Wondering Walhalla

I am a big proponent of exploring 'my own backyard' (which I consider to be anywhere within Victoria) but don't do it as often as I should (you know life and laziness being a big factor in not doing it!!!) so when my friend Annette asked "do you want to come for a drive to Walhalla?" I answered happily "yes!!!" After all it was Good Friday and I had nothing else planned (well maybe a little internet surfing, housework and watching some Korean drama but nothing that I couldn't move to another day!!!)

We left around 10.15am and the two hour journey took us closer to three because we were dealing with Easter holiday traffic and other people like us enjoying the wonderful weather and a day off to enjoy the countryside.

We bypassed Moe and headed into the mountains towards Walhalla which is is a small town in the Stringers Creek Valley which is part of the Great Dividing Range.

Walhalla an on old gold mining town in 1862 and at it's peak housed 4,000 inhabitants whereas now there are only about 20 permanent residents with the rest being holiday houses and tourists who flock to the area because it is so spectacularly pretty. There are still traces of the old town with the old mines, railway and buildings for people to wander around. The tourist is well catered for with lots of camping areas, holiday houses to rent and rooms at the hotel. There are gold mining tours, ghost tours and 4-wheel drive for those who have the time and the money to do them. There are trails to explore and lots of historic sites but we were only there for a couple of hours to enjoy what Walhalla had to offer so we didn't get through it all.

First stop of the day was the Walhalla Goldfields Railway which was built in the early 1900s and completed in 1910. However a year after the train was completed the first of Walhalla's big goldmines closed down and the many thousands of people who would have benefited from the train had started to move away. By 1954 only one train was operating a week and the decision was made to close it down, and the tracks removed in 1956. In 1993 restoration started on the line and the railway was reopened for tourism and the forty minute return trip from Walhalla to the Thompson River Station.

It is a very picturesque train journey and as you wind your way through the gulley it makes you think how hard life must have been for the gold miners in the day and not all of them benefited from the gold rush.

After our train journey we headed into the township which is a living museum, you can walk the length of the main street which is dotted with

historical sites, from the museum to the cemetery, the Mason's lodge and the firehouse, the pubs and the bricks surrounding the old bank vault.

Annette and I ordered lunch and while we were waiting for it to be cooked I took a walk to the rotunda and up the stairs to the old lodge and there were some more great views from up there.

We ate a great Good Friday lunch of fish and chips

before visiting one of the museums (which is very small, incorporating one small shop front). There is a second museum dedicated to the history of the fire station and the fires that have happened in the area, including some great photographs and old equipment that was used at the time.

The Walhalla Museum may be small but it gave you a good insight into what the town would have looked like in it's hey day and it houses exhibits from the Walhalla Brass Band, old Chinese artefacts that were found in the area and a variety of other things. The photos depicting life in Walhalla at the time are amazing and show how little and how much the town has changed since the gold mining era.

I walked to the other end of town, walking past many campers who ulitize the many free camping spots in the town and the entrance to the cemetery.

I had thought of taking a look around the cemetery but the stairs up to it were a bit daunting as my knee had decided that it wasn't going to work as well as it has been for the rest of the day. The town is incredibly pretty and I wonder why I haven't visited it before and plan on making another trip here to go up to the cemetery and down into the goldmine (which we were too late to do a tour of as they had closed the mine to tours for the day,) There is a four-wheel drive tour of the area which is also highly recommended so that is another good reason to come back.

The one thing about Walhalla is that because it is set in a valley once the sun starts going down it starts getting pretty chilly and we decided that it was time to make our way home. It was a wonderful day and I am glad that we decided to venture out to a spot that I have not visited before.

#vIctOriA #mYowNbaCkyArd #aUstRaLia #wAlhAllA #fOod