Deep Creek Hut was built as accommodation for high country musterers and other station workers in the late nineteenth century on the Cromwell-Cardrona Pack on the Mount Pisa Range in Central Otago. Such buildings were an important part of station infrastructure, which commonly included homesteads, workers' quarters, woolsheds, as well as boundary riders' and musterers' huts. As more of the high country tops are retired from grazing, the mustering huts represent the bygone history of station life. The Deep Creek Hut, with its position on the old Cromwell-Cardrona Pack track represents an important historic element of nineteenth century station life. The history of large sheep runs such as Mt. Pisa Station dates from the early years of European settlement of Otago. Mt Pisa Station originally included a much larger area than it does today, stretching from Luggate to the Kawarau Gorge and including most of the eastern slopes of the Cardrona Valley. According to archaeologist Jill Hamel the station consisted of two sets of smaller runs, a series to the east numbered 245 and 245a-d, and a series to the west numbered 240 and 240a-d. Beattie names Run no. 245 as the Mt. Pisa Run, taken up by Herbert Myers and sold soon after to Wilkin and Thompson in 1858. Beattie states that Wilkin had 6000 sheep on his runs in September 1860. Wilkin is identified as the first settler in the Upper Clutha district, and had a homestead built at the head of Lake Wanaka in 1863, when he owned all the above land, stretching from Lake Wanaka to Cromwell. Parcell states that Wilkin sold the Mt. Pisa Run to Isodore Loughnan in 1867 and that the homestead dates to this time. An earlier cottage still stands among a number of structures behind the homestead, built in 1859, likely to be the first structure built in this area. In 1882 the station was put up for auction in accordance with government policy of the time, of cutting up the large runs, but the occupiers outbid everyone else and continued to own the property. The Cromwell-Cardrona Pack Track, on which the Deep Creek Hut stands, dates from the gold mining period of Central Otago's history. The Track begins from two different places: the gardens at the Ripponvale corner of the Kawarau Gorge, and from Lowburn Valley up Packspur Gully at the head of Swann Road. The route from Ripponvale climbed the longest and easiest spur at the southern end of the range, whereas the Packspur Gully line was shorter and steeper. After climbing over Mt Michael and continuing up to 4600 ft asl (1400m), the southern route then dropped very sharply 700 ft (213m) into the head of Skeleton Stream and straight out up the other side for 700 ft (213m) where it sidled along the hill until reaching a spur leading down into Roaring Meg. The 1893 Run Map and the cadastral and topographical maps showed these routes, although there is no mark on the ground showing its descent into Skeleton Stream. The known marks, where these have not been obliterated by farm tracks following the same line, follow the spur out of Packspur Gully, then circle the head of Skeleton Stream. The Deep Creek Musterers' Hut is considered to date from the late nineteenth century, constructed on the Cardrona to Cromwell pack track, one of a number of tracks that was developed in the first years of exploration and settlement of the area to allow supplies to be carried by pack horse, built to a limited grade specification for the animals. Archaeologist Jill Hamel notes that the Hut is marked on an 1893 run map, and that the Murray McMillan, the current leaseholder dated the hut from 1891, but that it could be older. Hamel notes that formerly, several of these shelters would have stood on the larger run, but this is the only remaining example on the station today. These huts were used during the mustering season to provide housing for shepherds bringing in large flocks of sheep from the back country. Finally in 1924 the extensive run was subdivided into twelve smaller units and the runs now known as Mt Pisa, Queensberry and Queensberry Ridges were formed. The McMillan family's occupation of the Mt Pisa station dates from this 1924 subdivision. A 'License to occupy Crown Lands for pastoral Purposes' was granted to William George McMillan, a shepherd, of Naseby in February of this year. The lease was transferred to William McMillan's grandson, Murray McMillan, in 1970. Murray McMillan added to the hut between the early 1970s and 1990. These additions included installing a timber floor, adding an alcove with a stove, a gable addition, and a lean-to room and front porch. Archaeologist Jill Hamel notes in her 1990 report that the it would be useful to compile plans of changes in the design of the hut from material held at the Mt Pisa Station archive, which would 'acknowledge that this hut is a piece of living history for which the functional changes should be recorded at about 20 year intervals'. Musterers' Huts were utilitarian structures, often constructed of corrugated iron, and generally small four by six metres. Deep Creek Hut, at 3.7m by 4.5m, is consistent with that construction type. The original hut has had an additional lean-to and veranda built around it. Hamel describes Deep Creek Hut as a corrugated hut of unusual design. The main room with a coal range has an extended alcove, built on later to serve as a dining room with a pot-bellied stove in it. There is a veranda with a small separate bunk room for the cook, a total of six bunks, a kauri dresser, a wood store and a shed for a portable generator to provide light. She describes it as a building of 'both character and convenience, in which the basic single-gabled hut with its six-paned windows is still visible among the surrounding additions'. She also suggested that when the runholder ceases to use the hut its future should be discussed and that there should be maintained. In 2003 Mt Pisa Station Ltd applied for a review under the Crown Pastoral land Act 1998. This proposal was accepted and the title to the area of land on which Deep Creek Musterers' Hut stands passed to the Department of Conservation, with Mt. Pisa Station Ltd having grazing rights to this area for a further five years, until 2009. Mt Pisa Station Ltd has received freehold title to 4,691 hectares that includes the homestead block. The land is Conservation Land under the Crown Pastoral Land Act. The McMillan's hold a grazing license and concession to the Hut until their lease expires. The concession will expire with the lease, and the Hut will be administered by the Department of Conservation. Since the tenure review was completed earlier in 2005, the Department of Conservation has locked the building as it does not meet their standards and it is no longer available for general use.