The history of The History of Walhalla

It’s December 1862 and the gold fields of Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine have already made their fortunes, prompting exploration further afield. A group of prospectors, including former convict Ned Stringer find signs of gold at the fork of the creek that flowed into the Thomson River.

Stringer registered the claim in his name - but his fortune was short-lived, dying of tuberculosis later that year. The creek became known as Stringers Creek in his memory.

Despite the town’s remote location deep in a valley, covered by thick Australian bush, word of the goldfield spread attracting a new wave of prospectors. One of these new recruits was John Hinchcliffe who discovered a quartz reef in the hill just above the creek, which he named Cohen's Reef. The reef was the single largest ever found in Victoria and over the next forty years, it had yielded more than 55 tonnes of gold, worth over $2.5 billion USD in today’s currency.

After the surface deposits of gold were quickly foraged, prospectors turned to following veins underground. The expensive and laborious job of tunnelling into the valley’s hills attracted mining companies, including the Long Tunnel Mining Company, who owned the richest mine, the Long Tunnel, which extracted more than half of Cohen Reef’s total gold.

Image (left): Courtesy of Walhalla Museum Collection

The fast prosperity of town attracted traders and publicans and the town was quickly built up. While the early wave of settlers were miners in search of their fortune, by 1866 the town had been laid out by a surveyor, and by the late 1890s claimed a court, post office, bank, police barracks, school, church, Mechanics Institute and a dozen hotels.

During the 1870s, cultural life of the town was embedded with the establishment of the local rag, the Walhalla Chronicle, debating, acting and singing groups, and regular coach transport from the Latrobe Valley. Sporting groups made use of the Cricket Ground which was the result of the top of a hill sliced off (by hand, no less) since no other flat ground was available in the steep valley. That’s an interesting 6!

Walhalla earned bragging rights by being one of the world's first towns to have electricity and a phone line which were installed in the Long Mine, and even a couple of street lights by 1884. However the electricity was never extended into the town centre. (In fact, it was Australia’s last mainland town to be connected to electricity in 1998.)

Like so many gold rush towns of that era, Walhalla attracted a broad cultural base, including an industrious Chinese community many of whom operated large vegetable gardens that fed the town. The Italian immigrants made significant contributions to the town with many involved in wood-cutting, farming and working in the mines.

The vibrant, prosperous town had attracted 5,000 residents in Walhalla and its surrounds around the turn of the 20th century.

Image (left): Courtesy of Walhalla Museum Collection

As the industry began to dry up, many people left the town. The train line into Walhalla from Moe was completed in 1910 with hope that this would breathe new life into the town. However it was too little too late, with most of the (easily accessible) gold already extracted.

Gold mining was becoming unprofitable and the last of the major mines shut up shop in 1914. The train’s major use ironically ended up being the transportation of Walhalla’s houses and buildings into Melbourne and other parts of Gippsland.

The town’s major industry became timber, with a sawmill operating on the old Long Tunnel Mine yards. Farming in the surrounding towns also supported the town’s economy.

Today Walhalla is a much-loved tourist town, thanks to lovingly preserved and restored buildings, its charming heritage and breath-taking surrounds.

Immerse yourself in Walhalla's history next time you visit.

• Self Guided Town Walk: Starting from the town centre you can follow the trail around 30 landmarks each with signage telling the stories and showing pictures of Walhalla in days gone by.
• Old Mountain Brass Band Rotunda: The focal point of the charming town, the rotunda was built in 1896 as a result of the design competition, honouring one of the most popular bands of the time, the Mountain Brass Band.
• Walhalla Cemetery: More than 1,000 graves are testament to the hardship of the past, with many headstones telling their stories. On such a steep cliff face, the cemetery is one of Victoria’s most unusual.
• Walhalla Post Office: Oozing with late 1800s charm, the beautifully restored building today is run as a museum. Entering the building is like a worm hole into a 19th century gold rush era. The museum is run by volunteers who hold thousands of secrets of the town's history.
• Walhalla Goldfields Railway: The train runs today as a tourist railway, and offers a unique glimpse into the past, notably the unforgiving terrain that required significant engineering feats such as extended bridge sections crossing Stringers Creek.
• Long Tunnel Extended Mine: Venture deep into the hillside on an underground tour to see the mines and a glimpse of Cohen’s Reef.
• Cricket Ground: Take the 1km zig zag track from the town centre to the top of the hill. The hilltop was cleared and levelled by hand in a bid for flat land. The arduous hike to the lofty pitch was said to have been taken the day before important matches, to give a home team advantage of plenty of recovery time.
• Bank Vault: The remains of the bank vault can still be seen in the main street. The 800kg doors kept 72 tonnes of gold safe.
• Chinese Garden Camping Area: The campground of today was the site of the prosperous vegetable gardens raised by Chinese immigrants during the late 1800s.