Last updated 17Sep23

Lutons Crutching Shed

Lutons Crutching Shed is located under Sentry Box Mountain near Naas Creek in the Namadgi National Park.

Location: GR 55H FA 75792-33517 (MGA94), Yaouk 8626-2N 1:25000


Lutons Crutching Shed, April 2011

Visits: 16-17 Sep 23, 7-8 Sep 19, 24 Sep 16, 4 Jul 15, 20 Sep 14, 30-31 Aug 14, 12 Jul 14, 31Aug-1Sep 13, 8-9 Sep 12, 3 Sep 11, 19 Jul 11, 26 Apr 11, 12-13 Jul 10, 28 Nov 06, 16 Oct 04, 3-4 Jul 04

There is a great camping spot around 50m up behind the shed in light timber, with a spot for a fire by the little knoll.

Photographs are available.

Documentation:

• KHA web site: Lutons is almost on the southern border with NSW and is at 756333 on the Tantangara 1:100,000 map. It is a good day walk up a grassy valley, with options to climb nearby peaks for the energetic. Also known as Lutons Hut. Lutons was built for Noel and Greg Luton “Muzzlebrook” at Shannons Flat, to be used for sheep crutching in about 1964. The builders were Alan Robinson, Noel and Herb Dybal. Sheep crutching is the removal of excess wool and dags from around the rear of the sheep, to reduce the chance of fly strike, generally undertaken in March or April. The shed makes a good shelter on a hot or rainy day. Noel Luton was born in November 1931 and passed away in June 2009. He was the first son of (Charles) Morris Luton (1908-1987) and Frances Clugston (1903-1974) (Morris son of Walter and Alice nee Dwyer who had 14 children and two wives) He was brother to Greg Luton. Noel married Fay Murphy (born 1924) in Cooma and they had three sons. The Luton’s had lived at Shannon’s flat since the early 1870’s (some say 1840’s). Morris bought Bobeyan Station from Dick Brayshaw (then 52 and living to 54 at Roseview) for Noel and Greg in 1952 and they paid for it over time, farming it until Bobyean was resumed in 1979 by the National Parks (Then the Gudgenby Nature Reserve), an act that they never agreed with. Lutons extended the cattle grazing to include sheep, hence the construction of the crutching shed. The area had originally been slated as an extension to the Gudgenby Pine Forrest reservation. The roof and walls are of corrugated iron, and part of the floor is timber or timber slats. The shed had at least two major alterations, one in 1984 when the shed was proposed as a Rangers Base and the crutching board was surrounded with corrugated iron. A water tank and piping was installed but later stolen. Numerous sheep yards around the shed were removed by NPWS to make a single horse paddock for their later use.

• KHA Namadgi database (private source). Site 280. Shed and adjacent yards built by Noel Luton and others in the mid to late 1960s.  The shed was extended in the early 1970s.  It is the only purpose built crutching shed in either Namadgi or Kosciusko N.P. and is one of only three surviving pastural buildi …

• Gudgenby: A register of archaeological sites in the proposed Gudgenby National Park, J H Winston-Gregson MA thesis, ANU, 1978. Site B9. Stockyard and shearing shed. Timber, wire, galvanised steel sheeting. Valued at £21 when surveyed for Edward Crawford in 1883. The complex has been extensively reconstructed; the shearing shed is recent (still shiny!) and is currently maintained. See extracts of the relevant pages in the photos above.

• Signage at Lutons: “This Crutching Shed was built by Noel Luton, Alan Robinson and Herb Dybal in the mid 1960s. The fork-style log fence was built by the Crawfords in the 1800s. Alterations for re-use have occurred to both structures over time. The Crutching Shed is the only structure of its type in Namadgi National Park and may be the only purpose built crutching shed in the Alps National Parks. The fork-style stockyards are significant for representing a type of vernacular fencing no longer used.”