From Violet Rawson’s iron and Melbourne’s water to Ron’s engineering projects …

Rawson Family Farm 1915-1971

Recent excavations at Mountain Rivers Tourist Park at Rawson have unearthed fragments of old pottery and other household items including an iron for use with a wood stove. Could this be Violet Rawson’s iron?

According to land title information, the first era of settlement began in 1915 with the granting of Crown Allotments to Charles and Violet Rawson. Charles was the tenth of eleven children in the family of George and Mary Rawson, who emigrated from Yorkshire, England to Walhalla, Victoria in 1862. Apparently George farmed land in the vicinity of Parkers Corner in the 1870s, and built a cattleman’s hut on the Baw Baw plateau.

Charles was born in Walhalla in 1876, married Violet Horrocks in 1902, and died in Warragul in 1942. The property was passed on to Clarance Hercliff Rawson in 1950, on Violet’s death, and then his widow Edna May Rawson in 1969, before acquisition by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works in 1971 for the Thomson Dam Project.

Other evidence of the Rawson family’s occupation of the property  include an abandoned orchard of gnarled old trees, fed by perennial spring waters from a hillside dotted with interesting old rock walls. The framed original title is in the motel lodge common room.

Melbourne & Metropolitan  Board of Works 1971-1996

After two generations of Rawson family ownership, the next era began with the property’s acquisition in 1976 by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW). It became part of the construction town for the Thomson Dam project during 1976~83, which now supplies 60% of Melbourne’s water. The MMBW named the town Robertson after their Chief Engineer, but the locals insisted the town should be called Rawson after the original landowners, and eventually the locals prevailed! The Lodge was built as accommodation for visiting MMBW senior management. As befitted their requirements it was sited with commanding views of the valley below, and set at the end of a driveway, Tanjil Avenue, lined with magnificent flowering trees and shrubs.

A chance meeting with a truck driver revealed that this building was actually relocated in sections from the now-defunct township of ‘Upper Thomson’ on top of the Great Dividing Range near Matlock. This was the headquarters for the tunnel-building in stages 1 and 2 of the Thomson Project. Being above the snow-line explains why the motel lodge was found to be so generously insulated!

Rumour has it that so popular was the Lodge as a management retreat, that on completion of the Thomson Project it was not sold off like the rest of Rawson township, but remained as an exclusive MMBW hideaway resort, the “VIP Quarters” until 1996. Apparently its existence was kept hidden in their books for many years by not incurring any maintenance expenditure, one result of which was blackberries growing four metres high in the gardens!

Mike Thomas & Horse Trail Rides 1996-2007

Inevitably however the government auditors did find out, so the property was sold by tender in 1996 to Mike Thomas. This next era saw Mountain Rivers Lodge opened to the public as tourist accommodation, and the establishment of Walhalla & Mountain Rivers Trail Rides. An imposing manager’s residence and horse training facilities were built. Mike was a colourful character and popular tour guide on both the trail rides and later 4WD tours. However the impact of escalating insurance costs together with hazards to horse riding from dirt bikes led to the closure of his trail ride business.

Camier Development & Phoenix Paintball 2008- 

The Mountain Rivers Tourist Park property was purchased by Ron and Andrea Camier of Morwell, in 2008. This enabled its further development for nature based tourism. It also added to the network of businesses initiated through Camier Pty Ltd tourism business Mountain-Top Experience (MTE).

The process commenced about a year earlier when the Camiers bought a half share in the 40 acre property. This was for the dual purpose of assisting previous owner, and MTE tour guide, Mike Thomas, to stay on there, following the closure of his horse trail ride business, together with assisting friends David and Sarah Bush to find a site to establish their paintball sports facility, Phoenix Paintball. Exciting events there included a D-Day re-enactment in 2010.

Mike’s deteriorating health later caused him to sell out entirely and move to a warmer climate interstate. In 2012 Gippsland Paintball, owned by Sarah’s father, Peter Holliday and family took over operations of the paintball business and Phoenix Paintball ownership in 2019.

Mountain-Top Experience 1998~

The Camiers established Mountain-Top Experience in 1998 following Ron’s retrenchment from brown coal research and development engineering due to the privatisation of the power industry. MTE’s 4WD tag-along tours throughout the Victorian High Country and passenger tours around Walhalla have become very popular, winning many accolades including a Victorian Tourism Award in 2003. With its enthusiastic team of tour guides, MTE initiated a network of inter-related small businesses. This included 4WD driver training courses exceeding nationally accredited standards, and their Mt Baw Baw Transport Service to the snow each winter.

Starting with the MTE fleet of vehicles, MTE4x4 was established in 2002 by Ian McCowat of Morwell, aka “Inspector Gadget”, specialising in Land Rover modifications and accessories. Having broken almost everything possible to break in these tour vehicles, Ian’s technical genius developed improvements and modifications to make them almost “bullet-proof”. Following Ian’s retirement, this role was taken on by local Land Rover specialist, Bob’s Tuning and Repairs.

The hiring out of MTE’s 4WD vehicles expanded into a joint venture with Gippsland Fleet Maintenance in 2004, adding a fleet of three hire-drive mini-buses. This subsequently led to mini-bus transport services and the acquisition in 2006 of an imported luxury 4WD mini-bus for snow transport and airport bus services to Melbourne. Murray “Muzz” Brown became manager of this business, which also enabled MTE to assist Fusion Gippsland with their youth and community work based in Morwell. During 2010 we replaced an old Toyota Commuter 12-seater with a newer one, and added another 8-seater Super Custom, plus a Commuter 12-seater automatic. In 2011 we purchased a luxury 22-seater Mitsubishi Rosa Mini-coach and trailer from Gippsland Getaway Tours, followed by standard 25-seater Rosas from Coal Valley Coaches in 2012 and 2015, together with luggage trailers. There was demand for larger buses by many of our customers, including PowerWorks at Morwell for Latrobe Valley Power Industry Tours, as well as growth in Mt Baw Baw Transport requirements.

In 2007, “Hayno” and Diane Haynes from Drouin established Adventure Learning Experience (ALX) to extend MTE’s 4WD-based team building trips. Hayno’s specialist training in Canada assisted him to develop unique experiential learning and leadership training programs for corporate and school groups, working in conjunction with a number of campsites around Gippsland.

Maintenance of the Mountain Rivers property, and 4WD driver training, involved another MTE team member, Marcus Hiam, from Warragul. Marcus’ background includes school and campsite property maintenance, bus and taxi passenger transport, as well as off-road vehicle recovery with the Australian Army. Being only 20 minutes from Walhalla, enabled team members to run MTE’s popular 4WD tours through the ghost towns, mines and mountains nearby. These include the Copper Mine Adventure for day visitors to Walhalla as well as Historic Ghost Town tours for groups staying at Rawson Village. The MTE team has run tours for up to 128 students in a day from Rawson Village, and worked with coach companies and Walhalla’s Star Hotel in catering for international visitors on cruise ship excursions from Melbourne.

Spa Chalets & Bunkhouse 2010~

The recognition that a motel with only six units was insufficient to sustain a resident manager and family led to the dream of adding two spectacular mountain-top spa chalets in 2010. Ron and Andrea Camier’s concept of a spectacular two-storey cottage in a rustic cottage style matching the Managers’ Residence was developed with assistance from Glen Brooks of ‘Alternate Dwellings’ in Morwell. Alternate Dwellings previously had supplied a kit of materials for building a two-bedroom extension to the residence with the assistance of builder and long-time friend, Phillip Lockhart in 2008. The spa chalets were built to lock-up stage by Alternate Dwellings, with the creative interior design being the inspiration of Rachel and Russell Camier. This created interesting challenges for Ron Camier, Peter Holliday and other contractors in fitting them out internally.

Ivanhoe spa chalet was named after the Camier family property at Hood Crescent, Caulfield, home of Ruth Camier for over 70 years. ‘Ivanhoe’ derives from the classic novel by Sir Walter Scott, and is the name of the Melbourne suburb of Ruth’s childhood. Ruth, Ron’s grandmother is remembered as a joyful, saintly old lady who made all guests welcome. Ivanhoe also honours the love and generosity of Ian & Mena Camier, who helped make the purchase of this property and the building of this chalet possible.

Koopalanda spa chalet was named after the Thurman family property at Koopalanda Close, Red Hill, on the Mornington Peninsula. It had views to Westernport Bay, and although never built on, its sale after 30 years helped make building this chalet possible. ‘Koopalanda’ is an aboriginal word for ‘drink’ or ‘water’. Koopalanda also honours the love and generosity of Elaine Thurman, Andrea’s mother, whose Christian character was refined in later years by the progressive losses of her husband Bill, deteriorating eyesight and independence.

The Bunkhouse came about when Rob McKay spotted a portable building in South Australia of similar construction to the motel. It was installed on the site of the old ‘hay shed’ and fitted out as a ‘scrapyard challenge’ project by Ron Camier, Peter Holliday, Marcus Hiam and others. The Bunkhouse was dedicated to the team members of our ‘Mountain-Top Experience’ 4WD tour and transport business, who have helped us for over 10 years of adventures together. It was also dedicated to Sarah & David Bush and Geoff & Tasha Heyblom whose gifts of hospitality as resident managers have enhanced the accommodation business on this site. It is intended as backpacker-style accommodation, and a place where guests, friends and family can come and stay at minimal cost.

Family Chalets & Motel Upgrade 2012~

The aftermath of ‘Black Saturday’ in 2009 significantly changed Victorian rural towns like Rawson, resulting in new planning requirements involving ‘bushfire management overlays’, and prohibitively expensive new building codes. This required some lateral thinking resulting in the property being registered as a ‘caravan park’ so that future buildings could be installed as pre-fabricated ‘park cabins’, making use of the extensive water reticulation (for fire protection) facilities available.

It also satisfied Ron’s engineering urge to get away from ‘trendy’ (aka expensive, difficult to install, impractical for daily use) building styles such as the spa chalets! So the family chalets were built to our specifications by Jayco in Dandenong, transported to site, and lifted onto their elevated foundations by a 55-tonne crane. Even their furniture came already-installed.

Around the same time the Lodge was upgraded to a motel, with rebuilding of the deck (including a little gable to make it look like our logo), shower room, kitchen upgrade including pantry, lounge extension, tea/coffee alcoves in each room replacing the old wardrobes, bathroom shower screens and exciting wall murals, with air conditioning throughout.

Campground & Alpine Cabins 2015~

This development in 2015 came about largely by chance. In July 2014 Ron noticed that the ‘Thomson River Caravan Park’ in Sale was being closed down and having a clearing sale auction. Having suddenly purchased an unwanted amenities block and two old cabins, we were given just 7 days to remove them! What followed was a scramble of dismantling a semi-trailer load of associated materials, driveway widening, and getting a 28-day process VicRoads over-dimensional permit in just 4 days.

The next nine months was an adventure of turning dreams into reality, thanks to a creative and skilled bunch of friends including Alan ‘Tex’ Coward, Simon Cook, Barrie Cook, David Burrage, John Ballantyne, Nev Iddles and Rob Dedynskij. What was second-hand was recycled into something beautiful.

The Alpine Cabins have been named after nearby settlements which have disappeared. ‘Jubilee’ was a mining town on the Coopers Creek Road, established at the time of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887. ‘Amor’, on the Thomson Valley Road, was to be the MMBW construction town for the Thomson Dam Project, until they changed it to Rawson. It was originally settled in 1904 by Cobb & Co coach owner Ernest Charles Amor. It is now the site of Rawson’s water treatment plant.

The campground was dedicated to resident managers Brad and Bec Harris, in the hope that it would help sustain a satisfying business and lifestyle for their growing family. It was also dedicated to our group of friends in Morwell: Jerome Johnston, Leeanne Kerr, Rob McKay, Liz Sulley, Alan Coward, Jordan Johnston, Chris Drinken, Ron De Bruyn and Fiona Taulien.

Experience Bus Hire & Charter 2017~2022

In 2016, following Andrea’s unfortunate diagnosis with a terminal illness, and Ron’s need to reduce his workload, a new Operations Site at 143 Princes Drive Morwell, comprising yard and office was purchased. This was renovated and the business relocated there with assistance from Barrie Cook. Management was restructured with Russell Camier as Chairman and Jerome Johnston as full-time Operations Manager, bringing fresh initiatives and management skills. The bus business was re-branded as ‘Experience Bus Hire & Charter’ featuring a mountain in the new logo as a subtle link to its origins.

To meet demand for larger group transport, in 2017 the mini-bus hire business was developed into an accredited bus hire and charter business using mechanical service partners Livesey’s Motor Works, and WRW. For snow resort access MTE was approved by VicRoads to become a provider of Hazardous Area Bus Driver Training. Also to meet changing demand the two older 12-seater manual mini-buses were replaced with a Toyota Commuter 14-seater automatic, and a 57-passenger Higer Roadboss coach and a catering trailer. In 2018 a 48-passenger touring Motorcoach Classic 3 was purchased from Driver Buslines, followed by the acquisition of Gippsland Coach Tours of Mirboo North, adding a 57-passenger Scania touring coach with Safari Kitchen and equipment for running school camps. In 2018 a luxury 52-passenger Irizar Scania touring coach was purchased from AAT-Kings for long-distance touring and V/Line charter work, and a 57-passenger Yutong bus was added for excursion work.

Having outgrown the Princes Drive site, a new depot was purchased at Surdex Drive, Morwell in 2019. This 4000 square metre site provided a spacious yard with our own mechanical workshop, panel shop, and modern two-storey offices. A 28-seat Higer Munro was purchased mainly for hire-drive, and a second Safari Kitchen built for school camps. Unfortunately EBHC closed in 2022, mainly because of the ongoing impact of COVID and rising costs.

Multi-Purpose Cabin & Cubbies 2019~

The expansion of this campground in 2019, involving a multi-purpose cabin and three cubbies came about because Ron owned a disused portable office building in Morwell, and there was a need for making the campground facilities more usable in winter.

Originally the office building was prefabricated by Valleyway Homes in 1982 for Crawford Marine in George St Morwell. In 1989 it was purchased by well-known local motel owner Marj Leighton, who shifted it to 143 Princes Drive Morwell where it was used by a series of car sales businesses. This property was purchased by Ron in 2015 to relocate the mini-bus business. The site works, modification and relocation of the former mini-bus office to Rawson was a challenging project for Ron, assisted by Barrie Cook, Alan Coward and various contractors. The multi-purpose cabin is intended as a meeting venue as well as easy-access accommodation.

At the same time Rob McKay located some flat-pack kits made by Hypercuby Building Solutions, enabling three ‘Campground Cubbies’ to be built on tent sites by Ron together with Jason Kemp, Rob Lazaravich and others. Together with adding extra powered and unpowered campsites, these facilities are intended to encourage group gatherings such as the annual Celebrating Easter Festival.

This development is dedicated to resident managers Alan & Liz Coward, with the hope that it will help sustain an enjoyable lifestyle running this hospitality business. It is also dedicated to the late Jason Kemp who did not survive the COVID19 pandemic, to Pastor Sylvia Fraser the instigator of Celebrating Easter, and to my wonderful new wife Anne who inspires me to keep going.

Following the devastating impact of COVID19, resulting in a series of park closures, lock-downs of Melbourne and interstate customers and loss of our resident managers, 2021 became a year of new beginnings. These shut-downs however, enabled a huge amount of maintenance and improvements to be carried out. Subsequently we welcomed Sean Findlay and Karen Trevillian to the management role, having previously been part of the bus driving team at EBHC. They are bringing fresh enthusiasm and ideas into driving a new future at Mountain Rivers Tourist Park

Ron Camier, 2022