Back in time for historic meeting
Walhalla hosted its first official shire council meeting in 100 years last week.
The last meeting a century ago marked the end of the Walhalla Shire and its inclusion in Narracan Shire.
The former shire became the Walhalla Riding in the enlarged Narracan Shire where it remained until the amalgamation of Narracan, Warragul and Buln Buln shires in 1994 to form Baw Baw Shire.
The historic town, now the far north-east outpost of the 4000 square kilometre Baw Baw Shire, had the welcome mat out last week for today’s council to have a regular council meeting in the Mechanics Institute hall.
The demise of Walhalla Shire and the end of the district’s gold rush went hand in hand.
When the miners and their families and associated businesses that accounted a population of 2900 at its peak had almost all left by 1914 the shire’s revenues dropped below the minimum required to continue.
There were plenty of history lessons for the councillors and staff last week, firstly at a reception and then a quick guided tour of the town highlighting some of the historic buildings and stories from its heyday as a gold mining town.
Local hotel owner and Baw Baw councillor Michael Leaney, author Greg Hansford who earlier this year published a book about the Walhalla area “In Days of Gold” and tour guide Brian Brewer, vicepresident of the Walhalla Heritage and Advancement League, passed on plenty of facts from the past.
Cr Leaney pointed out that Walhalla in the gold era was Gippsland’s second wealthiest shire but little of the wealth was spent there, unlike at Ballarat and Bendigo where there were large investments in elaborate buildings.
The closure of the last of Walhalla’s major mines in 1914 saw Walhalla soon become a ghost town and it remained that way until a few community members and volunteers from elsewhere led its slow rebirth as a tourist destination that today sees 100,000 visitors a year.
Cr Leaney didn’t let the opportunity pass to impress on his council colleagues the need for more facilities in the town to cater for the growth in tourism and a sewerage system without which vacant blocks, generally only about 400 square metres, cannot be developed.
There’s also the issue of telecommunications.
Walhalla is a mobile communication “black spot” and without the Internet, something the few locals are pushing strongly to get.
But there are things that will never change.
When councillors arrived mid-afternoon for last week’s visit they just caught the last of the direct sunlight, the steep and towering mountain to the west of the town blocking out the sun by about 3.45pm.