulted in a small group of individuals forming the association.
KHA members went on to repair and partially rebuild over 160 mountain huts in the Park over the next decade, despite both accidental and deliberate destruction of some of them by individuals and park officers. The bush fires of 2003 destroyed a further 24 huts, following the collapse of many from the early 1970s through to 2003. There are 79 remaining huts (or groups of huts on one site) in the KNP. In 2006, the KHA was successful in lobbying ministers and the NPWS to include retention of huts in the Kosciuszko National Park Plan of Management. This also included a decision to rebuild at least six of the huts, including the Broken Dam Hut, which was reopened on 15 December 2007.
Since 2007 the rebuilding campaign has progressed rapidly and initially the combination of the Kosciuszko National Park rangers and KHA members completed the build of O'Keefes Hut, Pretty Plain Hut and others.
Since the construction of the original web site for KHA the site has grown to 3000 pages of information and the new Committee commenced the construction of a new website at www.khuts.org The first site was built by members of Wildtwo Pty Ltd who held the copyright but have formally given approval for use of all the text and photographs to the KHA in perpetuity, to support the continued collection of material on the mountain huts across Australia.