When I was a little girl I remember watching a move called "Lost Horizon". It told a story of a plane that crashed in the Himalayas. The passengers were rescued and taken to a mysterious valley that was full of peace and tranquility. What I most liked about this movie was that one minute they were trekking through very heavy snow then through a cave they arrived in paradise. One extreme to another.
Walhalla is nothing like the mysterious valley in the movie but it was similar to me that we drove along a winding road and suddenly came to a gem hidden at the end of a valley.
Walhalla is a historic mountain gold rush village located in Victoria's Baw Baw Ranges. Like most gold rush towns they thrived while the gold was around then once it ran out, the town shrunk in size. Walhalla has only a handful of permanent residents now but I am sure they are proud to call it their home and wouldn't live anywhere else.
All the existing buildings are an indication of the integrity of Walhalla's history.
The day that we were at Walhalla there was some celebration happening in the Town Hall. This filled the streets with cars and noise. I wish we had been there on a different day because I believe the empty streets and eerie quietness would have set the day off much better. Who knows we may have heard a whisper from back in the 1800s - I wish!
Again I feel happy that we have embraced Walhalla and made sure that it stays alive and not become a ghost town - even though it is classified as one of Australia's. Victoria I believe is very good at maintaining their heritage by taking these old and historic towns under their wing. There are many towns that have not survived but I suppose it is hard to maintain them if all they were were tent cities.
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