Chiltern is a small goldfields town in north-eastern Victoria, between Wangaratta and Wodonga. It is not a grand destination, but it has a clear reason to stop: a well-kept 19th-century streetscape, several National Trust properties, and the dry box-ironbark forest of Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park just outside town.
The town grew after gold was found around Black Dog Creek in the late 1850s. It never became as large as Beechworth or Bendigo, and that is part of its appeal now. Main Street and Conness Street still have old hotels, shopfronts, brick newspaper offices, and a country pharmacy that looks almost frozen in time.
Chiltern works best as a slow half-day or full day in the High Country. Walk the historic centre, visit Dow's Pharmacy and the Federal Standard Printing Works if they are open, then drive or cycle into Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park for birdwatching, wildflowers, and old goldfields tracks. It is a selective stop, but a rewarding one if you like small towns where the history is still visible in the street.