Cooks Hut, Cooks Beach, Freycinet Peninsula

An event was needed by National Parks & Wildlife - and in particular Swansea’s Lone Ranger Pete Lingard - and Friends of Freycinet to mark the near-completion of the restoration of Cooks Hut on Freycinet Peninsula. So it was that an estimated 60 enthusiasts of local history, descendants of early settlers, bushwalkers, Parks officers, Friends of Freycinet and hard-working restorers accompanied 92 years old Ted Cook and his wife to have a look at the work-in-progress, enjoy a free morning tea and lunchtime barbeque and reminisce a lot. The history and romance is portrayed at the Community Web site www.freycinetcoast.info. Meanwhile, here is an extract by John Cannon: Freycinet became a National Park in 1916, Ted cook was born at Cooks Beach hut on the Peninsula in the same year. .... Ted’s parents Albert (Bart) and Kate leased two 20ha lots: one where the stone cottage still stands at Cooks Beach and one near Jimmy’s Creek Beach (an old name for Bryans Beach) The cottage only had one room then, a bark floor and no windows or veranda, Ted said.  ... to start with we had a yoke and two buckets and had to walk a mile and a half each way around to the top side of the lagoon to fetch water. Ted’s clear recollection of his experience of the Peninsula in childhood and adolescence enthralled the Cook’s Hut Crowd. Pic above: Most of the Cooks Hut Crowd after enjoying a generous barbeque and stimulating excursions organised by Pete Lingard and Parks & Wildlife.