NPA ACT has welcomed a Canberra Times report that the ACT Government has decided not to rebuild two alpine huts in Namadgi National Park that were destroyed in the 2020 fires.

 ‘We argued that rebuilding on the sites of Demandering and Max and Bert Oldfield’s hut was not value for money and that the decision by the previous ACT Government in 2023 to rebuild the huts was not in line with Burra Charter guidelines for heritage conservation practice,’ said NPA president Dr Rosemary Hollow.

 ‘We are pleased that after listening to the cases for and against rebuilding City and Government Services Minister Tara Cheyne has made, what we consider, the right decision,’ she said.

 The Canberra Times reports the minister as saying the cost of rebuilding would have been significant, and it would have taken ‘years and years, particularly given the remoteness’ to reconstruct and maintain the huts.

 Ms Cheyne said rebuilding the huts would be inconsistent with standard heritage principles, which are to leave and preserve sites affected by natural disasters, and endorsed a proposal for a modest spend on signage and interpretation to recognise the history of the huts.

 Dr Hollow said she has written to Minister Cheyne offering NPA’s services  to work with ACT Parks on the interpretation of all the layers of history of these huts, from the First Nations through to the settler and more recent bushwalkers passing Demandering on their way to Horse Gully Hut.