Remembering Treacher's Hill (Bukit Kutu) Article by Jimmy Chew Photo by Jimmy Chew Introduction This little write-up focuses only on the British Hill Station remnants since the colonial era, the sole purpose of which is to 'relive' the old days via archived documents. Perhaps another minor purpose might be that this document can help others who want to conduct a more extensive study about Treacher's Hill or for those who wish to delve further into knowing Bukit Kutu, historically. There are existing blogs that enumerate the historical facts of this interesting hill but there are contradicting points further exacerbated by the difficulty of validation owing to lack of references to original sources. As a result, it is not certain exactly how many building structures were once on that hill, and how they were positioned, and more importantly, how the history was accounted for. However, this blog is not itself free from flaws and if one does stumble upon them, feel free to correct me. With limited resources at hand, not a lot about Bukit Kutu can be written up in long form but only attempting to tie in the sparse bits and pieces. This is merely a personal findings/interpretations from a distance. As to outdoor activities, they are already available on countless, various blogs, so nothing of that sort will be included in this one.
This little write-up focuses only on the British Hill Station remnants since the colonial era, the sole purpose of which is to 'relive' the old days via archived documents. Perhaps another minor purpose might be that this document can help others who want to conduct a more extensive study about Treacher's Hill or for those who wish to delve further into knowing Bukit Kutu, historically. There are existing blogs that enumerate the historical facts of this interesting hill but there are contradicting points further exacerbated by the difficulty of validation owing to lack of references to original sources. As a result, it is not certain exactly how many building structures were once on that hill, and how they were positioned, and more importantly, how the history was accounted for. However, this blog is not itself free from flaws and if one does stumble upon them, feel free to correct me. With limited resources at hand, not a lot about Bukit Kutu can be written up in long form but only attempting to tie in the sparse bits and pieces. This is merely a personal findings/interpretations from a distance.
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Remembering Treacher's Hill (Bukit Kutu)
Article by Jimmy Chew
Photo by Jimmy Chew
Introduction
This little write-up focuses only on the British Hill Station remnants since the colonial era,
the sole purpose of which is to 'relive' the old days via archived documents. Perhaps another
minor purpose might be that this document can help others who want to conduct a more
extensive study about Treacher's Hill or for those who wish to delve further into knowing
Bukit Kutu, historically.
There are existing blogs that enumerate the historical facts of this interesting hill but there are
contradicting points further exacerbated by the difficulty of validation owing to lack of
references to original sources. As a result, it is not certain exactly how many building
structures were once on that hill, and how they were positioned, and more importantly, how
the history was accounted for. However, this blog is not itself free from flaws and if one does
stumble upon them, feel free to correct me. With limited resources at hand, not a lot about
Bukit Kutu can be written up in long form but only attempting to tie in the sparse bits and
pieces. This is merely a personal findings/interpretations from a distance.
As to outdoor activities, they are already available on countless, various blogs, so nothing of
that sort will be included in this one.
The Beginning
Many who had been up the hill (including Yours Truly) would without second thoughts take
Bukit Kutu to be more of a mountain than a hill, basing on the terrains that apparently fulfil
the characteristics of a mountain rather than a hill. In fact, the Selangor Gazette in Straits
Times Weekly Issue (1893) labeled it as Gunong Kutu (new spelling being ‘gunung’) before
it adopted also the hill label (The Straits Times 1896) a few years later. Hence, it is not
incorrect for anyone to call the hill Gunung Kutu if they so wish—just quote the Selangor
Gazette! The official name, however, is Bukit Kutu.
Bukit Kutu is also known as Treacher's Hill when William Hood Treacher discovered the
place in 1893 (New Straits Times 2003). Sir WH Treacher, K.C.M.G. served as the British
Resident of Selangor from 1892 till 1896
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hood_Treacher>. The British Resident went for an
inspection tour of Kuala Kubu District from the 2nd February until the 8th evening; during
that period, his tour included Rawang, Serendah, Tanjong Malim, intervening villages and the
Menangkabau agricultural settlement at Ulu Yam, and also spent one night at Gunong Kutu
and had identified the latter as a possible site for a sanatorium (The Singapore Free Press and
Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942) 1893). The Selangor Gazette was quoted in Straits Times
Weekly Issue (1893) to have an official report on Gunong Kutu that lists the advantages of
this hill as a sanatorium which includes fair accessibility via the construction of a bridle road,
good spring nearby the peak, and the cool temperature.
There were a few instances where the hill was also once known as Bukit Sekutu by the
indigenous people. While the indigenous people vis-à-vis Bukit Kutu refers to the Temuan
tribe (Antares 2006) and which can be verified easily, this is not the case with Bukit Sekutu.
However, this is not intended to discount the possibility that the name does not exist—it may
well be located deep inside the crevices of archives somewhere.
Kuala Kubu
Bukit Kutu history is not complete without acknowledging the closest town with a past of its
own, so is worth a brief mention on two accounts: (1) The town is surrounded and bordered
by a few mountains included Bukit Kutu (Malaysian Townplan 2006) and (2) A strong
history that affected this town, before the time of Bukit Kutu and Sir WH Treacher.
So just where and how far is Bukit Kutu away from Kuala Kubu Baru (based on those days)?
New Straits Times (2003) quotes: “The hill located at the western offshoot of the main range
above the old Kuala Kubu town.” The main range mentioned therein refers to the
mountainous range called the Titiwangsa Range (or Banjaran Titiwangsa in Malay).
Distance-wise, the route from Kuala Kubu Rest House to Bukit Kutu peak where the two
bungalows were located took 8½ miles via the well graded path up the hill (The Singapore
Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942) (1923)).
Kuala Kubu was the town before the flood devastation that took place in 1883. The dam burst
on the evening of the 29th
October at Ulu Selangor brought with it a wave of water 10 feet
high and wiped out the village with resistless force and destroyed all but six houses and
drowned an unknown number. Mr. Cecil Ranking, the Magistrate and Collector with Kuala
Kubu, was among the drowned (The Straits Times 1883). The site of this old town after
redevelopment is now known as Ampang Pecah (Broken Dam in English; old spelling
Ampang Pechah) to commemorate the dam burst (Scrutineer 1933); and whereas a new
township Kuala Kubu Baru was built nearby, following the preparation of the new layout in
1924 (Department of Town and Planning: Peninsular Malaysia n.d.)
Sanatorium
With a number of outdoor adventure blogs that mentions “sanatorium”, at this juncture, there
is a need to clarify the term sanatorium. As Wikipedia sufficiently explains it, sanatorium can
be spelled as sanitorium or sanitarium, which implies they can be used interchangeably. The
discerned writer will want to distinguish among them, taking sanitarium to mean a kind of
health resort and sanatorium as a hospital <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanatorium>.
Sanatorium can also be taken to mean “place with an agreeable climate (e.g. hill-station in a
hot country) to which invalids and others can resort, i.e. a health-station” (Oxford Dictionary
of Architecture & Landscaping, cited in <http://www.answers.com/topic/sanatorium>). While
most of the archived documents used the term sanatorium, there were instances where
different spellings were used -- sanitorium (Stevenson 1990) and sanitarium (The Straits
Times 1896). In a nutshell, they bear subtle differences.
The first sanatorium was set up at Maxwell’s Hill (now Maxwell Hill or Bukit Larut) in 1889
(Kathirithamby-Wells 2005) although it is not the first Hill Station in the then Malaya. More
about hill stations at the next section. Whereas, the first hill station i.e. the oldest hill station
is Penang Hill in the Penang Island. A documented ascent on the hill was in 1805 (Aiken
1987). Originally, Penang Hill was never planned as a site for treating the ills but to serve as
a recuperative center or sanatorium (Aiken 1987). However, it never took off although the
Government Surveyor had recommended Penang Hill as a possible site for a Government
sanatorium (Central Coast Regional Development Corporation n.d.).
Hill Stations
When the hill stations were initially founded, they took the format of “last name hill” with the
apostrophe for example Treacher’s Hill. So the same style were applied to Fraser and
Maxwell with the latter having its “’s” dropped in the later years, and except for Cameron
Highlands which do not follow the same fashion. In the early records, the following names
were used: Cameron’s Highlands (The Straits Time 1924) for Cameron Highlands, and
Maxwell’s Hill (The Straits Times 1919) for Maxwell Hill. The “’s” after “Fraser” remains to
date. One can speculate that the evolution of names has somewhat to do with the convenience
of pronunciation.
What is a hill station, by the way? While Wikipedia gives some form of introduction on it,
the description provided by Aiken (1994) is by far more enriching. It quotes, “Hill stations
owed their origin, early development, and widespread distribution to colonialism. Sometimes
called "change-of-air stations" or "sanatoria," they were specialized highland outposts of
colonial settlement that initially served as health and recreation centers for civil servants,