Bertie's Hut, Field Naturalists ' Club Expedition to King Island

One of thirty-two black and white photographs in an album taken by A J Campbell during a Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria expedition to King Island. The album also includes maps of King Island in the inside front cover and back page and numerous newspaper clippings relating to the expedition. The report by the members of the party, documents the mission of the expedition thus: 'It is our intention, before the introduction of numerous foreign plants and animals rendered it impossible to do so, to ascertain as precisely as we could in the short time at our disposal the fauna and flora indigenous to the island.' The party included 26 members of the Field Naturalists including sportsmen, oologists, botanists, conchologists and taxidermists but as they noted in thier report "all were transformed into collectors of anything which might throw light upon the living inhabitants, both animal and plant, of the island." The main camp consisted of 10 tents nestled into a sheltered spot beside Yellow River Creek. The party had little more than two weeks for thier survey and they used the base to venture out and collected specimens. Pictured here is the hut known as Berties Camp. The report describes the relief of such shelter during a long day of investigations. "Tired and soaked through to the skin, we had yet some eight miles to go before reaching our camping-ground for the night, and for half this distance our track lay along heavy loose sand. It was with thankful feelings that we reached a hut known as Bertie�s camp, and pitching our tent, made a large fire, and despite weather and the fact that we had to sleep on ti-tree poles or 'long feathers', as they were called in camp, passed a most enjoyable evening and night."