Our Retirement Plan

Time visited: August 2023

Time spent: Five hours

When Rakesh and I 'fly the nest', leaving our suburban two-bedroom flat to ShNaajh and her future cats, we want to settle in Maldon.

How we came to know about Australia's first notable town is a story in itself! We were in Daylesford on a cold and wet day and spent much of our time at the Convent Gallery. Two artists were present there on the day, one of them Liadaan. Liadaan told us about Maldon, and the Gothic Festival, which would take place in the town on the first weekend of August. She said she would have a pop-up gallery opposite the Kangaroo Hotel and if we visited, we should drop in to say hello.

That was all the encouragement we needed to learn what we could about Maldon prior to our visit on 6 August 2023. The Goldfields Guide was a great resource, and we watched a few YouTube videos by Wander Explore Discover, Bendigo Aerial, and TheCurrieS. We planned to leave early so that we were at the Dredge and Dragline by 9:00. We would then drive to Mount Tarrengower Lookout and from there to Maldon Railway Station. Then we would come to the town centre and explore High Street and Main Street on foot. Given this was a Sunday, we wanted to leave Maldon by 2:00-2:30, and we felt that that was all we could manage within the time.

105 kilometres on Calder Freeway (M79), 13 on Fogartys Gap Road and a couple more on Bendigo-Maldon Road, and we were pulling in at the Dredge and Dragline just a bit before 9:00. It was a glorious morning - the air was crisp and the sun filtered through the tall gum trees. The eerie quiet of the morning was interrupted by passing cars and our footsteps on the gravel and wet grass. The majestic dredge sat like a forgotten king on the still, murky water. The dredge was brought here by one George Haywood in the 1950s and he operated it until 1978. Four years later, someone called Bill Andreson operated the dredge again, apparently as a tribute to George Haywood, but even he stopped using it in 1984. The dragline had a similar fate. Brought here from a coal mine, the dragline would follow the dredge around and help with maintenance, but it was of little value and was abandoned in the same spot where it remains. Standing in front of these relics on that glorious morning full of possibilities, my heart ached for all things lost.

As planned, we headed to Mount Tarrengower Lookout next. A short drive up the mountain past Butts Reserve took us to the tower. Apparently, the tower was built to revive the dying town of Maldon after gold mining ceased in the 1920s. It was hoped that a tall tower offering a panoramic view of the region would attract tourists (and it sure did!). When a suitable tower was found in Bendigo, it was bought for £87, dismantled, brought to Mount Tarrengower on a horse-drawn timber jinker and erected in its current spot. The top level, which offers vision up to 40 miles (60+ kilometres), is off-limits because it's used for fire-spotting, but the lower levels are accessible to the public. Needless to say, the view would be breathtaking on any given day, but the sunbathed landscape on that morning had an unmissable touch of magnificence and magic.

We would love to return to Maldon during Easter and stay overnight. Why? Because the tower, believed to be the home of the Easter Bunny, is decorated with lights and can be seen from 50 kilometres away. Before Maldon had electricity, lanterns made with stone ginger beer bottles, hemp wicks and kerosene were attached to fencing wire for the light show. The wind would blow many of the lights out, of course, and one year, the tower caught fire from one of the lanterns!

Maldon Historic Railway was a short drive from the Tower. It was 10:30. Two elderly volunteers were busy pruning the plants and picking up stray dry leaves from the platform. We walked along the tracks for a bit. The serenity of the morning was so comforting that it could lull time to sleep. Maldon Station reminded me of Adlestrop. It was perhaps the charming red brick building under the vast blue sky. Or the bare platform. Or the fragments of our conversation. Or the warbling of magpies.

Maldon station is a time capsule. As we walked around, we paused to look at the advertisements and posters, which were recreated with an olden-day colour palette and a lot of love.

The steam train from Castlemaine arrives in Maldon at 12:15 and departs two and a half hours later. A train trip to Castlemaine is on our bucket list. We'd then perhaps ride the steam train to Maldon...

We saw the Beehive Mine Chimney on our way to the station as we turned left into Hornsby Street. It didn't seem too far. One of the volunteers at the station confirmed that we could indeed walk there. The path was part of the Castlemaine-Maldon Trail. It was a pleasant walk.

How did the mine get its name? One day, when the miners working in the shaft came up for lunch (- actually, for crib, since it would've been a packed lunch), they spotted a swarm of bees on the post. One promptly suggested that the mine be called the Beehive, and the name stuck!

We'd heard that this Beehive Chimney was the sole surviving specimen of its age and size in Victoria. The chimney was built by a swagman who came seeking bricklaying work. He stayed in the engine house during the construction of the chimney. The work finished in 1863 and he went back to England. Upon his return to Australia, he stayed in the engine house again before journeying to New Zealand and England. He came back to the engine house, apparently, but then there were no further records of his whereabouts. No one knew his name.

How ironic that the relic he built has endured time, but time has erased his name.

We walked back to the station and drove to the town centre. Finding parking wasn't easy. The Gothic Festival had attracted quite a large crowd. Despite our black clothes (and the darkest shade of lipstick I own), we felt a little out of place amongst the impressive Goths, but the ambience was remarkably cool. We drove a little further from High Street and parked on Templeton Street, opposite the Grain Store, a holiday rental.

Following a quick detour to a public toilet, which was very clean, we headed straight to the Visitor Information Centre. Even though we didn't have the time to explore Maldon to our hearts' content, we wanted to gather as much information as we could about the town and its various natural and historic attractions. And we weren't disappointed! A large section of a wall at the Visitor Centre was full of booklets and brochures about Maldon and its surroundings. As Rakesh and ShNaajh scanned through those, I went over to the counter, where a gentleman stood with what looked like a freshly made cuppa.

We greeted each other. I asked him if he grew up in Maldon. He said his family moved there when he was a young boy. They used to live in Vermont. One weekend, the boy's mother was gone for hours. When she returned, she told the family she'd bought a house in Maldon! A few weeks later, they packed up their home, and the dog and cat, in the family car and drove to Maldon. Their first home in Maldon still stood in Templeton Street - it was the only house on an angle. There was a gum tree by the front gate. He remembered when the sapling first pushed through a crack in the paving.

When we returned to the car later that afternoon, we walked a few metres to see the house. It was indeed the only house on an angle - the only house not facing Templeton Street. I looked it up on Google Maps just the other night. Google Street View from November 2024 showed that the house still stood there, still on an angle, but the top of the gum tree had been chopped off. My heart sank. I realised I never asked the man his name.

With a selection of brochures and a few souvenirs in the backpack, we left the Visitor Information Centre and went looking for Liadaan's pop-up gallery opposite the Kangaroo Hotel. She was there. I don't know if she actually remembered us from Daylesford, but she received us graciously. Her small gallery was filled with gothic-themed paintings and sculptures. Cats had a special place in her work. ShNaajh was happy.

Then we wandered the streets of Maldon for a while, admiring the Victorian architecture and shopfronts, as well as the gothic extravaganza around us. There were a few hearses with corpse limbs sticking out of them. They were very popular among young people!

We didn't know that Maldon Bakery was 'the oldest continuously running bakery in Australia', but we spotted it in Main Street just when we were starting to get hungry. It was busy, so we quickly grabbed three sausage rolls. Albeit tasty, at $7.50 each, they were the most expensive sausage rolls we've ever had. We ate them in the sunny courtyard. The bakery was opened by George McArthur Sr. in 1854 and was run by various members of the McArthur family until 1937. You can still see 'McArthur's Bakery' written above the awning.

An iconic building all the videos about Maldon showed was the Cascade Gallery, which, unfortunately, was closed for renovation when we visited. As we were taking photos of the strikingly red brick building, ShNaajh's attention was drawn to a cat wandering about the yard! ShNaajh walked towards the cat, and a lady, presumably the owner of the cat and the gallery, walked towards us. We chatted for a bit, about Maldon, about the gallery, and about the cat. The cat, blind in one eye and much loved, was given to them by the previous owners. There was a large sculpture of him in the yard made by the lady's husband.

It was probably around 1:30. We wanted to visit the Maldon District Museum before heading home. The large room was filled with numerous olden-day artefacts, but what caught my eye were the blackboard compasses. We had these at my school in Kolkata during the 90s! They lived in the Map Room, where wooden stands held rolled-up maps of the world and its many magical lands.

As planned, we left Maldon around 2:30 and were home in two and a half hours.

We could've called this post 'Maldon in One Day Challenge', but one day is not enough to fully experience Australia's first notable town. As we left, we were struck by a strange feeling of temporal distance intertwined with awe. Though far removed from the hustle and bustle of the gold mining era, the town was still blessed and graced by it all. And we wanted to grow old there.