Beverley Holmes was back at Walhalla last weekend guiding visitors through the town’s historic post office.

It was only a few days earlier, last Wednesday, that she had been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day Honours for her service to the Walhalla community.

Although she lived at Walhalla for only 15 years the town got into her veins and she was worked tirelessly to preserve its uniqueness and place in Australian history.

Ms Holmes now lives at Yallourn North but has been volunteering her services through the Walhalla Heritage and Development League for 54 years.

Fund-raiser, events organiser, secretary, museum curator, cricket club member, producer of local publications and tourist guide are all roles she has enthusiastically undertaken.

But in the “early days” of the League she and many other volunteers got their hands dirty and gave “plenty of blood, sweat and tears” to preserve many of Walhalla’s old buildings.

Had that not been done the town would not exist as the popular tourist destination it is today, she said.

In those days if something needed to be done we just got in and did it, Ms Holmes reflects, “a contrast to now when you have to work though so many government departments”.

She also reflects on the tough times Walhalla has gone through in the past three years from bushfires, floods and the impact on tourism of the COVID pandemic.

But Walhalla always bounces back, Ms Holmes states with an air of confidence, and says she will be part of helping the recovery as long as she is able.