What is the Mount Buffalo Chalet?

Built in 1910, Mount Buffalo Chalet is heritage listed and is Australia’s largest timber building. It has provided many generations with beautifully memorable Victorian High Country holidays, run for a long period by the Victorian Railways, and other providers in later years. Having been closed to the public since 2007, this beautiful historic building is rapidly falling into disrepair. Whilst the Victorian Government has contributed funds to start on repairs, the Chalet needs further help from the community – this is where you come in!

Whilst the overall sum required for the complete restoration of Mt Buffalo Chalet is still being determined, the first step in the process is to secure funding that will ensure the building is weatherproof prior to the onset of winter 2017. The overall estimate for replacement weatherboards for the entire building is $1 million.

Our first milestone, on the way to reaching this target is to secure at least the first $100,000 by to 31 December 2016. 

Tell Us About The Campaign?

Initially, we simply want to raise funds to purchase weatherboards and materials to weatherproof the Chalet prior to winter 2017 and to be ready for a number of future possibilities. 

We ask you to pledge as much as you can – the price of your morning coffee, or an item of clothing, or something more significant to help us purchase materials to protect our heritage. We aim to initially raise $100,000 - that could be 1000 people pledging $100 each. 

We are taking a staged approach to our funding campaign. We know we need around $1 million to completely weatherproof the building, so if we were to exceed our target that wouldn't be a bad thing!

The Mount Buffalo Destination Advisory Group (MBDAG) was established by the local community and partnered with the Victorian Government in March 2016 to work collaboratively with Parks Victoria and provide strategic recommendations about the future of the Mount Buffalo National Park to Parks Victoria’s Chief Executive.

Image provided by Parks Victoria

Why Do We Need Funds Now?

The Chalet is deteriorating more every winter! Now is the time to act. In mid-December 2016, the Mount Buffalo Destination Advisory Group will deliver a community-led proposal to government that could propel the restoration and revitalisation of the Mt Buffalo Resort and Village through an ongoing community owned, model.

Image is provided by Community Action for the Chalet

The funds raised will go directly towards the purchase of building materials & labour costs (heritage approved weatherboards, nails, labour etc) as well as Pozible fees of 4% of the amount raised, if we reach our target of $100,000. The funds will continue the weatherproofing and replacement of weatherboards on the Chalet moving from the main facade to the Eastern and Southern facades. This is the first stage of a larger crowd funding campaign for this restoration project. 

To date, all the work of MBDAG has been completely pro-bono – a group of passionate community members working together to achieve a positive outcome. 

We are working in partnership with Into Our Hands Community Foundation who will hold the pledged funds for the purchase of weatherboards. 

This is a complex project in anyone’s terms. We would like to share that should the model presented to government in mid-December not be approved, this campaign would be cancelled and no funds taken from pledgers. In addition, as per Pozible’s crowdfunding terms, should we not reach our initial target of $100,000, we would not receive any funds. Yes, it is an ambitious target, however restoring this beautiful historical building will take the input, passion and commitment of the whole community.

The Chalet has been standing empty on the mountain for the past ten years, and we need to act quickly to preserve the “Grand Old Lady” for future generations.