It’s the sale of the century: six and a half acres of freehold land, right in the middle of Maldon: the former Derby Hill Blue Light Youth Camp in Phoenix Street is on the market.
The camp was closed down by Blue Light Victoria in September owing to financial problems caused by the shutdown during the Covid pandemic. Blue Light Victoria is now selling it off, with the intention of using the cash to fund activities for young people across the State.
The Derby Hill complex includes 11 accommodation units, a three-bedroom house, a commercial kitchen and a large space that doubles as a dining room and function area.
Derby Hill was originally built on crown land. Since its construction, the land has been zoned PCRZ (Public Conservation and Resource Zone). Under Victorian planning provisions, this covers a multitude of uses, including structures such as kiosks, piers and telecommunications facilities. It can also be used to provide facilities which, among other things, assist in “…public education” and “…interpretation of the natural environment.” It’s a zone for uses that appear to be in the hard-to-categorise basket, although it could be said that it does provide a level of ‘protection’ for the land.
Just how, why and when the land involved became freehold and was zoned PCRZ appears to be lost in the mists of time, according to Ian Mason who is the real estate agent charged with selling the camp. He has contacted Council, which has no records of the process. “It’s an unusual zoning, and Council doesn’t really understand it,” he said. “I mean, it’s the same zoning as you would give a buoy out in Port Phillip Bay.”
Seeing that the conversion from crown land to its current status probably took place during the days of the Shire of Maldon (i.e., pre-1996), then it is perhaps not surprising that Mt Alexander Shire Council has no records.
How did a piece of crown land get carved out of the Maldon Historic Reserve in order for an accommodation complex to be built? The creation of the Derby Hill camp was the result of direct intervention at a State Government level, according to Maldon resident Bill Moore. He was Shire Engineer at the time.
“There was a chance meeting between Heritage Advisor Nigel Lewis and Don Dunstan, who at the time was head of the Victorian Tourist Authority,” Bill said. “Don mentioned, in passing, that he had a million dollars of Bi-Centenary money to spend on a low-cost accommodation project and he was looking for a place to site this. Nigel immediately started to hard sell Maldon as the ideal place.”
Before Bill knew it, he and Nigel were charged with the task of selecting a site for a low-cost accommodation complex and they settled on the land Derby Hill. The next job was to decide upon building design.
“We picked out six up-and-coming and left-of-centre architects and asked them to produce a concept idea of their vision for the project,” Bill said. “To do this, we offered them the standard fee for this work plus enough to have a model of their concept produced. We got some very interesting ideas ranging from a series of interconnected miners’ cottages upwards. We chose the winning idea because it reflected the large industrial buildings that sprang up with the large gold mines around Maldon in the pre-1900 era. Early photos showed these buildings in the Derby Hill area.”
The rest is history, with a Bendigo-based builder, Dennis Carter, winning the construction contract.
Once Derby Hill was built, it did not live up to the Victorian Tourism Authority’s hopes. People seeking low-cost accommodation did not come in their droves; in fact, they hardly came at all. Eventually, it became a Blue Light Youth Camp and for many years it ran successfully.
The question is: what of Derby Hill’s future? According to Ian Mason, those parties who are interested in the property “…would add value to it and it would be a good story for Maldon moving forward.”
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 4 November 2022 2022.
