Situated on the winding Old Gads Hill Road above Liena is a small hut which, prior to Mountain Huts Preservation Society’s involvement, was almost to the point of total collapse. The land upon which the hut sits was originally owned in the early 1900s by the Warren family and since that time the land has passed to several owners including Ray “Boy” Miles (circa 1950s), the Trickett family (from the 1960s) the Tyshing family (mid 1980s), then on to Forest Enterprises and Gunns (circa 2000) and today is privately owned by timber investment company, Reliance Forest Fibre.

In 1940 Richard “Mort” Warren built the hut for his farm-hand. The original cottage featured a main room with an open fire and two small bedrooms on the western side of the hut.  The hut was constructed of split paling weatherboards and the main living room was also lined with split palings.  The original roof was formed of split shingles but at some stage in more recent times has been replaced with corrugated iron. 

Mort Warren operated a dairy farm on the Liena block.  In close proximity to the little worker’s hut was the Warren’s larger family residence and approx. 50 metres from the main house the dairy was located. An old sheep dip is also still apparent, however both the dairy and the sheep dip are now in total ruin. There is also evidence of a once thriving orchard close to the hut but today the fruit trees are gnarled and dead, bearing only lichen and moss on their decaying limbs.

Mountain Huts Preservation Society approached Reliance Forest Fibre with the desire to save the hut from further disintegration, in the hope it could be restored and made available for public viewing with its history recorded for posterity and public awareness.

An initial on-site inspection with representatives from the Society and Reliance Forest Fibre took place in August 2020.  The two small bedrooms were totally collapsed and of the main living area only 3 walls, the fireplace and the roof remained, albeit in a perilous state of incline and decay.  Work commenced soon after in October, and since then a number of working bees, enthusiastically attended by MHPS volunteers, have been held.

Restoration of the Old Roadside Hut was completed in January in 2022.