Sawmill Mountain Retreat

Victoria’s high country is steeped in Australian mythology a backdrop for legendary horsemen and the notorious Kelly Gang of bushrangers. It is here, writes Nicky Lobo, that architect, Darren Sinclair-Cole, built a holiday home and rental for his family.

Stringybark Creek, where the Kelly gang infamously shot dead three policemen trying to flush them out from hiding, is just north of the town of Mansfield. With a population of just 7,500 and set amongst forests of Alpine Ash, Snow Gum woodlands and open plains, Mansfield retains its rustic beauty and atmosphere of times gone by.

Here, horsemen made immortal in Banjo Patterson’s epic poem The Man From Snowy River, drove their cattle up to the plains in summer. Dotted throughout the landscape are the remains of their huts. It is these iconic huts that inspired architect, Darren Sinclair-Cole, when designing and building a lodge for his own family, in the same mountains.

As simple shelters from the harsh alpine elements, cattlemen’s huts are a unique Australian structure, vernacular in form and using local timbers, stone and corrugated iron, Darren explains. These principles have been adopted to provide an elegant, but simple structure in this building.

Project description written and featured by Habitat Us Living