Thanks to ex-Shire Engineer Bill Moore for this article about the old Shire of Maldon, which was swallowed up by Mount Alexander Shire 30 years ago.
Bill Moore, Tarrangower Times
This year is the 30th anniversary of the demise of the Shire of Maldon. Yes, it’s 30 years since we were ‘Jeffed’ by the newly elected Liberal government led by Jeff Kennett.
Who can remember what this previous Shire was like before it was amalgamated with the Shires of Newstead and Metcalfe and the City of Castlemaine? It was subdivided into three ridings, each with three councillors.
Prior to August 1987, the three ridings were Baringhup, Maldon and Walmer. Baringhup was in the west, roughly west from Shelbourne Road, the Mount and Newstead Road. Maldon Riding covered the Township and extended to the racecourse in the east, the Nuggetty Road in the north and down to the Flying Pig (Sells Lane) in the south. The eastern side of the Shire was Walmer Riding.
The Local Government Act required councillors to serve three year terms and one councillor from each riding retired each year. We therefore had annual elections. This system gave a continuation of council thinking and activity.
I came to Maldon at the end of 1973 when the Council consisted of Crs MacGregor (farmer), Pickering (farmer) and Broom (farmer) in the Baringhup Riding. Crs Steele (school bus operator), Laity (car salesman) and Mason (full time Maldon hospital manager) represented the Maldon Riding. Crs Comini (orchardist), Fitzpatrick (farmer) and Smith (Forest Commission Officer) were in the Walmer Riding.
Rex Beach was Shire Secretary and office staff consisted of two typists. Council met once a month on Thursday evening. Council meetings were preceded by an in-camera finance committee meeting attended by all councillors and in which every expenditure during the previous month was examined by Council. Two councillors signed off on each expenditure and two councillors and the Shire Secretary signed each cheque. This system made over-spending quite rare and councillors were up to speed on all activities.
Council directed the senior officers in works they wanted attended to and required reports on the progress thereof. They dealt with general matters that came across the Shire Secretary’s desk during the month and determined matters the Engineer put forward, including town planning.
It’s a little different these days, but of course Council has a lot more business on its plate.
Over the years, since the 1950s, there were a number of attempts to restructure local government until the mid 1980s when the Kerner Labor government tried a full restructure. This effort was soundly defeated by the 212 Councils in Victoria but there was a successful push in 1987 to redraw the internal ward/riding boundaries in each council to provide subdivisions with equal populations. To achieve this locally the Maldon Township was split to have a third of it in each of the three new ridings.
The new subdivision was Tarrengower Riding in the west, Gowar Riding in the south east and Nuggetty Riding in the north east. There was a full spill of all the old councillors and nominations called for three councillors in each of the three new ridings. This resulted in 23 people seeking one of the nine seats.
Local government uses an exhaustive preferential election system and this resulted in it taking from Saturday evening to Wednesday to decide the result of the election. The councillors elected and the senior council officers were: Peter Baker, Tony Fitzpatrick, Reg McDonald, Margret Dunn, Keith Roberts, Garry Rewell, Alf Treloar, Arch Martin, Moira Whiteman (Shire President), Bill Moore (Shire Engineer) and Nick Zandberg, (Acting Shire Secretary).
This system continued until the election that brought the Kennett government to power in 1993. In the runup to this election, the Liberal party promised no local government restructure but it only took weeks for the obvious.
I note in the March 28 TT in his article on development in Maldon Mark Blythe concludes with, ‘Maldon can and must be the master of its own destiny.’
Well Mark, it’s too late. That was taken away from Maldon with its amalgamation with Castlemaine, Newstead and Metcalfe into the Shire of Mt Alexander.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 12 April 2024.
