Shannonvale House Site
Located at the junction of the Benambra-Corryong Road, and the Gibbo Junction. Bairnsdale region-Swifts Crk* (AHD 1964): Zone 55: 565100, 5934200.
History (From G.Butler and Associates)
The area included the Wheel of Fortune gold mine and was held as a miner's area residence right by John Arnold 1899, lending his name to Arnolds Flat as it is known now. Sydney Wagstaff & party held the claim from c1906.
This hut was built on a permissive occupancy granted to LT Murray of Marine Pde., Mentone in May 1948 for a hut site although the hut itself is said to have been built in 1947 by John Knight using the first timber from Seymour's Omeo Sawmill (C Smith, DCNR, 1992) inspection cites PO HO 19300; Crisp. It was shown in a lands department report of August 1948 {HO19620}. One of the Murray brothers, the well-known car-trial personality, ‘Gelignite Jack' Murray (of Redex trial), also used the hut, building a tennis court nearby. The hut, its garden and the tennis court reputedly became a community centre for the small community {Alf Lees}. Murray sold it to RJ Lees of the Star Hotel, Bruthen (later of Johnsonville) in 1957 {Crisp; Lees}.
The occupancy was to be terminated in 1990 and the hut was demolished or moved soon after, leaving these trees and garden remnants as the only indication of the Murray occupation.
References
Victorian Alpine Huts Survey 2005: Graeme Butler and Associates Pp 1030.