Wild about Walhalla

Hello again, hope you all had a Happy Easter and made the most of the few days relaxing with family & friends. Hope you also enjoyed the Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs.

We decided that the 4 day break just begged to be turned into another adventure and what a great opportunity to go and explore new horizons. A quick search on the net and we had found just the place.

The historic town of Walhalla is about 2 hours east of Melbourne, right in the middle of Baw Baw country. It is a tiny town now, though during the 1860's was the thriving hub of the Gold Rush in this area with smaller settlements like Happy Go Lucky, Maiden Town & Mormon Town springing up around it. In 50 years from 1863, Cohen's Reef produced about 1,500,000 ounces of gold, (over 13 tonnes) making it one of the richest in Victoria. The mine is now open for tours and it really does give you an insight into how the miners lived and worked all those years ago. Not a lifestyle I would like to live. If you are lucky you can still 'strike it rich' with gold panning in Stringer's Creek a popular pastime for visitors. When the gold ran out in 1914 Walhalla quickly became deserted as most of the houses & buildings were pulled down and relocated to other towns on the newly open railway. Other's were simply abandoned. Most of what was left was destroyed by fire over the following years or slowly reclaimed by the bush turning it into a real ghost town. Here's an interesting fact. Most of the gold mining equipment was sent to Kalgoorlie to be used for their newly developing mining industry.

Walhalla came back from the dead during the 90's following a renewed interest in Australia's heritage. Most of the shops & houses have been rebuilt more than once as fire has passed through the area over the years. With great attention to detail the town looks just like it would have done in the 1800's with the main street home to the general store, museum, post office, fire station, band rotunda and of course the mainstay of every country town, the Pub. The 'Wally Pub' was the hub of activity each night and is the only thing in town open after 5pm. And the meals - worth the visit - you must try the 'Wally' burger.

With the town nestled in a narrow mountain gorge this meant that the early settlers had to think vertically and this makes it an interesting place to visit. Walhalla's cemetery clings to the side of the hill at a 45 degree angle and sure begs the question how did they manage to dig the graves out of the sheer rock face. As we took a closer look on Monday morning I did see the advantage that mountain goats have over us. The slopes are dotted with little cottges, built on narrow ledges cut into the steep hillside. The roads leading up to some of these are an engineering feat in themselves, bearing in mind that back in those days there was no mechanical help. One of the highest dwellings is that of the old hospital. We can only imagine the time it took to get anybody who was sick up to the hospital.

Another highlight was the Walhalla Goldfields Railway. This is a narrow gauge train that winds it way down Stringer's Creek Gorge from Walhalla to the Thomsons River. Both stations have been restored and it is a great trip along the mountain railway. Once again just the fact they were able to build the railway here is amazing. We did the trip on Saturday morning and were certainly in awe of the early engineers. With almost no spare seats left over 4 carriages, you get some idea of how popular this little train is.

Sunday saw us wander further afield with a trip to Mt Erica, where we parked the car and walked in to see Mushroom Rocks. About 2 kms from the summit we found the huge granite tors. These sit on top of each other looking just like the fungi they are named after. A beautiful walk in through the forest with Mountain Ash, Silver Wattle and lots of ferns. Lots of birds could be heard but proved a real challenge for Bill to catch them on camera. From there we went on to Mt St Gwinear where we stretched the legs again but no highlights there. Next time we will head to the lookout. A look at Thomson Dam, where Melbourne's water is sourced was a bit concerning. It is very low, thought better than this time last year. Coffee at Rawson and a look at the little town of Erica was enough wandering for the day and we went back to Manns Cottage for a quick rest before heading back to 'The Wally' for dinner.

The cricket ground is a 'must see'. With flat ground being hard to find the only solution was to go up. This was achieved by slicing the top of a nearby mountain, put in a 1 km zig zag track and there you have it. A sports field where you could hit the roofs of the buildings below if you hit too hard. After walking up on Monday morning, I'm not sure how anyone had the energy to even think about playing sport once they got there. We sure got our exercise that day.

With only 12 fulltime residents Walhalla does seem like time has stood still. While it was the first town in Victoria to have street lighting, because of the gold, it was the last town to get electricity - and the Yallourn power station is not too far away. There is no mobile phone coverage and no TV reception either so it really is a break from the ratrace. In a nutshell we had a wonderful few days stepping back in time and with all the fresh air and exercise we didn't even manage to watch the DVD's we had taken with us.

Another short week, got to love that - until next time...........