Walhalla

Walhalla was built along Stringers Creek in a valley so narrow that buildings had to be stacked up the slopes and the cricket ground was cut into a hilltop. The Long Tunnel Extended Mine here was among the richest quartz reefs in the world, and the town held several thousand people in the 1880s, with hotels, breweries and a brass band still remembered. When the reef gave out the town emptied to about twenty permanent residents. Restored buildings, the mine open for guided tours, the cemetery climbing the hillside and the Walhalla Goldfields Railway running over a trestle bridge from Thomson station make it one of Victoria's more atmospheric survivals. Mains electricity only arrived in 1998.

History

By 1859 prospectors had pushed far east of Melbourne into the Great Dividing Range, and in late December 1862 a party of four found gold in a creek running into the Thomson River valley; one of them, the former convict Edward Stringer, registered the claim at Bald Hills, now Seaton, about 12 January 1863, but died that September. A rush followed and the settlement of Stringer's Creek grew up, later renamed after its largest mine, Walhalla, and mining moved underground by late 1863; Cohens Reef, the largest single reef in Victoria, had yielded about 55 tonnes of gold by 1900, and the Long Tunnel mine alone produced over 30 tons between 1865 and 1914 (Wikipedia, Walhalla, Victoria).

What's there

• The valley streetscape - restored buildings stacked along a narrow creek.
• The Long Tunnel mine - guided tours into the quartz workings.
• The hillside cemetery - graves terraced up the steep slope.
• The goldfields railway - trains over the trestle bridge to Thomson.

When to go

October to May; the valley is cold and damp in winter and gets little direct sun at any time because of its depth. The railway runs on limited days, mostly weekends and holidays. Christmas and Easter fill the town completely.

Practical notes

The access road is winding and slow. Parking in the valley is very limited. The railway and mine run on restricted timetables, so checking before travelling matters. Accommodation is minimal and books out well ahead.

Nearby

Thomson station is at the railway's end; Traralgon and the Latrobe Valley lie southwest.

Key facts