Your town needs you – Part 1

Michele Waddington, Tarrangower Times

This is the first part of a series on Maldon’s application for listing by the Australian Heritage Council as the outstanding 19th-century Australian Goldfields central precinct. We are following Glenrowan’s Ned Kelly precinct listing and Beechworth’s application for the quintessential Australian Goldfields Town precincts. Part 1 claims that Maldon’s authentic and integrated streetscape was the impetus for heritage protection in Australia. That alone should carry some weight in considering heritage protection listing.

Perhaps surprisingly, an Australian Government Heritage Council listing of Maldon Central Heritage Precinct (Main and High streets) would be the sole recognition of Maldon’s unique attributes external to Mount Alexander Shire’s planning system. You may be familiar with the National Trust’s First Notable Town (1966) and perhaps the (Commonwealth’s) National Estate’s Maldon Conservation Area (1980) as acknowledgement of the town’s claim to fame. Neither exists now – but Maldon was the genesis for the heritage preservation component of environmental and Aboriginal legislation.

It all began in 1964, when a Castlemaine member of the National Trust, Helen Vellacott, prompted Prof. Brian Lewis of the School of Architecture of Melbourne University to investigate the heritage value of Maldon. Subsequently, a group led by Miles Lewis surveyed Maldon, finding a remarkably well-preserved 19th-century gold town. Consequently, the National Trust (Victoria) (chaired by Prof. Lewis) introduced a new Australian heritage preservation category, Notable Town, which could be used by Maldon to encourage tourism. Maldon claimed the Notable Town title in 1966; however, the Australian National Trust rejected the notion and the matter was (officially) dropped.

Maldon’s new publicity fitted in nicely with a back-to-the-bush Australiana upsurge where ‘authenticity’ was represented by Mission Brown and rusty iron, spiced here by the lure of gold using the new metal detectors. But the National Trust (Vic.) was concerned by Maldon’s popularity, with weekenders’ restoration of derelict miners’ cottages and Maldon Shire’s enthusiasm trampling on heritage values with its 1964 Shire offices and new toilet block. The Trust put a proposal to the Victorian Town and Country Planning Board in 1969 to preserve the town from too much love. They recommended planning controls backed by the Trust’s heritage knowledge and advice (now the Council’s Heritage Adviser) to manage a potential building boom, especially infill properties or subdivisions observed from View Point (Bank Corner). The Board concurred, issuing an interim order in January 1970; the Maldon Planning Scheme was promulgated in 1973 and gazetted in 1977. The Maldon Conservation Study was commissioned in 1977 to provide guidelines to maintain an 1860-1899 aspect to the precinct, which prevails to this day – but only at a local government level (Heritage Overlay 445). The plan shown here is not the current HO445 which has grown north and west past the central precinct’s focus around View Point.

The Commonwealth recognised the new heritage preservation movement by setting up an interim Australian Heritage Commission in 1973 and the Register of the National Estate was established in the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975. The Maldon Conservation Area was listed on the Register in October 1980:

Maldon is an outstanding example of a nineteenth century gold mining town. It is probably the most remarkable, most intact example of a nineteenth century gold town in Australia.

But new legislation in 2003 that established the Australian Heritage Council (under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) abandoned the National Estate list and its 13,000 entries were archived by 2012. A new building and environment listing process, therefore, began in 2004.

Whilst the 1973 Australian Government legislation set the heritage protection theme, operational legislation (town planning/heritage overlays) was passed by Victoria in 1974, New South Wales in 1977, and South Australia in 1978, others later. Thus Maldon was part of the fledgling Australian Heritage movement courtesy of the Professors Lewis (Brian and Miles). The story is at https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/691515/maldon-revisited/

A New Title, Maldon Central Heritage Precinct

There are three jurisdictions for Heritage protection lists: international, national and state. On the global level, there is a Central Victorian Goldfields World Heritage Bid in progress, led by Ballarat and enjoined by 12 other local governments, including the Shire of Mount Alexander. It’s due to be ratified in 2026 and Maldon will be a (tiny) part of that, acknowledged along with a substantial slice of Victoria. The state level is represented by the Victorian Heritage Database which contains Maldon public buildings, the cemetery, and the Miners’ Union Banner. However, it also contains items from heritage overlays and an old National Trust database, therefore multiple entries are possible. That leaves the feds.

The Australian Heritage Council received an application last month for listing the streetscape and architectural integrity of the Maldon Central Heritage Precinct as defined in a previous Planning Heritage Overlay No. 445 to simplify the jurisdictional heritage parameters. The Australian Heritage’s indicators of significance demanding outstanding value in heritage values are: Events and processes, Rarity, Research (data rich), Characteristics of a class or place, Aesthetics, Creative or technical achievements, Social value. Maldon’s responses under these criteria will be explained later in the series.

Heritage in all its guises, Aboriginal, environment and parks, and that developed over the last centuries, has intense competition external to the Shire. We must engage by promoting our town, not least in support of our invaluable businesses, volunteers and our outstanding way of life. 

This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 12 May 2023.