Last updated 12Aug23

Hudson Ready Cut Cottage

The Hudson Ready Cut Cottage is located over the Gudgenby River from Gudgenby Homestead in the Namadgi National Park.

Location: GR 55H FA 79744-42668 (MGA94), Rendezvous Creek 8626-1S 1:25000


Hudson’s Ready-Cut Cottage, March 2012

Visits: 12 Aug 23, 21 Apr 12, 20 Mar 12, 22 Jul 08

Photographs are available.

Documentation:

• KHA web site: Gudgenby Cottage is a charming building, located about 300m from the main Gudgenby Homestead. A separate entrance road runs off the old Boboyan Rd, (to the Yankee Hat carpark and trailhead.) Also known as the Ready Cut Hut. Gudgenby Cottage is a Hudson Ready-Cut kit home, built in 1927 for the Bootes family, as a visitor’s cottage (Bill Bootes and family) and later for use by the Gudgenby property manager. This is the same hut as that used by Mawson in Antarticta. The building is now un-occupied, and while in good condition, is being pushed over by a feral willow tree (removed 2003). The only outbuilding is a large corrugated iron garage. Currently, the National Park service is formally reviewing the use of Gudgenby homestead and cottage as commercial premises (eg a B&B) for visitors to the park. This will require an upgrade of the sewerage system. This proposal has received mixed views from KHA members, but follows similar systems in Victoria and Tasmania, and is likely to get support. On 18 August 2005, the ACT Government approved a grant of some $12000 to KHA for the full renovation of the cottage. This renovation was completed in 2008. The hut has electricity and a full working bathroom.

• KHA Namadgi database (private source). Site 245. This 1927 weatherboard house is the earliest fully prefabricated construction in the Namadgi region and the earliest Hudson prefabricated building in the ACT.  Originally a temporary home for the Gudgenby property owners, it later became the managers’ hou ….

• Gudgenby: A register of archaeological sites in the proposed Gudgenby National Park, J H Winston-Gregson MA thesis, ANU, 1978. Site G2 1-4. Weatherboard, corrugated metal roof; external cement brick chimney. A Hudson Ready-Cut Timber Home erected in 1927 for £900. Source: W Bootes 16 December 1977. See extracts of the relevant pages in the photos above.

• Sign at Cottage: The Hudson’s Ready-Cut Cottage – Gudgenby. This cottage is an early ready-cut or prefabricated kit home produced by George Hudson Ltd, Sydney. It was purchased and probably erected by A W Bootes, the Gudgenby Valley property owner in 1927. The Bootes family travelled from the family home at “Bywong” each summer for the busy branding and weaning period and used the Cottage for accommodation. The main double-brick Gudgenby Homestead on the other side of the Gudgenby River was completed in 1964 and from this time the cottage became known as the Manager’s Cottage. Alterations were made to the back of the building to include a laundry and to extend the kitchen to make permanent living in the Ready-Cut more comfortable. Electricity arrived in 1967. The Bootes were the last grazing family in the Namadgi National Park. The Commonwealth resumed the land and buildings in 1975. Namadgi National Park was gazetted in 1984. The Ready-Cut Cottage is the earliest fully prefabricated construction in the Namadgi region. It provides indicative intact evidence of prefabricated fabric, design and construction techniques. The building has strong associations with prominent early European pastoralists. The restoration work here is being carried out by the Koscuiszko Huts Association (KHA) with support from the ACT Government’s Heritage Grants Program. Namadgi National Park staff are also providing significant practical assistance and the Heritage Grant is being complimented through Namadgi National Park operational funds. Coincidently, this is an identical kit home to that which Douglas Mawson took to Antarctica in 1911, modified slightly, when he set up an Australian base there – that cottage still survives and is called Mawson’s Hut.

• TAMS web site: Information, including hire.