Sunday 10th May - Walhalla

Sunday 10^th May

On Sunday we went to Walhalla. Walhalla is a heritage town it was a gold mining town until they ran out of wood and mining the gold cost too much so everyone left the town. So it turned in to a ghost town. 

We went for a ride on a train , had a tour in a Gold mine and went the old post ofice. it was fun. I learnt about Morse code.

Can you translate this?

..   .... --- .--. .   -.-- --- ..-   .- .-. .   .- .-.. .-..   .-- . .-.. .-.. .. .. ..

Mum's note: Walhalla is set in the Victorian Alps and is amazingly beautiful. The train ride was great and we got to sit in the Guard's van on the return trip. The guard told us how the train had saved the valley in bush fires 6 years ago - they had put water sprayers on the trucks and run them up and down the line putting out fires so that the flames couldn't jump the line.

Walhalla Band Stand

Walhalla is a rebuilt town - most of it was removed or burnt after the mining closed. However, the original Post office still stands and is run as a free museum. We had great fun here. The kids got to talk to each other on 100 year old telephones that were powered by winding a handle. We tried a Morse code transmitter. And we were shown the wind-up record player that belonged to the post mistress..... my kids had never heard vinyl records used before.

We found out that the Walhalla gold mine was closed due to the great expense of obtaining wood to power the mine through steam. Apparently the mine completely denuded a 17km radius of trees around the town. We were told the gold is currently not mined due to the high arsenic content and consequent pollution issues.