Chiltern is a town in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, in the northeast of the state between Wangaratta and

Wodonga Wodonga ( Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA. Its population is approximately ...

, in the

Shire of Indigo The Shire of Indigo, a local government area (LGA) in the Hume region of Victoria, Australia, lies in the north-east part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 16,490. It includes the towns of Beechworth, Chi ...

. At the 2016 census, Chiltern had a population of 1,605. It was the birthplace of Prime Minister John McEwan. The town is close to the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park. Chiltern was once on the main road between Melbourne and Sydney but is now bypassed by the Hume Freeway running one kilometre to the south.

History

The area around Chiltern is the traditional lands of the

Dhudhuroa people The Dhudhuroa people (or Duduroa) are an Indigenous Australian people of North-eastern Victoria, in the state of Victoria, Australia. About 2,000 descendants exist in Australia in the early 21st century. Name The endonym Dhudhuroa has been analyse ...

. The nearby Yeddonba Aboriginal Cultural Site, in the Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park, includes artworks created by the original inhabitants of the Chiltern area, including one

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

painting thought to represent a

Thylacine The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasma ...

, an animal now extinct and which has been extinct on mainland Australia for thousands of years. The area of Chiltern was on the Wahgunyah cattle run and was known as Black Dog Creek. The township, named after the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, was surveyed in 1853 but not established until gold discoveries in 1858-59 during the greater

Victorian Gold Rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capit ...

period. The Post Office opened on 1 September 1859. The Chiltern Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1983, not having been visited by a Magistrate since 1972. Many of Chiltern's buildings are classified by the National Trust. In 1859, many shop-keepers and miners from around

Beechworth Beechworth is a well-preserved historical town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. At the , Beechworth had a population of 3,859. Beechworth's many histor ...

and the Ovens Valley districts followed the rush and re-located into Chiltern. The Grape Vine Hotel, on the corners of Main Street and Conness Street, boasts the largest grapevine in

, planted in 1867.

Gold

The discovery of gold by John Conness in late 1858 and early 1859 brought a huge shift in population into the Chiltern – Black Dog Creek area. Gold discoveries drew many miners away from the nearby Ovens goldfields; namely

, Nine Mile Creek and Stanley during the big drought of 1859. Unlike those surface-based sluicing mining operations around Beechworth, the gold around Chiltern was extracted by sinking deep wet leads. These operations required a different type of miner and working groups, capable of sinking shafts to some 400 feet in depth. Miners with these skills and abilities came into the area, from

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. Within months of Vi ...

and

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban populat ...

and joined with the sluicers from around Beechworth and the Ovens. Miners from the Ballarat goldfields were considered 'radical', because of their connections with the Eureka Rebellion (1854). Some of these miners were colourful characters and the most notable, a colourful and radical A.A. O'Connor, stood for parliament in 1859 as the would-be member for the Ovens; his escapades and the social tensions his candidature aroused appear in O'Brien's book which is cited below. While Beechworth's gold production declined during 1859, due in part to the drought and lack of water for sluicing, Chiltern's gold production increased (O'Brien), to such an extent that Chiltern looked as if it would usurp the importance of Beechworth. Beechworth was the most important regional centre in North-eastern Victoria during the gold boom of 1852–1859. Chiltern did overshadow Beechworth within a few years, especially when the main Melbourne-Albury rail by-passed Beechworth. Finally, when the gold dwindled during the early 1900s, so did Chiltern.

The town today

The town hosts an antique fair in August and an art show in June. The Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park lies close to the town. Golfers play at the Chiltern Golf Club on Howlong Road. The winning clip of the 2009

J Award The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J and which are judged by the music and on-air teams from radio stations Triple ...

for Best Music Video of the Year, Alex Roberts' video for Art vs. Science's ''Parlez-vous Français?'', was entirely shot in this town. Several movies have been shot using Chiltern's well-preserved Victorian-era streetscapes, including Walt Disney's 'Ride a Wild Pony'.

Transport

The

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

on the

North East railway line The North East railway line is a railway line in Victoria (Australia), 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 Mel ...

, has

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross ...

services running between

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

and

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – t ...

Chiltern Football Club

Chiltern played its first game of

Australian Rules Football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

against Beechworth in 1876. Chiltern has an

Australian Rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

football team that competes in the

Tallangatta & District Football League The Tallangatta and District Football League (TDFL) is an Australian rules football competition in north-east Victoria and the southern border area of Riverina region of the New South Wales. The clubs compete across four competitions, two o ...

. Chiltern FC have played in the following official football competitions - * 1893 to 1903 -

Ovens & Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales and the Ovens and Murray ar ...

* 1904 - North East Central Football Association * 1905 - Half Day Holiday Football Association * 1906 to 1908 -

* 1909 - Federal Junior Football Association * 1910 - Ovens & Murray Junior Football Association * 1911 -

Rutherglen & District Football Association Rutherglen (, sco, Ruglen, gd, An Ruadh-Ghleann) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having existed as a Lanarkshire burgh in its own ...

* 1912 to 1916 -

Chiltern & District Football Association The Chiltern & District Football Association was first established in 1912 from the following Australian Rules Football clubs - Barnawartha, Chiltern, Chiltern Valley, Christmastown, Southern and Wodonga, in North Eastern Victoria, Australia and w ...

* 1917 & 1918 - Chiltern FC in recess, due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

* 1919 to 1940 -

* 1941 to 1944 - Chiltern FC in recess, due to

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 opposing ...

* 1945 to 1953 -

* 1954 to 2002 -

Ovens & King Football League The Ovens & King Football Netball League is a minor country Australian rules football league based in North-Eastern Victoria in the vicinity of Wangaratta and more recently Benalla. History The ''Ovens & King Football League'' was formed on ...

* 2003 to present day -

;Senior Football Premierships *

**1914, 1922, 1929, 1936, 1940, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953 (12 total) *

**1957, 1958, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1982, 1983, 1994, 1996, 1998 (10 total)

Notable people

Mary Gaunt Mary Eliza Bakewell Gaunt (20 February 1861 – 19 January 1942) was an Australian novelist, born in Chiltern, Victoria. She also wrote collections of short stories, novellas, autobiographies, and non-fiction. She published her first novel ...

, novelist, was born here on 21 February 1861.
Cecil Robert Gaunt
army officer and brother of Mary Eliza Gaunt, was born here in 1863 *

Henry Handel Richardson Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson (3 January 187020 March 1946), known by her pen name Henry Handel Richardson, was an Australian author. Life Born in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, into a prosperous family that later fell on hard ti ...

, born in 1870, Chiltern was home for some time in her youth to Australian writer Ethel Richardson who wrote under the pen name

, famous for her book ''

The Getting of Wisdom ''The Getting of Wisdom'' is a novel by Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson. It was first published in 1910, and has almost always been in print ever since. Plot introduction Henry Handel Richardson was the pseudonym of Ethel Florence ...

''. *

John McEwen Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was the ...

, 18th Prime Minister of Australia was born here on 29 March 1900. *

Barrie Cassidy Barrie Cassidy (born 4 March 1950) is an Australian political journalist, as well as a radio and television host and presenter and commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was the long-running host of the Sunday morning pol ...

, former Border Morning Mail newspaper &

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

political journalist grew up in Chiltern. *

Nigel Lappin Nigel Lappin (born 21 June 1976) is a former professional Australian rules footballer. Lappin is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Geelong Football Club. Playing career Lappin was born in the locally based regional hospital at ...

and cousin,

Matthew Lappin Matthew Lappin (born 17 February 1976) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He currently serves as an AFL coach fo ...

, former professional Australian rules footballers, who grew up in Chiltern.

References

* Robert W. P. Ashley, ''History of the Shire of Chiltern'', Thompsons, Albury-Wodonga, 1974. * Antony O'Brien, ''Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields: the 1859 Election'', Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005. (a mining candidate from Chiltern, A. A. O'Connor, stood for this general election during 1859) * Jennifer Williams, ''Chiltern Standard Newspaper, 1859-60'', M.A. Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1970. This is available in the Melbourne University Reading Room at the Baillieu Library. * DNRE, ''Victorian Goldfield Project: Historical Gold Mining Sites in the North East Region of Victoria'', 1999

External links

Chiltern, Victoria1939 - Chiltern & District Football Association: Chiltern FC & Albury FC Seconds team photos1940 - Chiltern & District Football Association Azzi Medalist: G O'Neill, Chiltern FC1945 - Chiltern & District Football Association Premiers: Chiltern FC team photo1950 - Chiltern & District Football Association Premiers: Chiltern FC team photo
(undefeated)
1953 - Chiltern & District Football Association Premiers: Chiltern FC team photo
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia) Towns in Upper Hume Shire of Indigo Mining towns in Victoria (Australia) Hume Highway