The area around Chiltern is the traditional lands of the Dhudhuroa people. 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 painting thought to represent a Thylacine, an animal now extinct and which has been extinct on mainland Australia for thousands of years.[2]
The area of Chiltern was on the Wahgunyah cattle run and was known as Black Dog Creek. The township, named after the Chiltern Hills in England, was surveyed in 1853 but not established until gold discoveries in 1858-59 during the greater Victorian Gold Rush period. The Post Office opened on 1 September 1859.[3]
The Chiltern Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1983, not having been visited by a Magistrate since 1972.[4]
Many of Chiltern's buildings are classified by the National Trust. In 1859, many shop-keepers and miners from around Beechworth 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 Australia, planted in 1867.
Gold
Lake View House at Chiltern, the home of author Henry Handel Richardson from July 1876 for 1½ years. Her early years at Chiltern featured in the novel The Fortunes of Richard Mahony.View of the lake from Lake View House. It was a swamp, not a lake, at the time the Richardson family lived in Chiltern.[5]
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.[6] Gold discoveries drew many miners away from the nearby Ovens goldfields; namely Beechworth, 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 and Bendigo 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.
Golfers play at the Chiltern Golf Club on Howlong Road.[7]
The winning clip of the 2009 J Award 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'sRide a Wild Pony.
According to Barry Cassidy the Chiltern oval is the longest in Australia, earning the nickname "The Airport". Cassidy became the football writer for the local paper aged 13.
Notable people
Mary Gaunt, novelist, was born here on 21 February 1861.
Cecil Robert Gaunt, army officer and brother of Mary Eliza Gaunt, was born here in 1863[13]
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
