Walhalla
The friends we went to visit over the weekend live in the south eastern part of the state, about 3 hours away from us. There's a little gold mining town on the way there, that we visited. It's called Walhalla. It's literally in the middle of nowhere on a road that goes nowhere else (to leave, you have to turn around and go back the way you came in). It's very old, very quaint and damn cold! Surprisingly, it didn't feel all that cold while we were driving there, even though we had the top down on the car. It was just on 11C (about 51.8F). Of course, once we got out of the car, we realised our hands and faces were pretty chilly.
Walhalla only recently got electricity. In 1998. Hard to believe really, but in a way, it's good, because the whole town still has that old world gold mining town feel about it. There were little signs outside most of the buildings about the history of each. It amused us that most of them said something along the lines of, "original building burnt down in 18...". We were like, man this was not a safe place to be living. Pretty, but not safe. Then we finally saw a sign that explained that there had been a big fire that had swept through the town (and got all the buildings that hadn't already caught fire individually at some stage). Nice to know it wasn't just an arsonist who had a lifelong hobby.
This is a photo of the Millhouse, which now, apparently, is a b&b. Talk about rustic!
About the funniest thing we saw was a place where an old hotel used to be, that had a sign out the front saying that a cow had managed to walk through the door on the third floor (yeah, work that out), and had to be led down through the second and first levels and out the front door to make it leave. We think they really led it down to the kitchen, but we'll never know for sure.
We only spent an hour or so in Walhalla, but if we'd have had more time, we would have done some of the more touristy things, like a gold mine tour, and had a better look in some of the old buildings. Next time, we'll take more time. I'd never heard of this little town before, but I think it's well worth the effort for anyone who's travelling through the Gippsland region to have a look.
Walhalla only recently got electricity. In 1998. Hard to believe really, but in a way, it's good, because the whole town still has that old world gold mining town feel about it. There were little signs outside most of the buildings about the history of each. It amused us that most of them said something along the lines of, "original building burnt down in 18...". We were like, man this was not a safe place to be living. Pretty, but not safe. Then we finally saw a sign that explained that there had been a big fire that had swept through the town (and got all the buildings that hadn't already caught fire individually at some stage). Nice to know it wasn't just an arsonist who had a lifelong hobby.
This is a photo of the Millhouse, which now, apparently, is a b&b. Talk about rustic!
About the funniest thing we saw was a place where an old hotel used to be, that had a sign out the front saying that a cow had managed to walk through the door on the third floor (yeah, work that out), and had to be led down through the second and first levels and out the front door to make it leave. We think they really led it down to the kitchen, but we'll never know for sure.
We only spent an hour or so in Walhalla, but if we'd have had more time, we would have done some of the more touristy things, like a gold mine tour, and had a better look in some of the old buildings. Next time, we'll take more time. I'd never heard of this little town before, but I think it's well worth the effort for anyone who's travelling through the Gippsland region to have a look.
posted by E in Oz at 9:52 pm
these thoughts escaped my brain at 9:52 pm
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