Visiting Chiltern

Attractions in town include Lake Anderson, Lakeview Homestead, Grapevine Museum and Star Theatre, Athenaeum Museum, Stephen's Motor Museum, Federal Standard Newspaper office and Dow's Pharmacy to name just a few.

The recently proclaimed Chiltern Box-Ironbark National Park nearly encircles the town and contains a wide range of bushwalks and excellent flora displays during spring and early summer.

Chiltern is an ideal base from which to explore the Rutherglen and Barnawartha wineries. Just a little further a field are Lake Hume and the shops and places of interest in Albury/Wodonga.

A Brief History

In February 1862 Chiltern was proclaimed a municipality and the first elected Council comprised all representatives from the miners group, believed to be a precedent in Victoria. The Victorian Gazette of 1865 lists Chiltern: "There are two steam sawmills and the district is agricultural and pastoral... Gold mining - alluvial and quartz, is also carried on in and around the Borough, and alluvial claims being chiefly worked by machinery. Chiltern has a County and Police Court, a Court of Mines, a reading room, a telegraph station and a post and money order office; a newspaper (Federal Standard)... and branches of the Australasia, New South Wales and Oriental Banks".

Mining continued until the early 1900's quartz reef mining finally ceasing in 1911. The principal mines of the area included the Golden Bar Mine 10,200 ounces, Golden Bar Extended 4,000 ounces and the Pass Poy party crushed 1757 tons for 2843 ounces. At its height, Chiltern had a population around 20,000.