Located at 820m on a broad spur on the Styx valley side of Mt Brown. It was built in the 1970 for opossum studies. The design was adopted from a hut built by opossum researcher Les Pracy in the Pararaki valley. The hut's exterior was malthoid, and the interior chicken wire over a precut timber frame. It was in a small, clearing surrounded by forest and was quite dark and dingy. There was no heating, and water was from a 44-gallon drum set under the eaves. It had a standard NZFS kerosine cooker. Merv Nicolle visited the hut in the early '80s to fix the roof and install a new water drum. The hut was accessed from the Styx valley and the track is still used as a route to the new Mt Brown Hut. The old hut was removed by DOC around 2006. Edit Hut