Walhalla Mine Tour; is it worth the price?
After banging our way down the final 50 metres of the Telecom 4WD Track in Walhalla, and arriving (with great surprise) right in the car park of the Long Tunnel Extended Gold Mine, I decided it was probably worth doing the tour. We were an hour early, but we’d talked about doing it, and it just seemed to fall in our laps.
Where is the gold mine tour?
The gold mine tour starts at the mine itself, which is a short walk from the centre of town. It would literally take you about 10 minutes to walk there, or you can drive and park up.
What does it cost?
The tour costs $25 per adult, or $60 for a family. We paid for the family ticket, and thought it was reasonable value, considering the prices of other tours that we’ve considered on our Big Lap of Australia.
How long does it take?
The tour generally takes about 45 minutes to an hour, which is enough to learn something new, but not so long that you get over it by the end.
What do you need to know?
They ask you to be at the mine 15 minutes before the tour, where you can put a hair net on, and a helmet. The actual mine can get cold; it was 13 degrees when we did it, but apparently in winter it can get down to zero quite easily.
Expect to get a bit wet, with drops of water falling regularly, and the ground being slightly sloppy. It’s well lit, but you will need to duck if you are taller for sections of the tour.
You only walk about 300 metres, with some of it bent over a little, but there’s nothing strenuous or difficult. The tour guide stops in a range of different places and explains what went on, along with a hugely interesting past.
Did we enjoy it?
We discussed doing this tour, and arriving in their car park by surprise just before a tour took off certainly helped. Learning about the conditions of the people doing the mining was pretty incredible, and seeing how it all worked was well worth doing.
The Walhalla region played a major role in the gold production for Victoria, and whilst it wasn’t given a huge amount of credit, they mined a staggering amount of gold from the area.
All of us enjoyed the tour, with our youngest (4 years old) getting a bit bored of standing around and listening, but the 6 year old found it quite fascinating.
Overall, we’d recommend it, and would happily go back. The Walhalla town itself is magic, and completely worth a look.
