Walhalla

There is so much information and imagery about Walhalla it is difficult to work out where to start. Around the hills are scattered memories of mine entrances, chimney foundations made from slate where small houses used to be, boiler and battery foundations near dry creek beds and of course, the visible signs of long gone tramways built to serve the mines of Walhalla. With a notebook and pen in hand whenever I came across some information, see video footage, go on a tour, or buy an interesting book, I can't help myself but to take notes of everything to do with vehicles travelling on rails, whether it be a mine skip, or a locomotive. Credit for the notes I have taken will be mentioned at the bottom of this page and recommendations for some books I have purchased of the Walhalla area will also be mentioned.

Walhalla was originally called Stringer's Creek, named after a man by the name of Edward Stringer and his three companions William Griffiths, William McGregor and William Thompson. These men were unfortunate with their gold digging in previous places around the Walhalla hills and stumbled across the gold reef in Walhalla named Cohen's Reef. This reef proved to be one of the biggest gold deposits found in Australia. Stringers Creek still flows through Walhalla and can be viewed on the Walhalla Goldfields Railway. It would have been an awesome sight to see the structures built along Stringer's Creek such as waterwheels and boilers firing away to provide life in the mines.

As usual with gold mining localities a decent sized town would soon be built within a couple of years. Walhalla had begun its soon to be booming reputation when Ed Stringer and his men discovered the reef in 1862. In 1863 the Long Tunnel Mine was opened and was soon to become one of the major mines in Walhalla. The Long Tunnel Mine operated from 1863 to 1913 and in that time approximately 815,500 ounces of gold were removed from about 730,000 tons of rock. About 40 miles of tramway were built around the mines most likely to dispose of the waste rock and to supply the hungry boilers with wood. The Long Tunnel Extended Gold Mining Company was formed around 1871 and closed 1911 but still managed to produce about 440,000 ounces of gold.

So in 1862 Walhalla, or Stringer's Creek as it was called, started to mine gold but when news got out of the discovery, by 1886 Walhalla had grown into a town providing a Telegraph and post office, a bank, school, mechanics institute, masonic lodge, Hotels, churches, stores, a bakery and a butcher. All this bringing in a population of about 1800 people. Sadly when it was at its peak at the beginning of the 1880's, by the end of that decade the town slowly became deserted. 1888 saw a fire that severely damaged the town and 1891 saw a great flood. The railway from Moe to Walhalla was finally completed in 1910 but this was already too late due to discussion almost 30 years prior to its completion about the requirement of a railway to Walhalla. This did boost the attitude of the town however but unfortunately it became the way to take people out of Walhalla as the mines closed. The mines were the employment backbone of Walhalla and once closed affected every business in town forcing them to follow the line of employment elsewhere. The railway closed in 1942, more fires tore through the town finishing off what was left leaving a handful of people left as a population.

Walhalla Goldfields Railway