Maldon - Notable Town
Maldon Township,, MALDON VIC 3463 - Property No B2049
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Statement of Significance
Maldon is a small country town surveyed in 1854, following the Tarrengower gold-rush of 1853. Seventeen separate reefs were discovered in the immediate area, and in the following five years the population reached 20,000, with possibly 2000 Chinese. The town had over 400 buildings including 20 hotels. By the time mining ceased in 1926, more than 12 million pounds worth of gold had been produced from the numerous mines surrounding the township. It had already declined markedly in size and population; by 1891 Maldon had settled into a role as a small country town with a population reduced to 1600. Mainly servicing the surrounding agricultural area, and off any main highways, there was little new development or growth for the next half a century. In the 1960s. its remarkable state of preservation was noted by the National Trust, and in 1965 it was declared a 'Notable Town', the first such classification in Australia. For at least the following decade, the National Trust became the advisory body for any changes or restorations. Through the later 20th century the town has been assiduously preserved, many buildings authentically restored and 20th century elements such as signage designed or modified to ensure sympathy with the historic environment. Its main business is now servicing the tourists drawn to admire the most intact mid-19th century town in Victoria.
The Maldon township and surrounding area is historically, architecturally and socially significant at the National level.
Maldon is historically and architecturally significant as a remarkably intact gold-rush era town, comprising numerous houses and businesses, public buildings, hotels, a small theatre, and a verandahed shopping street, complete with wide stone gutters. The classified area is wide, including the wider cultural landscape of former mining sites, as well as the streets, houses, shops, public buildings and so on of the town itself. It is also important as a picturesque town, with an irregular layout not typical in Victoria, determined by the topography and the diggings, creating unusual vistas, and a dispersed, varied townscape. An unusually wide variety of construction types are to be found, with the typical timber, brick and render structures accompanied by buildings constructed of the local stone, as well as early and smaller outbuildings constructed in vertical timber slabs, wattle and daub and pise.
Maldon is also historically and socially significant as the first entire town in Australia to be declared 'historic', and worthy of preservation. Maldon can be seen as the seminal example of urban conservation, a concept now widely adopted and practised across Victoria and indeed Australia.
Town of Malden Classified: 02/12/1965
Classified: National 02/08/2007
Revised: 07/07/2010
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MALDON DISTRICT HOSPITALVictorian Heritage Register H1683
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GORDONVILLEVictorian Heritage Register H0412
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FORMER MALDON COURT HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H1652
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