From the 1950s to the 1970s, Reg Bernes leased a grazing run which extended from Mother Cummings Peak across the plateau to Lake Balmoral. Reg shared the highland grazing grounds, known as the Mountain Run, with his friend Norm Whiteley, and together they grazed sheep and cattle for many, many years. From their farms in Meander they would drive their sheep and cattle up Higgs Track to the plateau for summer grazing.

The original Lady Lake Hut, which stood at the top of Higgs Track, had been destroyed by a wild fire in 1961. A few years later, in 1967, while tending their stock, Reg and Norm seized upon the idea of building themselves a hut. They gathered the burnt tin which was strewn around the Lady Lake Hut area and carried it on their own backs and on horseback across the plateau to an area near the base of Mt Ironstone. With timber sourced from the surrounding trees and sand from the nearby Weston Lake, mixed with cement for a floor, they built themselves a crude, but basic and very effective shelter, complete with bunk beds and an open fireplace—a home away from home against the majestic backdrop of the imposing and rugged Ironstone Mountain.

Subsequently, government legislation was passed which stopped the grazing of stock on the central plateau and with the cessation of this traditional summer pastime the Whiteley’s/Berne’s Hut stood idle and empty for several years. To this day, in close proximity to the hut, rusty, overgrown and fallen down sections of wire fencing is evidence of stockyards once used as holding pens for the stock which grazed this section of the central highlands.

Geoff and Peter Lee, keen fishermen who frequented the Chudleigh Lakes, were dismayed at the lack of shelter in the area (both Ironstone Hut and Lady Lake Hut were in total disrepair at that time) and the brothers began to seek the shelter of the hut built by Reg Bernes and Norm Whiteley almost two decades earlier. By 1980 a new track had been forged up the gully, following the course of the Western Creek, and the Lee families were now using the hut on a regular basis for fishing, hunting and family trips.

However, by 1985 the hut was in need of major repairs. The original tin sheets were already burnt when they were used to build the hut and they were now leaking badly, allowing water to enter the hut and resulting in rot developing in the corner stumps and roof beams. Geoff and Peter Lee, together with Don Youd, virtually rebuilt the hut. New corrugated iron was carried in to re-roof the hut, which also allowed for the overall height to be raised so that head-banging was no longer a problem. New bunks were built, a new door and door frame installed, and the woodshed enclosed on three sides with some of the discarded iron sheeting from the hut.  The Lee brothers continued to make  improvements over the ensuing years, including the installation of a firebox -made from a cut down oil tank – complete with flue to replace the open fire which smoked terribly, and the replacement of the crumbling concrete floor. Some years later the firebox, having burned out, was replaced – again by an oil tank cut in half and fashioned with a door by the Lee brothers.   Some years later, upon its demise a third fire box, this time a commercially built unit, was flown in by PWS.

The MHPS became involved in 1997 when, following the completion of the Ironstone Hut project at Lake Nameless, left-over sand and cement was donated for the new floor, along with another firebox (the fourth to be installed), earning the little cabin a reputation as the hottest hut on the mountain. MHPS, in conjunction with Parks and Wildlife Service, was also involved in the erection of a toilet close by the hut. A helicopter lift by PWS enabled all building materials for the toilet, along with the donated sand and cement for the floor and the donated firebox, to be airlifted to the site.

Today the Hut is commonly known as ‘Whiteleys Hut’, although the Lee families have always referred to it is ‘The Palace’.