Rich pickings in old digs

Kathy Evans finds modern treasures in a sturdy miners cottage.

It's funny to think that one man's idea of poverty is another man's luxury. Once upon a time, miners' cottages were ramshackle affairs; hasty constructions built by fossickers more interested in striking gold than creature comforts.

Nowadays, they are the weekend retreats for suburban types who yearn a bit of culture or tradition. Stuart Mill Cottage is just such a place; a sturdy weatherboard on the outskirts of Maldon bearing the hallmarks of a miner's refuge, namely a huge brick fireplace, a corrugated roof and a distinctly rustic feel.

Thankfully, it has had a few mod cons added since it was built in 1872; a toilet removes the need for chamber pots and half-a-dozen filthy miners could scrub up in the huge spa bath. The laughing Buddha at the doorway is obviously a modern touch, as are the washing machine, tumble dryer, electric oven, ceiling fans and extra heaters in the two double bedrooms, not forgetting the stereo, DVD player and television. How on earth did our predecessors manage?

Come night-time though, with the huge fire roaring and the adults taking it in turns to shuffle logs in from the wraparound verandah, you get a sense of what life may once have been like. Through the back window, Mount Tarrengower rears up in the distance, a huge, dark, geometric shape; all the gold that once lay beneath, drawing prospectors in their droves, long gone.

Stuart Mill Cottage is a seven-minute walk from the town centre but you could be in the middle of nowhere. Set in a huge, overgrown garden, the lights from the neighbouring properties are merely winking stars and the silence can keep you awake. Come daytime, you can cross the heathland behind the cottage, where the chimney stack from the ruins of the Beehive Mine points a proud finger to the sky, and you will eventually hit the town's Main Street, with its European trees, flagstone paving and old-fashioned shops.

At first glance, the centre of Maldon looks like a film set. Not a single garish shop sign or ugly silhouette interrupts the skyline. In 1966 the National Trust named it Australia's first "notable town" and legislation is in place to ensure it stays that way. With its plethora of antiques and old-fashioned sweet and chocolate shops, it could be in danger of being twee but somehow isn't; Maldon still feels like a working town.

The first shop we enter sells chickens in cages and snake repellent. A notice in the window advertises groceries delivered by donkey and cart. When we visit, it is raining and the streets are quiet; it's hard to imagine there were once 20,000 miners and their families thronging the place. Maldon became a ghost town at the end of the gold rush and during the 1930s and '40s was particularly downtrodden. It had no money to bulldoze its past and build newer buildings, which is why its heritage remains intact.