Walhalla (Victoria)
Walhalla is a small town in the Australian state of Victoria, which was founded as a gold mining town beginning in 1863 and in its heyday had 2500 inhabitants. Today Walhalla has less than 10 permanent residents, with the majority of the houses are used as holiday homes. It attracts a large number of tourists and is considered a landmark in the region. The name of the town goes back to an earlier gold mine in the area, which was named after the Hall of Fame Walhalla in Bavaria Donaustauf.
Geography
Walhalla is located in south-eastern Australia in the Gippsland region in eastern Victoria, about 180 km east of the capital Melbourne. The area is part of the Great Dividing Range and is adjacent to the Baw Baw National Park. The city is located in the steep valley of Stringer 's Creek, about 4 km above its confluence with the Thomson River.
Due to the location in a narrow valley most of the buildings along the main street are arranged, which follows the creek on its way through the valley and splits into two branches at the northern end of town. End of the 19th century, the city also had some of the suburbs that lay on the hills above the valley.
History
Gold discoveries
The history of Walhalla is closely connected with the history of the discovery of gold in Victoria. The first gold was found in 1851 in Warrandyte, which led to the gold rush in Victoria. Until 1859, the prospectors had prepared the far east of Melbourne into the trackless wilderness of the Great Dividing Range. Larger gold discoveries at the Jordan River encouraged other prospectors, the nearby Thomson River in search of the precious metal to follow
A group of prospectors who explored the tributaries of the Thomson River, late December 1862 or early January 1863 find. A claim was staked and a member of the group, former inmate Edward Randel made this claim in the settlement on the Bald Hills on January 12, 1863 his adopted name of Edward ' Ned ' Stringer Register. Although he received a reward of £ 100 for his find, he could no longer enjoy his luck, as he died in September 1863. The settlement was renamed soon after a former gold mine in " Walhalla ", but the creek was still the name of the stringer.
The gold rush of the message followed by the inevitable discovery of gold was dampened by the remoteness and inaccessibility of the field a bit, but many prospectors found a course to get there. In February 1863 John Hinchcliffe discovered enormously rich gold deposits in a quartz lock on the hills above the river, which he named Cohen 's Reef after a shopkeeper in the Bald Hills.
Mining
Gold panning and similar techniques quickly exhausted all the gold reserves at the surface. Late 1863 began the investment of gold mines, as the prospectors for gold veins examined in the underground and followed them. In Walhalla tunnel was dug into the steep walls of the valley and teufte also slots in the more traditional way downwards.
By far the most gold mining in Walhalla focused on the Cohen 's Reef, the largest single gold mine in Victoria. By 1900 this vein had been 55 tons. Delivered gold, that is, approximately 1.8 million ounces, which would have been worth according to the state, 2005, approximately U.S. $ 790 million.
Due to the enormous costs of gold mining had smaller claims, which were operated by individuals or small groups, and were soon close by large companies, such as the Long Tunnel Mining Company replaced. This company was one of the richest mine on the Cohen 's Reef, the Long Tunnel Mine, which in its operating time from 1865 to 1914 alone to 13.7. Gold provided.
The crushing and washing facilities, which separated the gold from the surrounding quartz rock, and require large amounts of energy that came from mostly wood-fired steam engines. The demand for firewood saw to it that the hills were cleared in a considerable radius around the city. Wooden railways brought the freshly cut wood to boilers. The rising cost of getting further transportation of fire wood were a key factor for the economic problems that eventually the mining industry in Walhalla put an end to.
Valhalla boom period (1863-1900)
End of 1863 there were more gold discoveries at Happy -Go-Lucky, 3 km from Stringer 's Creek, and at Cooper's Creek, where copper was found in an even greater amount later. In March 1864 Walhalla received a daily mail route to Toongabbie and the first post office was opened on August 22, 1864 ( until 1868 under the name of Stringer 's Creek ). Happy-Go- Lucky owned 1865-1916 own post office, as well as Cooper 's Creek from 1868 to 1893.
The first hotel, Reefer 's Arms, was opened in September 1863. Within a short time there were a dozen hotels, breweries and mineral water factory. A branch of the Bank of Victoria opened in September 1865 and a branch of the Bank of Australasia in February 1866. Businessmen built the city on quickly to participate in the gold rush.
In May 1866, the settlement Stringer 's Creek was added and renamed after one of the richest mines of the time in Walhalla. Most of the first urban land were sold to people who already owned a house in the city. In the same year a church of the Wesleyan was built, set up a police station and a Petty.
For the growing number of families a Mechanics' Institute ( adult education and school) in 1867 set up with library. Soon had Walhalla journeymen brotherhoods, a debating society, and finally a chess club, a choir and a theater group. As of January 1870, the Walhalla Chronicle, the local newspaper, published in December of the same year was 8 hectares of land for the State School No. 957 reserves, which had started operation in 1868.
A self-appointed Council of Ten applied in 1869 to register as a constituency, but broke up due to lack of public support in the evaluation of urban properties back on before it could cause much more than the construction of a stone protection wall can still be seen today in the town center. End of 1872, a separate constituency was finally built in 1878 and agreement was reached with the state government for the construction of a first portion of today's main road to Moe. From the end of 1879 had a daily Walhalla coach connection to the railway line in the south Moe and Traralgon in the east, so that the connections to the outside world have been significantly improved.
The Long Tunnel Company introduced in 1884 and 1891 Elektriztität the phone in the mining industry a. Walhalla was 1884, the first city in the world that had two electric street lights, but this installation was never expanded. However, the congregation grew; Houses and gardens built along the valley slopes; Finally, the city had more than 2,000 inhabitants and in the surrounding suburbs Maiden Town, Mormon Town and Happy-Go- Lucky lived more. There were cricket and football clubs, a cricket field was applied on a hill whose top was leveled, otherwise not a flat piece of land was available.
Poverty Point
The Italian settlers played a major role in the development of Walhalla and worked example as mine manager, forest workers, farmers, miners, miners, merchants, and Maurer. The first Italian settlers arrived in 1873 and Pietro Bombardieri opened a timber station at the foot of Little Joe Hill. The Italians soon proved to be hard working and industrious countrymen, particularly through their skills in agriculture, and in 1882 they were also represented in the business life of the city, as Anthony Simonin opened the Alpine Hotel. Her two settlements, one along the Long Tunnel wooden track to the north, the other on the south end of town, prospered to 1910.
The forest workers lived in wooden huts near their jobs and it seems that they seldom came to town. Around the turn of the century, these families populated country in a remote location far from the city along the Thomson River in the north- west, then, ' Poverty Point '' (German place of poverty) was called.
End of mining and time as a ghost town (1910-1980)
After many years of lobbying the Victorian Government finally declared ready to build a narrow-gauge railway line to Walhalla. The route, the last of four narrow gauge railways with 762 mm track width of the Victorian Railways, was completed in 1910. Small 1'C1' tank locomotives were implemented between the four lines. The six still existing locomotives include the Puffing Billy Railway in the Dandenong - five of which have been restored and are still in use today. The Walhalla line branched off from the Gippslandlinie in Moe, led by peasant country to the small town Erica, then continue through the mountains and over a steel and concrete bridge over the Thomson River, then winding through a blasted from the rock route up the steep valley of Stringer 's Creek up, to break stone foundations and six wooden truss bridges on the last few hundred meters to the city.
It was hoped that the railroad would breathe new life into the city, but the gold mining was already largely become unprofitable and recent major mines closed in 1914. Accordingly, since the most important industry was gone out of town, and most people Walhalla soon left. In 1918 the Shire of Walhalla was merged with the adjacent Shire of Narracan.
One of the main tasks of the railroad was the removal of old buildings from the city; the original station was 1938 Hartwell, a suburb of Melbourne, implemented. In 1944, the section from Platina to Valhalla was abandoned. The small community of Cooper's Creek, where copper ore and limestone was mined Platina used until 1952 as a station, then the stretch of Erica by Platina was abandoned. By 1954, between Erica and Moe still wood and agricultural products were transported, but also abandoned after further decline in shipments of this road section. In 1958, the entire railway line was dismantled.
Until the growth of tourism in the 1970s and 1980s, Walhalla was for most of the 20th century ghost town. A number of large public buildings, such as the Mechanics ' Institute and the Star Hotel, were destroyed in fires in 1944 and 1951 and a number of buildings were demolished and not rebuilt. The school closed its doors in 1965 and more fires, floods and neglect left the city fall slowly.
Walhalla today
Since 1980, Walhalla has a kind of renaissance in the booming tourism with the restoration and reconstruction of several historic buildings, such as the Star Hotel, the Mechanics' Institute and the narrow gauge railroad between Walhalla and the Thomson River, experienced.
After the merger of the Local Government Areas 1994, the areas of Walhalla and Erica / Rawson from Baw Baw Shire situated 80 km west Warragul be managed. Despite the proximity and strong historical ties to the Latrobe Valley, the National Liberal government Kennett has Walhalla then integrated into the LGA Baw Baw.
1991 did together a group of interested to check the reconstruction of the railway line to Walhalla as a tourist attraction, what you had previously unsuccessfully tried at least once. Work on the neugründeten Walhalla Goldfields Railway began in 1993 at the former train station Thomson near the Thomson River, just before the bridge. After the reconstruction of the bridge over the river brought the tourist trains the valley of Stringer 's Creek up to a makeshift station at Happy Creek. The wooden bridges over the Stringer 's Creek just before Walhalla had yet to be rebuilt.
From 1996 to 2002, the tourist trains ran on this route, then you opened the section back to the old train station in Walhalla. The current station building is an exact copy of the old original, but the yard is quite a different design, because a part of the former station site was previously occupied by a diversion of the main road to Valhalla.
In December 1998, Walhalla was connected as the last mainland town in Australia back to the power grid. However, some municipalities in Victoria until today still lack access to electricity, for example, Licola nearby.
There were some serious attempts to resume the gold mining area of Walhalla again; Walhalla Resources and Gold Star Resources, have invested in 1980s, and from 2002 substantial sums. Both companies were hoping to get to gold -bearing rock, its degradation had not profitable at the time of the gold rush with modern mining methods. 2008 Gold Star Resources was with obtaining a mining license already far advanced, but in 2009 they had to because of undercapitalization due to the world financial crisis bankruptcy. The company bought back then as Orion Gold NL under new management and has now taken a less aggressive course when trying to re- commencement of gold mining in and around Walhalla.
Walhalla was hit in the years 2005, 2006 and 2009 by another major fire, but the city has suffered no significant damage.
Attractions
In addition to historical buildings, the city also has many mines and tunnels and the mountainous terrain is popular with walkers and climbers. Walhalla is the starting point of the 650 km Australian Alps Walking Track, which leads to the vicinity of Canberra. Walhalla also offers many campsites, but the camping is only 50 meters from Stringer 's Creek allowed because the water is unsuitable for drinking.
The new station is the old exactly from the outside and was created according to old plans of the Victorian Railways, but the interior is designed differently than before. He is also on the other side of the railway station premises, because the road was widened to Valhalla after the closure of the railway line.
The fire station of Walhalla was built over the Stringer 's Creek and now serves as a museum. Beginning of the 1960s the building was created from scratch after many years of decline.
The band rotunda was built in 1896 at the confluence of the left and right source flow of Stringer 's Creek, at the instigation of the Mountaineer Brass Band, which organized an architectural competition for this. Two hotels were compared directly, the Star Hotel on the north side of the creek mouth and the Grand Junction Hotel on the south side. The old star hotel was established in 1952 destroyed in a bush fire, but rebuilt by rehabilitating the old façade in 1999.
The Windsor House was built in 1878-1888 by the German Johannes Gloz from about 90,000 handmade bricks and is the only brick house in the city. Gloz plant a vineyard on the hillside above the house and kelterte 1880 about 900 bottles of Riesling. The building now serves as a Bed & Breakfast.
On a hill just northeast of the confluence of the two arms of Stringer 's Creek is the cricket ground of Walhalla. It is accessible from the bottom of the valley on foot in about 45 minutes.
Long Tunnel Extended Mine
The Long Tunnel Extended Mine ( LTEM ) was one of the richest gold mines of Valhalla. It is located in the richest vein of gold Cohen 's Reef. Work on the LTEM were started in 1863 by the Hercules Gold Co.. After eight years, the company was bankrupt, because they had found no gold. 1871, the mine was taken over by the Long Tunnel Extended Company. They dug in the other direction and found a rewarding part of the vein. This mine was soon to become the second richest in the whole area (after the Long Tunnel Mine) and delivered a total of 13,695 kg of gold, until it was closed in 1911. In the whole of Victoria was the Long Tunnel Extended Mine is the fifth largest gold mine in the colonial period.
Today it is operated by the Walhalla Board of Management, Inc. on behalf of the people of Victoria as a tourist attraction. Tours are offered daily. The shafts and tunnels of the mine is 8.5 km long and run from the machine chamber, which itself is 150 m below the surface, even 923 m in depth. During the tour, visitors are guided through 300 m in the underground machine chamber, which was hewn out of solid rock over a century ago. Old mining methods are explained and you can see a large part of the famous Cohen 's Reef.
Well-known residents
William ' Barlow ' Carkeek, Australian cricket player, was born on October 17, 1878 in Walhalla.