 Walhalla, Victoria |
The story of Walhalla today is largely the story of Michael Leaney, a deceptively boyish dynamo who has revitalised the tiny Victorian-era gold rush township, almost lost in the Great Dividing Range.
Twenty years ago Leaney bought a miner’s cottage as a weekend retreat in a ghost town bereft of visitor facilities. Since then he has completely rebuilt and reopened the historic Star Hotel, destroyed by fire in 1951. Leaney’s enthusiasm also helps drive the continuing restoration of the railway which once ran from Moe to Walhalla, and this year celebrates its centenary.
Two and a half hours from Melbourne, Walhalla became the last town in Victoria to hook up to mains power, in 1998. Mobile phone and TV reception are still severely limited in this deep, forested valley, and just ask Leaney about the high farce which can result when overseas tourists try to find their way in or out of here by relying on satellite navigation.
What is it about this remote community, whose population is still measured only in double digits? Perhaps Walhalla satisfies that deep-seated childhood ideal of a pretty toy-town of neat, square houses set alongside a stream which runs through a deep valley.
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