Reginald G. Hall

Reginald G. Hall (1907–1981), referred to as Reg Hall, was a Tasmanian barrister, bushwalker, skier and designer of outdoor equipment and huts. He is closely associated with exploratory bushwalking on Tasmania's Central Plateau, particularly the Walls of Jerusalem area, where many of the biblical place names later adopted on official maps derived from names he used during the 1930s. He also designed lightweight bushwalking equipment and built a hut on Halls Island in Lake Malbena.

During the Second World War, Hall served in the Royal Australian Air Force. He joined the RAAF in March 1943, spent time at Shepparton in Victoria, and in 1944 was posted to the RAAF's overseas headquarters in London. He was discharged in early 1947 after three years and ten months of service, nearly three years of which were spent overseas.

After returning to Tasmania, Hall worked for the Launceston legal firm Archer, Hall and Campbell. From 1953 he practised as a barrister on his own account, continuing until his retirement in 1979.

The Walls of Jerusalem became Hall's best-known area of bushwalking activity. Cubit records that Hall made about twenty trips into the area between 1928 and 1938. At the time, only a limited number of local features had names on official surveys. Hall adopted and circulated names for features in the area, many of them continuing the biblical theme suggested by the name "Walls of Jerusalem".

Hall was also associated with skiing and hut design. Through his connection with the Northern Tasmanian Alpine Club, he designed several private ski lodges on Ben Lomond, including Himminborg in 1933, Summit Hut in 1937, High Dudgeon in 1953, Ben Bullen in 1955 and Ben Bothie in 1961.

Legacy

Hall's most visible legacy is the biblical naming pattern of many features in the Walls of Jerusalem area. Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania describes him in bushwalking circles as "The Weindorfer of the Walls" and credits him with naming more than a dozen features in the park. His association with Lake Malbena is also reflected in the naming of Halls Island.

Cubit also identifies Hall as an important figure in Tasmanian bushwalking, skiing, hut-building and outdoor-equipment design. His surviving hut at Lake Malbena, together with his papers, photographs and equipment prototypes, has been treated as part of the cultural history of Tasmania's high country.