Viv Markham, Tarrangower Times
Since the 1960s, heritage has been an important part of Maldon’s persona. It’s therefore surprising that the recently published and updated Maldon Design Guidelines (MDG) was not announced with a little more fanfare. Instead, the new MDG have flown into town under the radar, with a quiet council press release and no associated social media postings.
The [Tarrangower] Times has decided to shed a little more light on the new MDG by interviewing three Maldon residents who are knowledgeable regarding heritage matters. Historian and heritage consultant Robyn Ballinger sat on the advisory committee that provided council and its consultants with input during the revision process for the MDG. Also on the committee was architect Brad Hooper; he and fellow architect Andrew Fedorowicz have accumulated many years of knowledge and experience working on projects in Central Victoria and further afield.
Time for comment
The time taken to navigate the MDG through to its final form has been, in Robyn Ballinger’s opinion, one of the overall strengths of the project. “It wasn’t pushed through and that gave plenty of time for comment,” she said.
Robyn is hopeful that the MDG will play a significant role in protecting Maldon’s heritage values in the years to come. “Other places in the shire don’t have design guidelines, so we’re fortunate to have them. But how well are the MDG known? If you come to town to live, do you know they exist?”
In Robyn’s view, the big question with the new MDG is how they will be used and how well they will be interpreted. “Opinions differ from one heritage advisor to the next,” she said, “and there is currently no heritage advisor. Ultimately they are only guidelines, and in the end, it will all come down to interpretation.”
Tool to manage change
As a tool that will be used regularly in his architectural practice, Brad Hooper describes the new MDG as “…a pretty document that are great for dealing with miners’ cottages and the central core of the town. But it becomes unworkable in terms of setbacks and other issues when applied to more modern dwellings built further out, in the significant landscape overlay.”
According to Brad, the MDG fall short in acknowledging the heritage values of anything built in Maldon from the early 20th century. “Maldon used to be the shire seat and so it was the capital city, really,” he said. “There are some grand 1950s and 1960s cream brickers that tell quite a story about the town’s social history. Another significant building is the old shire offices.”
Brad takes issue with the constant level ground line in the explanatory diagrams in the MDG. “Every drawing fails to take terrain into account,” he said. “And there aren’t too many flat blocks of land in Maldon.”
Something of an oversight: while the MDG cover residential and commercial properties, there appears to be no specific guidelines provided for areas that are in the public sphere. This includes parks, reserves, footpaths, gutters, roads and other infrastructure that falls under council jurisdiction.
On the plus side, Brad welcomes the fact that the new MDG allow more latitude when it comes to colour schemes and the range of building materials.
Brad pointed out that, with four architects living locally, Maldon is a town that is well-placed for those seeking information about design and heritage. “Advice is always available close to hand,” he said.
A final word from Brad: “The MDG are a tool to manage change, not an absolute.”
A good document
Architect Andrew Fedorowicz believes that he will be able to work well with the new MDG. “This is a good document,” he said. “They haven’t made many changes. There are some refinements, some terminology has been changed and, of course, there are some additions.”
According to Andrew, the redevelopment and restoration of an old property must be in sympathy with the building’s heritage. “You must maintain the look and feel of a building without doing anything stupid,” he said. “An extension mustn’t overpower what went before. The new MDG provide sensible advice that, if used, should achieve a good result.”
Good design, but…
Finally, an editor’s (this writer’s) point of view: the MDG are contained in a document that represents a triumph of design over substance. There are many full-page photographs–16 of them, in fact. There are also six blank pages. This has blown what could potentially be a 63-page document into an 85-page screed. Not an easy scroll if you’re working with an online document.
Although the photographs are excellent, they are not always appropriate. For instance, the photograph chosen to illustrate new development shows the shop situated between Much Ado and Le Sel. This shop is not a new development. The real estate agent’s building would have been a better choice. Built around 20 years ago in what used to be the garden of the old State Savings Bank, the real estate office IS a new development–although from its design, which matches Berryman’s next door, you wouldn’t know it. There are also some errors in the text–e.g. spell check has transformed a lych gate into a lynch gate (there were no hangings at the front of Maldon’s churches, as far as we know. And no lych gates either).
These small glitches add up to the suspicion that, despite a gestation period of some years, the final publication of the MDG has been hurried through to completion.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 7 July 2023.
