I LOVE a train.
It
could be the Eurostar dashing between London and Paris, a Shinkansen racing
between Japanese cities, a scenic service that climbs a mountain in the Swiss
Alps, or a bog-standard underground linking an airport to city hotels.
If
there’s the chance to jump on a train I will always do it, especially if it
means avoiding a flight or a journey in a taxi.
I had the chance to indulge my passion for trains today by riding the Walhalla Goldfields Railway from the elegant station in the historic mining settlement to the siding at nearby Thompson.
For
a pleasant hour the colour of the Australian bush flashed past my window – the bright
green of new eucalyptus leaves, the shining silver of bark-covered trunks, the
tannin-brown water of the creek at the bottom of the valley – and enjoyed the
warm generated by the rays of sunlight able to penetrate the thick canopy to reach
my seat beside the window.
The Walhalla Goldfields Railways follows the track laid early last century to connect this mountain village to the bigger towns in the lowlands of Gippsland at the end of the valley.
It
took eight year to build the narrow-gauge line, which was one of only four in
Victoria at the time, with the first steam loco arriving just in time to help
residents move away after the last of the hamlet’s profitable gold mines
finally closed.
"Gold
was found in Walhalla in 1862 and this was an extremely wealthy town," local
Michael Leaney told me as we waited on the platform of the first departure of
the day.
"At
one stage there were 3500 people living in these mountains, and at the time
Walhalla was the 4th most wealthy gold town in Victoria, but the
mines started closing in 1914 and that was when the population started leaving.
"People
would pack their houses up and put them on the train to be moved to some other
place, the mine equipment was also packed up and carted away, so the train that
was built to help Walhalla thrive actually helped it decline.
"The
train to Walhalla lasted until 1944, and the line from Moe was eventually
closed in 1954, and everything was pulled up with nothing of the original
infrastructure left so everything you see during the journey today has been
rebuilt.
"Even
the station was rebuilt, students from Yallourn TAFE made a perfect replica of
the station that originally stood in Walhalla, and working parties of
volunteers rebuilt all the bridges between Walhalla and Thompson.
"Now
30,000 people ride on the Walhalla Goldfields Railway every year, making it the
second busiest heritage railway in Victoria, and that’s all managed by the 12
people living in Walhalla today.’’