Loading “Up here, away from the city lights, the Milky Way is so bright it can cast a shadow,” says Perry Vlahos, the observatory’s inaugural president and president of the Astronomical Society of Victoria. “If you run one hand over the other, you can see the shadow it casts.” Inside the larger dome, a huge 18-inch reflective telescope points at the heavens. The telescope is old, but the basic design of telescopes has changed little since Isaac Newton's days, and looking through it on a clear day, says Mr Vlahos, you can make out Saturn’s rings.

But it could have been so different. The observatory and telescope were nearly lost forever. The observatory was built by Monash University in the early '70s – a time of “a big hair, big flares, big ideas – and big money to spend,” says Mr Vlahos. Its elevated, remote location and distance from the city lights made it the perfect spot to observe the night sky. Perry Vlahos with the 18-inch optical telescope. Credit:Simon Schluter A large telescope was installed, and a wooden cabin was built on the site as primitive accommodation. The hut still stands, making a comfy place on a cold night to drink cocoa and wait for the clouds to clear. In its heyday, the telescope made important observations of the evolution of several stars in the southern sky. But Mount Burnett did not stay dark and isolated for long. Melbourne grew fast, the city’s boundaries hungrily chewing up farmland and leaving behind new estates.

Soon, light pollution started to infringe on the telescope, and newer, higher observatories were established around the country. Mount Burnett fell into disuse. Mountain Burnett Observatory, pictured in a Monash University archival shot. By 2010, with nobody having used it for years, Monash decided they did not need the site any more. The huge telescope looked destined to end up in a wrecker’s yard. Enter Mr Vlahos and a small group of members from the Astronomical Society of Victoria. “I had no doubts whatsoever it had to be saved," says Mr Vlahos.

"There are not enough observatories of this nature around Victoria. There was no letting go of this thing.” After much negotiation, they managed to convince the University to hand over the observatory, on condition they take over the lease on the land. Mt Burnett at night. Credit:Perry Vlahos After shaking hands on the deal, the team could finally could take the padlocks off the doors and see what was left. After being unused for years, the observatory wasn’t in good nick. The paint was flaking off the dome and spiderwebs covered everything. “It needed pretty much everything,” says Mr Vlahos.