STOP PRESS

May 1st, 2003: VicRoads have advised that weekday traffic might encounter minor delays this month during ongoing stabilisation work to repair the rockfall discussed in this news item from last year. As before, the Walhalla Goldfields Railway will provide additional access to the town during this period if required.

You can click here to check VicRoads' Eastern Victoria Road Traffic Information page if there is any reason to doubt whether the road is open.

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WH&DL

As you may have seen in the news, Walhalla was again isolated by a landslide that occurred on the main access road on Wednesday July 17th, 2002.

A fall of some 2000 cubic meters of rock, which closed the main road into Walhalla on Friday, May 24th, had been cleared sufficiently to allow traffic through, and the road had been reopened on June 3rd. The more recent landslide occurred at the same point, roughly halfway between the Thomson River bridge and the Walhalla railway station, where the earlier rockfall had caused traffic to be reduced to a single lane and slowed to 60 km/h.

The site is about a kilometer north of the Thomson River bridge. The second rockfall was apparently triggered by attempts to drill holes for rock-bolting to stabilise the site. VicRoads promptly began the hazardous work of clearing the site, and had the road reopened within a few days.

In the meantime access was again provided by the WGR tourist railway in conjunction with our taxi service to the centre of town. Trains were leaving Thomson at 11:00am, 1:00, 3:00 and 4:30pm, and the free travel gave visitors a great opportunity to explore Walhalla without traffic!

By July 27th, Ron Camier of Mountain Top Experience 4WD Tours was able to report as follows:

"The main road into Walhalla was reopened today at 5pm, following 10 days' closure. It is still a bit slippery because of mud, and is only one lane wide at the landslide site (shown above). The free train, taxi, horse carriage and gold mine tours have been discontinued and will revert to previous arrangements. VicRoads have made every effort to clear the road quickly and keep the town functioning during its enforced isolation. Also townspeople have shown great resilience and teamwork in overcoming the difficulties faced. Further stabilisation work at the landslide site is expected to be carried out in July/August, avoiding weekends and school holidays. It is expected to require further temporary closures of a few hours per day."

VicRoads and all other participants in the effort to clear the rubble from the road are to be congratulated for their prompt completion of such difficult work, as are the townspeople for their show of mutual support at a time of such adversity.

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