RUM CURRIES HUT

While one of the old huts, known as Rum Currie’s hut, had earlier been restored, the remains of another hut and associated rock-work was yet to be completely uncovered and mapped.

Rum Currie’s hut was originally created by rabbiters from stables built by one of the area’s original settlers, Hughie Harvey, Mrs Stevens explained.

They converted the stables into a hut by keeping the cobbled floor, along with the lean-to where oats and chaff were stored, then built up the structure with river stone and added a stone chimney.

The hut was used by rabbiters until Jack Currie took it over in the 1930s.

“He was later known as Rum Currie, due to his drinking habits,” Mrs Stevens added.

It was sometime after Rum left Gibbston in the 1950s that his hut was restored and it was now used by kayakers and rafters, she said.

Rum Currie’s hut is identified as a protected feature and is a Category 1 Heritage Item in the QLDC Partially Operative District Plan and as a Category I building on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register, so was eligible for the grant from the QLDC, she explained.