History

Exploring Gippsland

Exploring Gippsland Modern Australia is a relatively young country where Europeans only settled in 1788, at Botany Bay. It was only ten years later, in 1798, in an expedition to prove that Tasmania was separate from the mainland, that the adventurous young surgeon George Bass sailed his whaleboat from Sydney into Corner Inlet behind Wilson's Promontory, the southernmost point of mainland Australia, and returned home with enthusiastic reports of the potential value of the land he had seen in the area. In the following years, small settlements (including one at Corinella on the eastern side of Western Port Bay) came and went, mainly to discourage perceived French ambitions, but Port Phillip, or Melbourne as it is today, was not settled until 1835.

Further east, the region that is now known as Gippsland was explored in 1839-41 by Angus MacMillan, who set up a cattle station on the lower Avon River in 1840. Seeking a suitable shipping point for his employer's cattle, MacMillan reached Port Albert on the coast to the east of Wilson's Promontory in February of 1841.

Concurrently with MacMillan's expeditions, in early 1840, a Polish adventurer named Paul Edmund de Strzelecki led his own expedition from Sydney to Western Port Bay in Victoria. Passing slightly to the east and south of the present site of Walhalla, Strzelecki's party could make no more than three kilometers a day through the mountain forests of South Gippsland and only narrowly avoided starvation. In his official report of 26th June, 1840, he named the area Gipps Land in honour of Sir George Gipps, who was the governor of the colony of New South Wales from 1836 to 1846. Strzelecki's report and news of MacMillan's findings fuelled a land rush in the second half of 1840. Many other settlers drove cattle overland from New South Wales and by sea into the Port Albert and Corner Inlet areas to the east of Wilson's Promontory, in the earlier tracks of sealers and whaling crews, and the fortunate few convicts who had successfully escaped from van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) to the south. The new settlements of Victoria prospered, and the Port Phillip District duly separated from the colony of New South Wales to become the colony of Victoria on July 1st, 1851. The settlers of the Gippsland district continued to make known their urgent needs for an overland stock route to Melbourne, and a cattle roadway 60 meters wide was surveyed through Gippsland to Melbourne in 1859.

By January 1860, a fossicker called Edward Gladman had started the Baw Baw diggings on the Tanjil River in west Gippsland. These were followed by exploration of the Upper Thomson and Aberfeldy Rivers. In December of 1862, a party of four prospectors were working their way south down the Thomson River from Fulton's Creek.

On December 26th, three who had persevered began prospecting up a creek that flowed into the Thomson River from a steep valley to the east, several kilometers south of Fulton's Creek. They named it Stringer's Creek in honour of Ned Stringer, the assumed name of Edward Randel, one of the prospectors and a "ticket-of-leave" man, or former convict.

When they found very encouraging signs of gold at a fork in the creek, Stringer promptly left to register a claim before the mining registrar at Bald Hills on 12th January, 1863.

Although he eventually was to receive a £100 reward for his part in discovering the goldfield, Ned Stringer had little opportunity to enjoy the fruits of his find. Diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis, he travelled eastward to Sale for treatment in September of 1863, and died at Toongabbie on September 25th during his return trip to Walhalla.

The rush that inevitably followed news of this find was slowed to some extent by the goldfield's remote and inaccessible location, hidden as it was within a very steep and heavily timbered valley. But many other miners soon found their way there. In February of 1863, one named John Hinchcliffe discovered an immensely rich quartz reef in the hill just above the creek, which he called Cohen's Reef, after a storekeeper at Bald Hills. The rich quartz vein of Cohen's Reef is still clearly visible in the roof of the Long Tunnel Extended Mine today.

Within a few months, the gold rush period was over and mining companies were formed to access the rich reserves beneath the ground. For the next half a century, Walhalla became a company town where miners and contractors were employed by the various entities.

At the time, the presence of a major swamp between Warragul and Moe precluded access from Melbourne, so provisions and mining supplies were shipped to Port Albert, and transported over a very long distance by rough tracks to Walhalla and other Gippsland destinations.

Although numerous companies attempted to find gold in Walhalla, only three were commercially successful - the being the Walhalla Mining Co, which started in 1864 and operated until 1881 when its resources of gold were exhausted. The Long Tunnel Mine was formed in 1864 and the Long Tunnel Extended in 1870 - both these operations were the backbone of Walhalla’s prosperity over a nearly 50 year period.

‍Over time, Walhalla became a substantial town and it’s population reached a peak of over 2800 in the late 1880s. It had all the shops, hotels, public buildings, a Council (Shire of Walhalla) and features that would normally be seen in a town of that size - but it was an expensive town to operate mines, live and work. There were no other forms of industry apart from mining and timbercutting, although Lewis Loan’s Star Brewery won international awards for its ales and spirits.

By 1900, Walhalla’s best years had passed and gold returns started to decline although both major mining companies continued to heavily invest in the search at very deep levels underground, which eventually reached 1000 metres! In 1910, the long awaited Moe-Walhalla narrow gauge opened after decades of agitating for its construction. The Long Tunnel Extended closed in 1911, and the Long Tunnel finally succumbed in 1914. During the mining period, Walhalla produced over 41 tonnes of gold - worth over $9 billion at current prices. Within a year of the Long Tunnel closing, all its buildings and equipment were auctioned and dismantled - with the railway offering a effective way of transporting dismantled houses and structures.

The majority of Walhalla’s population rapidly departed although several attempts to find new gold reserves continued for many years without success. Since that time Walhalla has relied on tourist visitation for its survival.