Devine Hut – Mann River Nature Reserve

Word of mouth is a great tool for those seeking new places, beautiful landscapes, big or small adventures. In a way, it's what this blog is about. Here is a place that came to us via word of mouth from a group of intrepid bushwalkers and members of the Inverell Bushwalking Club. 

We met the club members one October long weekend while hail, fog and snow trapped us on top of Mt Kaputar. Huddled under a small shelter in the campground we sipped hot cups of tea, wearing every stitch of merino, gortex and polypro available, listening to details of their club’s favourite walks and destinations – all of them, funnily enough, in sunny warm locations unlike our surrounds.

The conversation turned to the Mann River Nature Reserve, west of Grafton. For a long time we had thought about exploring up the Mann River, from the campground on the Old Glen Innes-Grafton road. The Inverell walkers rekindled our interest with talk of an old walkers' hut beside the river, built by a man named Devine. Obviously, it is called Devine Hut. And Devine by name, but divine by nature.

From the Mann River Nature Reserve campground and picnic area, located on the Old Grafton-Glen Innes Road, there is a rough track heading along the northern bank of the Mann River. The countryside is open, dry forest. To reach the hut we just wandered along the banks, crossed the river once, somewhere, and kept on going. There were whip-tailed wallabies, now an endangered species. Wedgetailed eagles and sea-eagles circled above us. We disturbed a large red-bellied black snake and another small snake that could have been a marsh snake. At one point, we veered up a dry rocky gully and spied a brush-tailed rock wallaby, only to be distracted by a big Euro suddenly thudding away up the side of the hill.

It had been months since our conversation with the Inverell walkers but we vaguely remembered being told to keep an eye out “for a waterfall, the second cascade, not the first one” and that we had to “cross the river to the hut”. It all seemed a bit vague as we weaved our way along the high banks in the growing heat.  Word of mouth is one thing, a map or waypoint is another.

Rock-hopping past a large bouldered section of river we caught fleeting glances of more brush-tailed rock wallabies, one or two, disappearing into the undergrowth and then suddenly a little corrugated iron hut sat before us. Set back from the river and high enough to be out of floods' way there wasn’t much to Devine Hut. Dusty, crooked, filled with bits and bobs, some fold away chairs, a decrepit wood stove, a mask and snorkel, buckets. It was not until we turned around and took in the view from the hut’s rickety, dirt-floored verandah that we get the whole idea of Devine by name, divine by nature. Not 20 metres away, the Mann River opens out into a wide section of flat granite slabs. River water slid gently over a 3m drop into a deep, still pool that looked enticing and refreshing. First things first and in for a skinny dip.

We chose to camp on the granite slabs that night: no hut, no tent, just sky. To the south and directly above us loomed Tommy’s Rock - one of the best views around, a steep walk up (from back at the campground), a good spot for close encounters with peregrine falcons over lunch.

From our open sleeping spot on the river bedrock, we could see back down the river to the large boulders we had passed earlier. As the sun fell off west, there emerged a small colony of brush-tailed rock wallabies. With the binoculars I could just make out a small joey in the pouch. The wallabies were there again the next morning, dozing in the warm morning sun. Bit like us. Taking in the divine nature of this spot.

Map: Yellow Jacket 1:25,000

Inverell Bushwalking Club visit: http://bushwalking.org.au/~ibc/index.html

For information on the endangered Brush-tailed rock wallaby:

http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/tsday08-rock-wallaby.html

For the best Bushwalking word-of-mouth website in Australia visit  http://bushwalk.com/forum/ 

And some history on the Mann River Nature Reserve:

“Mann River Nature Reserve is in a region rich in local history. The track which became the Grafton Road in 1867 was originally cut by timber getters seeking red cedar in the 1840s. Cobb & Co stage coaches ran a weekly mail service along the road which was the main route between Grafton and Glen Innes, until the Gwydir Highway was opened in the 1960s. With the regular mail run and the discovery of gold in the late 1800s, the area even attracted bushrangers such as Captain Thunderbolt. The imposing rocky knob called Tommys Lookout was named after the Aboriginal bushranger, Tommy McPherson. Tommy was a respected stockman and rider who found alluvial gold, but his life ended tragically in 1879 when police arrested him for threatening a settler, he strongly resisted, escaping and alarming many locals. He avoided recapture but was eventually shot dead by police, beside what is now Tommys Creek on the Gwydir Highway.”