Alice Manfield

Alice Manfield
Guide Alice, Mount Buffalo, c. 1900–30
Born	1878 Nailsea Farm, Buckland Valley, Victoria
Died	14 July 1960(1960-07-14) (aged 82)
Nationality	Australian
Other names	Guide Alice
Occupation	Mountain guide, naturalist
Years active	1890s–1930s
Known for	Mountain guide at Mount Buffalo
Spouse(s)	John Edmund Manfield
Children	Genevieve Baumgarten
Parent(s)	James and Jane Manfield

Alice Manfield (1878 – 14 July 1960) commonly known as Guide Alice, was a mountain guide, amateur naturalist, chalet owner, photographer, and early feminist figure from Victoria, Australia. Her pioneering work at Mount Buffalo from the 1890s to the 1930s led to her becoming a tourist attraction in her own right, and helped lead to the establishment of the Mount Buffalo National Park.

Alice was born on the Manfield property, Nailsea Farm, in the Buckland Valley southeast of Mount Buffalo, in 1878, one of eight children born to James Manfield and his wife Jane. James had arrived in Victoria from Britain with his brother John in 1854, joining the population boom during the Victorian gold rush. They made their way to the goldfields in the Buckland Valley, and later purchased a property there with the proceeds of their gold mining. Still chasing gold, they travelled to New Zealand and New South Wales, but within ten years had returned to the Buckland Valley to concentrate on working their farm.

Despite being over 200 miles (320 km) from Melbourne, Mount Buffalo was recognised for its special geology and botany by the likes of the noted Government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, and started to attract a small flow of tourists. The extension of the railway to Myrtleford in 1883, then on to Bright in 1890, meant that in less than eight hours travellers from the capital could be within reach of Mt Buffalo. Locals began to see the tourism opportunities. In 1888 a tender was issued to build a hotel at the start of a new track up the mountain, and Alice's father James Manfield won.