Location
Kiandra is an abandoned gold mining town and the birthplace of Australian skiing. The town is situated in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council inside the Kosciuszko National Park. Its name is a corruption of Aboriginal ‘Gianderra’ for ‘sharp stones for knives’. It was earlier called Gibson’s Plains, named after Dr. Gibson, a settler in the district in 1839. For a century (until the establishment of Cabramurra), Kiandra was Australia’s highest town.
Kiandra lies approximately 90 kilometres north-west of Cooma on the Snowy Mountains Highway between Adaminaby and Talbingo. It sits at 1,400 metres above sea level and is situated on a high, treeless ridge, on the banks of the Eucumbene River, which is snow-covered during winter and is subject to high winds.
After decades of decline, restoration work on the remaining buildings at Kiandra has been ongoing since 2009. Work on the historic Kiandra Courthouse Chalet and Wolgal Lodge fishing cottage has been conducted by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and volunteers, enabling occasional amenities and limited accommodation at Kiandra. (wikipedia)
History
Goldrush
In November 1859, gold was discovered by mountain cattlemen, the Pollock brothers, and by March 1860, some 10,000 miners and storekeepers had raced to the scene. Initial returns were very good. A 9 kg nugget was discovered in river deposits under what became known as New Chum Hill. Kiandra post office opened on 1 June 1860 and it is estimated that the area at its peak accommodated around 15,000 people, served by 25 stores, 13 bakers, 16 butchers, 14 pubs, several banks and four blacksmiths. Nevertheless, by 1861, the Sydney Morning Herald was reporting a “mass exodus” and the easy pickings were exhausted.
Significant numbers of Chinese people worked the Kiandra goldfields. Chinese miners built Three Mile Dam in 1882 to assist with sluicing operations at “New Chum Hill”. The scenic lake still exists and now supplies Selwyn Snowfields with its snow-making water requirements. Wikipedia’s Chinese site lists Kiandra as 奇安德拉 (Qi An De La).
The last mining operations finally ceased around 1905. Official total production recorded was 48 676 kg.
In 1890 the second courthouse to be built in the township was constructed. The building included police barracks and was used more for its police rather than court function. It remained Kiandra’s police station until 1937, later to become the Kiandra Chalet.
A ‘battery stamper’ and other mining relics recovered locally are situated on the road to Cabramurra below New Chums Hill, close to the NPWS entry booth (which is only attended during the snow season). This stamper was used to crush rock and quartz in order to free the embedded gold.
The Wig and Pen Brewery in Canberra commemorates this chapter in Australia’s High Country history with a pale golden pilsner beer in the Czech style, named “Kiandra Gold”.
Skiing
Kiandra is often isolated by deep snow which made it inaccessible during winter. In 1861, Norwegian miners introduced recreational skiing to the snowbound mining settlement after manufacturing over forty pairs[8] of both short skis, known as “skates”. and the longer “snow shoes”[9] during the months before the first winter snow. To avoid confusion with a conventional skate, the skates were described as (two palings turned up at the front end and about four foot long). There were no fence palings or posts in Kiandra in 1861.
Ski races were held annually on Township Hill at Kiandra, which led to the founding of the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club—reportedly becoming the “world’s longest continuously running ski club” as it evolved into the present-day Kiandra Pioneer Ski Club in Perisher Valley, NSW. Whether the club is the first of its kind has been subject to debate. At one time, the poet Banjo Paterson was a vice president. The Club held perhaps the first international ski race carnival in 1908. In 1927, William Hughes, a member of the Club, together with four members of the Ski Club of Australia made the first historic ski traverse from Kiandra to the Hotel Kosciusko. Their eventful journey is retold in Klaus Hueneke’s book “Kiandra to Kosciusko” and was commemorated by 150 ski tourers in 1977 in an event organised by the Kosciusko Huts Association.
The Kiandra courthouse closed as a police station in 1937, and was for a time used as a private residence, before becoming the Kiandra Chalet (until 1953) and later the Kiandra Chalet Hotel, The owner of the Chalet ran a ski rope tow. The Chalet closed in 1973 and the building became a Roads Depot building.
Australia’s first T-Bar was installed on Township Hill in 1957, but in 1978, Kiandra’s ski lift operations re-located permanently to nearby Selwyn Snowfields. The T-Bar remained in operation at Mt Selwyn until the 2009 ski season when it was replaced by the Township Triple Chair (retaining the name “Township” in reference to the Kiandra Township hill run). (wikipedia)
Places of Interest
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