Stanley, VIC 2 April 2020

Nestled in the hills at the edge of the Alps in north-east Victoria lies Stanley. Stanley is a small rural village, approximately 10 kilometres from Beechworth, with a population of about 370. The town of Stanley was formerly known as Nine Mile, followed later by the name Snake Gully. In 1824, Hume and Hovell camped overnight in Stanley.
(You can find the very common town name, “Stanley”, in Virginia, USA, Scotland, Tasmania, and even The Falkland Islands; there is, however, no town on the globe called “Snake Gully”. Can we revive it?)
During the gold rush era, the Stanley region comprised a higher proportion of miners from Scotland, in comparison to other localities in the surrounding area. By 1856, there were 6,000 gold miners (about 1,000 of them Chinese) and 19 hotels.
Stanley Soliders Memorial Hall was opened in 1956, in memory of those who fought and died in WW1 and WW2.

Today our town centre has the Stanley Pub, Primary School (currently not used as a school, but leased by the community as a post office), CFA Fire Shed, Uniting Church, Recreational Reserve and Athenaeum (library).
Our lovely community is famed for its produce, with cool climate and fertile soils providing the perfect conditions for growing apples, stone fruit, berries, chestnuts and hazelnuts. It is well known that you can plant rocks on the Stanley Plateau and grow truffles!

Festival of Small Halls Stanley will be supported by Liv Cartledge. Born and bred in the historic gold-mining town of Beechworth in North East Victoria, Liv Cartledge is a rare find. Liv’s husky tones, soul filled lyrics and warm melodies will draw you in and leave you wondering how you got there. Since taking out the coveted 2015 Telstra Road To Discovery, Liv has played to sold out audiences across Melbourne, toured extensively across Australia and internationally in Japan and USA. Using songwriting as a message platform, Liv shares stories of heart-ache, loss, mental health, love and everything in between.