What a beautiful and quaint old township Old Tallangatta use to be. It was located in an idyllic setting amongst mountains and valleys in the northeast corner of Victoria and was founded in the early 1870s. It was then relocated 8 kilometres to the west in the 1950s to allow for the expansion of Lake Hume.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with “Ray”, who was a resident in the old town and young enough to remember how things were back in the 50's when the town had to be relocated. He was very open with his shared story.

Essentially, the Hume Dam was built over the Murray River so that additional water could be stored in what is now Lake Hume. As a result, Old Tallangatta was to be flooded over. He told me that 5 people died as a result of the stress due to the thought of having to relocate not only their homes, but their whole lives 8 kms down the road. Over 104 timber homes were placed on the back of trucks and relocated to their new plot of dirt.

Ray recalled that the Premier of the day, had come up to see the occupants of the old township on three occasions in order to ensure the move would be done appropriately, and it was. The residents, as it turned out, got a good deal. They had their homes moved to a new block of land, rebuilt, repainted and all at no cost. They even received an allowance for a garden.

It was fascinating to talk to him and to see the historic photographs in his possession. I could have spent the whole day talking to him. I got so caught up in his story that I had to visit the original location and record what I could see. As I walked around the remnants of the old town, I have to say it was quite moving. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have been one of the long term residents living there. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t imagine how difficult it would have been for them. I’ve taken quite a few images of my visit but this probably isn’t the forum to publish them.

However, I did drive up on a very narrow, winding, dirt track to one of the higher peaks nearby. I captured this image looking down into the valley. In fact, you can see the end of the backwater (Lake Hume) where the old town use to be located and now lays submerged. How beautiful it must have been to live there.

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