Maldon Museum's Online Archives

Maldon Shire Hall

The Maldon Museum is housed in the Maldon Shire Hall – This building itself is a major artefact.  An early decision of the first Maldon municipal body (1858) was to build a Market House to stimulate local trade.  It included a large underfloor roofwater tank to supply the fire engine and townspeople willing to pay four shillings a load.  The building rose amid some controversy, with accusations that inadequate foundations and a lack of lime in the mortar caused the buckling of the walls – which apparently righted themselves!

Unfortunately, in spite of several launches, it failed as a Market House.  For some time it was used only for church gatherings, to house the fire engine and the dog pound.  In 1864 it was remodelled with two side lobbies to support the walls and a front porch with a balcony for ceremonial events. The front half of the building became four Shire Offices, hallway and strong room, with an area for social activities above which overlooked the stage and dance floor constructed in the back half of the building. Newspaper accounts record dancing downstairs with cards, quoits, darts, and supper upstairs.

Old museum display

In 1964 the Shire of Maldon moved to new premises nearby, and in 1966 the Maldon (& District) Museum was established in the building.  Until 2009 the museum was run by volunteers on a tight budget.  The collection needed greater protection from theft and environmental damage as many displays were feeling the effects of time and poor storage/display methods.  Realising the huge amount of work that had been put into the museum over time and the importance of the collection to Maldon, a small group of volunteers attracted over AU $40,000 in Federal Government stimulus money.  This money is being used to purchase new showcases for the collection, custom built by Click Systems in Melbourne.  Aside from the protection the cabinets offer, they give museum staff the chance to reorganise the collection to highlight significant objects and provide detailed interperative information.

New exhibition, under construction

Significant items in the collection include a full run of Tarrengower Times – Maldon’s oldest local newspaper back to the 1850′s, nearly 3000 antique photos of Maldon life, many rare mining artefacts and items used by the Maldon Shire Council in the current building.  One particularly important item held by the museum is the large 1887 banner created for the Maldon Branch of the Amalgamated Miners Association of Australasia.  The banner is painted on cotton, and depicts the miner with his shovel and plundered background shaking hands with the mining investor with his plus fours, hunting gun and manicured gardens. The banner was paraded down the streets of Maldon attached to a horse-drawn float on the miners’ annual picnic day, granted as a day without pay by the mining investors. In recent years, the banner has been stabilised and repaired at a cost of over AU $22,000.
Currently the Museum is reviewing its admission times and charges – these will be posted on this site as soon as possible.  Please see our contact page for further information.