The King Valley, or King River Valley is a wine-producing and agricultural region centred on the King River between

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

and the

Alpine National Park The Alpine National Park is a national park located in the Central Highlands and Alpine regions of Victoria, Australia. The national park is located northeast of Melbourne. It is the largest National Park in Victoria, and covers much of the hig ...

in the

North East Victoria North East Victoria is an Australian Geographical Indication for a wine zone in the Australian state of Victoria. It includes five named wine regions: * Alpine Valleys * Beechworth * Glenrowan * King Valley * Rutherglen Geography The North Ea ...

zone of the Australian state of Victoria. There are a number of small towns within the region including

Cheshunt Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Hertfor ...

, Whitfield,

King Valley The King Valley, or King River Valley is a wine-producing and agricultural region centred on the King River between Wangaratta and the Alpine National Park in the North East Victoria zone of the Australian state of Victoria. There are a numbe ...

, Edi, Claremont,

Moyhu Moyhu is a small town in North East Victoria, Australia. It is situated in the fertile King Valley, near the King River, which flows from the Victorian Alps and joins the Ovens River in Wangaratta. The town is about 2.5 hours drive from Melb ...

Byrne ' Byrne (also O'Byrne) is an Irish surname. It is derived from the Gaelic ''Ó Broin'' or ''Ó Beirn''. There are two Irish surnames which have Byrne as their English spelling; the most common comes from Ó Broin, which refers to the Leinster-b ...

, Docker and

Oxley Oxley may refer to: Places Australia Australian Capital Territory * Oxley, Australian Capital Territory is a suburb of Canberra, Australia Queensland *Oxley, Queensland is a suburb of Brisbane, Australia ** Oxley railway station, Brisba ...

. King Valley was recorded as an

Australian Geographical Indication A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, ...

protected name on 12 October 2007.

History

The fertile valley area has been used since the 1880s to grow a variety of crops including

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

alongside dairy and beef cattle production. A

narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard-gauge railway, standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum r ...

was built between Wangaratta and Whitfield in 1889 and a government tobacco research farm was established in Edi and moved to Whitfield in 1902. Following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, a large number of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

, Yugoslav and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

migrants settled in the area and established tobacco farms. Following the decline of the tobacco industry in the mid 80s to its demise in 2006 from government deregulation, local farmers branched out into other crops such as

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelat ...

and

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

and a number of vineyards were established. The King Valley has a history which includes bushrangers, Chinese and Italian immigration. The Chinese migrants came from the Goldfields in the mid-19th century and began careers as market gardeners, tobacco growers and merchants. Many roads in the Valley today carry the names of the more prominent families like Mahlooks, Honey, Laffy and Fosangs. Italian migrants came to the region in the 1940s and 1950s, and similarly began tobacco farming however, they would eventually switch to producing European wine varietals. The Valley eventually gained a reputation as a wine region for

sangiovese Sangiovese (, also , , ) is a red Italian wine grape variety that derives its name from the Latin ''sanguis Jovis'', "the blood of Jupiter". Though it is the grape of most of central Italy from Romagna down to Lazio (the most widespread grape i ...

nebbiolo Nebbiolo (, ; pms, nebieul ) is an Italian red wine grape variety predominantly associated with its native Piedmont region, where it makes the ''Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita'' (DOCG) wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Roero, G ...

and

barbera Barbera is a red Italian wine grape variety that, as of 2000, was the third most-planted red grape variety in Italy (after Sangiovese and Montepulciano). It produces good yields and is known for deep color, full body, low tannins and high levels ...

varieties amongst others. Some of the highest altitude vineyards in Australia are around on the Whitlands Plateau at the southern end of the region. Milawa is at the northern end with an altitude of . The

Whitfield railway line The Whitfield railway line was a narrow gauge railway located in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, branching from the main North East railway at Wangaratta to the terminus of Whitfield. Overview It was the first of four narrow gauge lin ...

operated in the King Valley from 1899 to 1953. One of four

narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways The former Victorian Railways, the state railway authority in Victoria, Australia, built a number of experimental narrow-gauge lines around the beginning of the 20th century. Although all were closed by the early 1960s, parts of two have be ...

, the 50-kilometre line operated from

(where it connected with the

North East railway line The North East railway line is a railway line in Victoria, Australia. The line runs from Albury railway station in the border settlement of Albury–Wodonga to Southern Cross railway station on the western edge of the Melbourne central busines ...

) to Whitfield. Today, this route is a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

. Whitfield and

are the major townships in the King Valley along the road from Wangaratta or Mansfield. The two towns Serve as major tourism centers within the Valley along with the smaller hamlets are dotted throughout the King Valley region.

References

External links

Australian Places - Cheshunt
{{coord, 36, 41, 41, S, 146, 24, 06, E, region:AU-VIC_type:landmark, display=title Wine regions of Victoria (Australia) Wangaratta