The boat trips across the stored waters of Guthega Dam were also not without incident. Photo 22 shows Leon Smith and Charles Anton at Guthega Dam with the Jumping Trout I, the boat which helped so much in the construction of Illawong. Photo 23 shows Jumping Trout I being loaded. Photo 24, which was taken at the Illawong Lodge unloading point, looking back towards Guthega Dam, gives some idea of the length of the over-water journey.

“Every kind of watery disaster short of drowning, occurred sooner or later. Once, a flood spread timber, mattresses and oil drums from one end of the dam to the other. Boats, all of them called ‘Jumping Trout’, were occasionally swamped or capsized. One was lost in a flood and not recovered until a year later, when the dam was emptied; another took off in a high wind and landed on the opposite bank – intact! This same boat, the Jumping Trout III, finally came to grief when a 44-gallon drum of petrol hurtled down a steep bank, landed amidships and went through the bottom, leaving a drum-shaped hole, as in a comic cartoon.”

“In spite of the set-backs, Illawong was completed in less than two years to a standard which, in 1957, equalled the best in the mountains. It had its own water supply, septic tank and electric lighting. There was an automatic hot water service, gas cooking, refrigerator, drying room, innerspring mattresses and even carpets.” (Photo 25 shows Illawong in July 1957).

The members laid a snow-pole line to Guthega, and built a flying fox over Farm Creek and a bridge over the Snowy River. The first bridge was partially destroyed by a flood in 1958. The current bridge, a superb, galvanized steel structure with minimal visual impact, was designed by Tim Lamble (Photo 26).

Illawong provides easy access via the valley of Pounds Creek to some outstanding runs on the western faces of the Main Range (Photo 27 shows part of Twynam West Spur in the late afternoon), whilst having negligible environmental impact. Wombats graze in the spring on grass in Illawong’s wind scour (Photos 28 and 29). In Photo 29 a very young wombat looks out from its mother’s pouch at the Illawong grass.