Whitfield



Quick facts
- Population approximately 100
- 260 km north-east of Melbourne
- Excellent wineries and vineyards
- Beautiful scenery, waterfalls, rivers, mountains
Whitfield is a very pretty and very small town situated in a dairying and tobacco growing district in the highly scenic King River Valley where lush river flats are surrounded by some magnificent high country. Wine is the main produce of the valley, along with gourmet foods, apples and berries.
Whitfield is located 245 km north-east of Melbourne, 60 km north-east of Mansfield and 50 km south of Wangaratta. It has a general store cum post office, a vehicle repair service, two caravan parks, public toilets and the attractive Mountain View Hotel which is situated by the intersection of the roads to Wangaratta, Cheshunt and Mansfield. It has a restaurant and a beer garden. Just south of the hotel is a scenic nine-hole golf club.
The state's first narrow-gauge railway from Wangaratta to Whitfield was once the main form of transportation into the valley and the former station signs remain at locations such as Docker, Byrne, Angleside and Claremont.
Bushranger Harry Powers once operated in the area in the 1860s and, in 1869, formed an association with a 13-year-old Ned Kelly. As a result Kelly was arrested and held in custody for seven weeks as a suspected accomplice but the charge was dismissed. Power was captured in 1870 and sentenced to 15 years at Pentridge prison.
At a later date, when Kelly was a wanted man, he allegedly rode his horse down the hallway of the Mountain View Hotel which is still in existence. More solidly, it is known that Dan 'Mad Dog' Morgan stole a horse from the Evans station at Whitfield in 1860. Pursued by Mr Evan Evans and a Mr Bond he was fired upon and hit with buckshot. He returned to the station on April 6, 1865 and set fire to some haystacks and, when the people from the property appeared, Morgan held them up. He asked for Evans who, fortunately for him, was absent. Morgan explained he wished to see Evans and Bond as a result of the previous incident. After eating, Morgan departed with the police soon in pursuit. He was killed three days later.
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