It always feels
a little unfortunate to me that, one of the first things you see as you drive
off the Calder Freeway and into the little hamlet of Malmsbury (pop.831), is
the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre – all high fences and that stark,
unmistakable ‘prison’ architecture that’s inclined to put you off a place.
It’s a
custodial centre for young males (18-21), deemed “too vulnerable” to serve time
in adult prison. It’s set away from the village itself on what used to be the
old racecourse site but it’s still there – as everyone became painfully aware
in January 2017, when, during a riot around 15 ‘inmates’ escaped. Some were
arrested and others fled the area in stolen cars – although they were later
recaptured.
As a visitor to
the town, it’s momentarily off-putting but for the purposes of a short visit,
it’s easy enough to ‘close your eyes’ and pretend it’s not there.
Instead, I
started my exploration at the Malmsbury Cemetery. I always like a good country
cemetery. They’re usually quiet and peaceful and you can learn a lot about a
place and its people by reading the headstones. I followed the signs for a
kilometre or two out of town and pulled into a pleasing tree-lined driveway.
As I pulled up
to the main cemetery gate though, I couldn’t see beyond the sign
“CAUTION:
Please Beware of Snakes.”
I’ve made no
secret of abhorrence of snakes and my fears of coming face-to-face with one but
when I express this, almost every Australian I’ve met scoffs at me, saying
trite things like “oh they’re more afraid of you…,” “they’ll hide when they
hear you coming,” or “you’ll be lucky to ever see one.” I’m never consoled by
this.
So I figure,
when Australians actually go to the trouble of making a sign warning visitors
about snakes, they have to be big and plentiful. I take heed. I note the
warning. I do not get out of my car. I immediately drive back to the village
for strong coffee. I’m perfectly happy to be called a wimp!
I headed for the
Old Post Café - on my last visit to Malmsbury it had provided me with
everything I needed after the 11 kilometres or so I’d driven from nearby
Kyneton. But it wasn’t to be. The Old Post Office Café is no more. The sign is
still there but now it’s a second hand store of some sort; and at 11.30am on a
Thursday, it was closed to all visitors.
I didn’t mind. I photographed their
front window display instead – a quirky mix of a giant, toothy head skeleton,
robots, big-eyed dolls and a mini replica of Her Majesty the Queen. I wasn’t
buying but I this was another to pique my interest as to what they might have
inside.
A couple of
doors away, is the old Mechanics Institute building. Every town in Victoria
seems to have one and I was going to read up and see what they were all about;
but I see some obliging person has already done it and raised a sign for
ignorant people just like me. I hope you can read it!
I did discover
however, that the world’s first Mechanics Institute opened in Edinburgh,
Scotland in 1821; and in Australia, the first was opened in 1827, in Hobart,
Tasmania. It’s a concept that caught on fast in Australia and during the 1850s,
they spread throughout Victoria wherever a school, hall or library was
required. Over 1,200 were built in Victoria alone and the buildings of 500 of
those still remain – and over 50 of them have plaques just like this one. The
Malmsbuy Mechanics Institute is now used for bingo, yoga, art classes and local
meetings and events.
A few doors
away, the Malmsbury Motel Hotel TAB and drive-through bottle store deserves a
note, if only for its ability to be all things to all people – although a
slightly terse note in the window “Public Toilets are Located in the Botanic Gardens” suggests a publican tired of
redirecting non-drinking/eating patrons away from the premises.
If you’re
interested, you can dine on 300gram Scotch fillet steak here for $32, or
grilled barramundi with lemon and dill aioli for $25.
The General
Store seemed classically ‘general,’ as they continue the
purveyors-of-all-things traditions “established in 1855; and the Small Holdings
Café across the road was locked up and “Closed until Spring.”
Following the
crowd – if half a dozen random visitors in the street can be called that – I
found myself in the Malmsbury Bakery. Sometimes the need for caffeine overrides
any interior preferences; although I did find solace in the fat loaves of
freshly-baked bread lining the rear shelves.
There’s also
something charming and unassuming about a place that hangs up a giant sign
proclaiming: “Malmsbury’s magnificent meaty moreish meaty meat pie morsels.”
I didn’t avail
myself of a meat pie but a small group of American visitors appeared to be
loading up on fat sausage rolls and more than one of those aforementioned
“meaty morsels.”
It’s easy to
feel much better about a place when you’ve downed two good cups of coffee and a
fat slice of excellent chocolate brownie (that you didn’t need), and so it was,
as I took to streets to take in the local housing stock – and the famous
bluestone viaduct.
It’s a handsome
structure, built from local bluestone in 1859-60. It’s 149m long and has five
arches (each of which has a span of 18m and rises 22m above the Coliban River).
Nearly 9,000m3 of solid stone was used in its construction and it cost 72,000
pounds to build. On its completion, it was the largest masonry bridge built in
Australia.
The Botanic
Gardens are nearby and beyond that the main street takes you out towards
Daylesford and Taradale. At this point, it’s easy to think you’ve seen the town
but over the Coliban River and up the hill, there’s an interesting cluster of
old buildings, the Malmsbury Railway Station (bluestone of course), a pretty
vineyard and another whole residential neighbourhood.
It’s up here
that you find The Mansions, a closed-up monster of a building in a state of
neglect. Now privately owned, it is made up of two parts – what was once the
early, wooden Junction Hotel; and a stone hotel and shops that replaced what
was thought to be an original butcher’s shop. The hotel side of things closed
in 1914 and it later became accommodation and headquarters for a religious
group – as evidenced in the sign plastered across its side: ”Jesus said ‘Come
unto me and I will give you rest.’
Across the road
was another sign: “Horse Poo $2.
The irony was
not lost on me.
