Back Roads host Heather Ewart explores the abandoned ghost town of Walhalla, Victoria. Heather discovers a dark history in a town that now exists as a living museum and is haunted by the memories of its past. 

Hollywood superstar Liam Neeson has just started shooting a blockbuster action movie in the most unlikely of settings - a tiny town in Victoria’s high country. Walhalla is a quiet tourist hamlet where very little happens, until now. 

This week's gold hot spot is Walhalla, located in Gippsland 180 kilometers east of Melbourne CBD.

The original township was laid out in 1866 and is now a beautifully restored and maintained historic tourist location situated between the steep bush mountains in a picturesque valley. 

The location was originally named Stringer's Creek after the former convict Edward Stringer who pegged the original claim in the valley. But in 1869 the town was renamed Walhalla after the largest gold mine operating in the area at the time.

At its peak Walhalla was home to over 4 000 residents which included many outlying camps due to the discovery of alluvial gold in the surrounding area. 

Cohen's Roof a three kilometer long vein of gold which runs through the valley had produced more than 55 tons of gold by the 1900s. Walhalla was one of the world's wealthiest towns and even had electric street lights before Melbourne.