National Trust wants Government to save Mt Buffalo Chalet

THE historic Mt Buffalo Chalet will mark the 11th anniversary of its closure next month as its future remains up in the air.

Cliff edge: The battle continues to save Mt Buffalo Chalet.

THE historic Mt Buffalo Chalet will mark the 11th anniversary of its closure next month as its future remains up in the air.

And the National Trust has warned time to save the chalet is ticking away.

“Mt Buffalo already attracts more than 180,000 visitors every year, yet the mountain’s key attraction, Mt Buffalo Chalet, has been closed for a decade,” chief executive Simon Ambrose said.

“While we wait for yet another study to be undertaken, the chalet will continue to languish and deteriorate. We need action and investment now to secure the future of this important heritage place.”

Mr Ambrose called for “everyone to write to Premier Daniel Andrews to express their deep concerns about the future of the chalet”.

Earlier this month the Andrews Government announced a plan to transform Mt Buffalo into a “year-round destination” and will provide $200,000 to the Alpine Shire Council which, with the advisory group the Government established in March last year, will “prepare a business case for tourism concepts”. But no mention of the deteriorating chalet was made in the plan.

Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer was an investor in a syndicate that proposed a $50 million redevelopment of the chalet in 2011 rejected by the Baillieu government.

“I very much regret it didn’t happen,” Mr Fischer said. “We kept hitting brick walls with bureaucracy.”

Melbourne hiker Sean Hallam, who has been fighting to save the chalet for five years, said doing nothing was “demolition by neglect” and that $20 million was needed to restore it.

A spokesperson for Parks Victoria said the organisation conducted an annual maintenance program for the chalet and the gardens to preserve the heritage values of the building.