Maldon

Maldon is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Mount Alexander local government area.

Maldon is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Mount Alexander local government area. It has been designated "Australia's first notable town" and is notable for its 19th-century appearance, maintained since gold-rush days. At the 2016 census, Maldon had a population of 1,513.

The district where Maldon now stands was first visited by white European colonialists in 1836, during Major Thomas Mitchell's famous Victorian expedition.It was settled soon afterwards by pastoralists, and two sheep runs were established in the area, at the foot of nearby Mount Tarrengower.In December 1853, gold was discovered at Cairn Curran (the name given to one of the sheep runs), and Maldon became a part of the Victorian Gold Rush.The goldfield which was named "Tarrangower Fields" after Mount Tarrangower (now usually referred to as Tarrengower), immediately attracted numbers of people eager to make their fortunes at the diggings.One month after gold was first discovered, the Chief Commissioner for Goldfields reported 3000 miners had arrived at the diggings.A month after that, a journalist for The Argus reported that the road from Castlemaine to Maldon was lined with the shops of people hoping to make a living of their own from the miners:

The road follows up the course of Long Gully, where the diggings were first opened, for a couple of miles, and is lined on either side by an almost continuous row of stores, refreshment tents, eating houses, doctors' tents, apothecaries' shops, and, in fact, shops of every description. The same report noted that the goldfield's population had already grown to 18,000, though only about 1000 had taken out mining licences.

In 1856 the Victorian government arranged for the settlement to become a town, which was named Maldon. The post office had opened on 14 March 1854. The town's street plan is irregular and unlike more orderly subdivisions which relied on a gridiron pattern.A market hall made of brick was erected in 1859 at a cost £1,250. It continued to serve as such till 1866 when it was converted into shire offices. A court house was built in 1861 and a new post and telegraph office in 1870.In 1861, a government census declared the town's population to be 3341, servicing an additional 5,000-6,000 miners at the diggings.At that time it was the eighth-largest town in Victoria, and remained so for the next decade.However, as miners were forced to dig deeper to obtain usable specimens, or as mines ran dry completely, the population began to decline.By 1891, Maldon was reduced to 1,600 inhabitants. Mining of small claims continued through the 20th century, together with sluicing of gullies and tailings. In the 1980s, several new ventures commenced, including an open cut mine at Union Hill.

Maldon proved to be one of Victoria's richest quartz-mining centres, though with poorer alluvial results than others such as Castlemaine or Ballarat. Quartz mining extended southward through Sandy Creek to Newstead, along to Mia Mia and Muckleford, eastward to Fentimen’s and Smith’s Reefs, and even to near the peak of Mount Tarrangower. In all, over seventy reefs were proven to contain gold deposits. Maldon was known as a poor man’s diggings, with many excellent yields from very small claims.

The Maldon Magistrates' Court closed on 1 November 1981, not having been visited by a Magistrate since 1972.