A new era has begun for Mountain Rivers Lodge at Rawson. Its recent purchase by Ron and Andrea Camier of Morwell is enabling its further development for nature-based tourism, as well as adding to the network of businesses initiated through their tour company Mountain-Top Experience (MTE).

The process commenced about a year earlier when the Camiers bought a half share in the 40 acre property. This was for the dual purpose of assisting previous owner, and MTE tour guide, Mike Thomas stay on there following the closure of his horse trail ride business, together with assisting friends David and Sarah Bush find a site to establish their paintball sports facility. More recently Mike's deteriorating health has caused him to sell out entirely and move interstate.

The Mountain Rivers property is approximately half farm land and half forest, encompassing the beautiful Happy Jack Creek valley which descends to the Thomson River. It includes the Mountain Rivers Lodge accommodation facility, as well as the Phoenix Paintball fields at the far end of the property.

Its first era of settlement began in 1915 with the granting of Crown Allotments to Charles Rawson, the original owner of the land on which the township of Rawson subsequently was built. Remnants from that era include a long-abandoned orchard of gnarled old apple trees, fed by perennial spring waters from a hillside dotted with interesting old rock walls.

After two generations of Rawson family ownership, the next era began with the property's acquisition in 1976 by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW). It became part of the construction town for the Thomson Dam project during 1976~83, which now supplies 60% of Melbourne's water. The MMBW named the town Robertson after their Chief Engineer, but the locals insisted the town should be called Rawson after the original landowners, and eventually the locals prevailed! The Lodge was built as accommodation for visiting MMBW senior management. As befitted their requirements it was sited with commanding views of the valley below, and set at the end of a driveway, Tanjil Avenue, lined with magnificent flowering trees and shrubs.

Rumour has it that so popular was the Lodge as a management retreat, that on completion of the Thomson Project it was not sold off like the rest of Rawson township, but remained as an exclusive MMBW hideaway resort, the "VIP Quarters". Apparently its existence was kept hidden in their books for many years by not incurring any maintenance expenditure, one result of which was blackberries growing four metres high in the gardens!

Inevitably however the government auditors did find out, so the property was sold by tender in 1996 to Mike Thomas. This next era saw Mountain Rivers Lodge opened to the public as tourist accommodation, and the establishment of Walhalla & Mountain Rivers Trail Rides. An imposing manager's residence and horse training facilities were built. Mike was a colourful character and popular tour guide on both the trail rides and later 4WD tours. However the impact of escalating insurance costs together with hazards to horse riding from dirt bikes led to the closure of his trail ride business.

The Camiers established Mountain-Top Experience in 1998 following Ron's retrenchment from brown coal research and development due to the privatisation of the power industry. MTE's 4WD tag-along tours throughout the Victorian High Country and passenger tours around Walhalla have become very popular, winning many accolades including a Victorian Tourism Award in 2003. With its enthusiastic team of tour guides, MTE has initiated a network of inter-related small businesses. This has included 4WD driver training courses meeting nationally accredited standards, and their Mt Baw Baw Transport Service to the snow each winter.

Starting with the MTE fleet of vehicles, MTE4x4 was established in 2002 by Ian McCowat of Morwell, aka "Inspector Gadget", specialising in Land Rover modifications and accessories. Having broken almost everything possible to break in these tour vehicles, Ian's technical genius has developed improvements and modifications to make them almost "bullet-proof" and these skills are now in great demand by many other customers.