We spent half a day exploring the nearby towns of Maldon and Castlemaine, also former gold mining areas. Maldon is recognised as having a variety of architectural styles, with many buildings being largely unchanged since the 1850s.
The tourist brochure had a lot of hype about Maldon having the oldest continuously operating bakery, but we thought the food and coffee were ordinary. We visited a few of the clothing shops but didn’t make any purchases.
The Bank of New South Wales was established in 1817, and the Maldon bank building was constructed in 1858. It is now a private residence.
A lot of the materials used in buildings erected in Australia in the 1800s were imported from England, Scotland or Wales. One example is the cast iron fencing beside the bank building. Another is the curved green tiles on shops across the toad. Sections of footpath are the original stone pavers.
We drove 18kms to the much larger town of Castlemaine, which has traffic lights! There are several large grand buildings in this town, but some have been gutted, leaving only the facades. The former market building has equally spaced timber doors along both sides. Merchants backed their horses and carts up to their respective doors to sell their goods inside the market hall. The building is now used as a gallery and as the Information centre. The now green timber roof structure supports the original corrugated iron roof. The cast iron gates are impressive.
We refuelled on our way back to the caravan park, queuing at a busy service station selling cheap fuel. I topped up our water tanks, but it took nearly two hours to fill our potable tank, and we don’t know why. This problem first occurred when we were in WA a couple of years ago. I will have to consult the Bushtracker brains trust via Facebook.
For dinner, we returned to Bunja Thai in the city centre, where we could park right outside the restaurant.
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