History

The Maldon Athenaeum was established as a mechanics institute in 1863, less than ten years after the town of Maldon was gazetted. In that time, the town had largely transformed from a diggers’ camp of tents to more permanent buildings of wood, stone or brick, sometimes constructed by reinforcing the original tent. A miner at the time, James Montague Smith, described how, ‘… as winter was coming on we built snug chimneys and made our tents comfortable by lining them with green baize’.

With the townsfolk putting down roots, the need for a mechanics institute began to be mooted. These were being set up in new townships around Victoria, providing adult education programs, libraries, newspapers as well as social and recreational events.

The first mention we have of a mechanics’ institute for Maldon is in The Tarrangower Times and Maldon District Advertiser (as it was called at that time) on 12 October 1858 (its first year of publication) when it reported that a deputation had been dispatched to Melbourne to lobby for funding. It most likely made the journey in the Cobb and Co coach line established four years earlier by the enterprising American Freeman Cobb and associates. The horse-drawn coach left Forest Creek (Castlemaine) for Melbourne every day at 6am. The journey took all day and cost £5 – a not inconsiderable sum at the time.

Unfortunately the delegation was unsuccessful but over the next couple of years Mr John Wilson Wright, the owner/publisher of the Tarrangower Times, staunchly advocated for an institute, proposing alternative names and exhorting Maldon’s inhabitants to greater effort.

A breakthrough seemed imminent when, in November 1860, the newspaper informed its readers of a public meeting to discuss the establishment of a mechanics’ institute. The newspaper also took the opportunity to raise the matter of a suitable name:

We may be permitted here to observe that the title of “Mechanics’ Institute” is hardly applicable to the establishment in question at Maldon. … The designation of “Miners’ Institute” would be more appropriate, but it would still be preferable to select a title which would not imply that the establishment was designated for the benefit of any particular class but of the whole community. No error could be committed in conferring upon it the simple title of “Literary and Scientific Institute;” or if a more ambitious one be desired that of “Athenaeum” might be applied.

The public meeting of residents took place at the Royal Hotel on 14 November 1860 where a committee was established and the name ‘Literary and Scientific Institution’ chosen. So far, so good but the next step of finding a building to house the new institute proved difficult.

First, the newly-formed committee asked the Council for the use of the empty Market House (now the Maldon Museum), but this was declined. Then they sought funding from the Government to erect a building, but this was rejected. Next, they resolved to apply for Government land and erect the building themselves. To do this though, they needed money, so in early 1861, they began a fund-raising lecture series. But when the second, on the topic of ‘Work’, was poorly attended, the series was abandoned.

After these set-backs, the idea of an institute slumbered for the next two years despite frequent exhortations and recriminations in the local paper. But then, in December 1862 The Tarrangower Times, Maldon and Newstead Advertiser (as it was now called), informed its readers that ‘a few enthusiastic gentlemen’ intended to resurrect the endeavour by ‘subscribing a certain sum per quarter each’ and hiring a room. The following week the newspaper ran an article emphasising the importance of books and the egalitarian nature of a lending library:

Books once confined to a few by their costliness, will become accessible to the many, and instead of depending on rumour, or vague conversation for most of their knowledge and objects of thought, the industrious miner may learn, study and reflect alone, to determine for himself what shall engage his mind …

The first meeting of members of the Maldon Mechanics’ Institute was held on 26 January 1863. The minutes record that it was held in the room of local builder, Mr Hornsby who was voted to the Chair. Misters McKowen, Walmsley, Smith, Hornsby and Phillips were elected as an interim committee.

After that, things moved swiftly. The first committee meeting was held two days later at Mr McKowen’s in the High Street. Mr Phillips took the minutes and agreed to act as Honorary Secretary with Mr McKowen as Treasurer. They then met twice more in February when the minutes record they:

• drafted rules based on those of the originator of the Mechanics’ Institute Movement and after considering those used by the Castlemaine Mechanics’ Institute
• drew up a list of periodicals to be ordered, including the Saturday Review, Home News, London Punch and Melbourne Punch
• purchased ‘two sets of chess and drafts men and boards’
• ordered a small table for chess playing to be made by Mr Hornsby
• purchased a kerosene swing lamp at the cost of 157 shillings
• requested Mr Hornsby to provide a cheap trestle table for the reading room
• ordered a number of newspapers − The Age, The Argus, Bells Life, The Bendigo Advertiser, Ballarat Standard and Yeoman − from Mr Thomas Hannay who owned the local newsagency in Main Street
• Appointed Mr Moon as Collector to the Institute and as Honorary Librarian.

On 17 February 1863, they placed an advertisement in the Tarrangower Times advising readers that a Reading Room, with newspapers, was now open in temporary accommodation. Triumph!

At a General Meeting of Members on 10 March 1863, the rules drafted by the interim Committee were adopted and office bearers elected. Mr F. Courtin was appointed as the first President with Mr A.D. Ellis as Vice-president. Others elected to the committee were Misters Lyon, McKowen, Tate, Brisco, Smith, Hornsby and Phillips. The Member of Parliament for the Maldon electorate, John Ramsay, was elected as an Honorary Member.

It was at this meeting that the name ‘The Maldon Athenaeum’ was adopted.

Lynda Achren
on behalf of the Maldon Athenaeum Library
2024

References

(All books are available at the library. Find them in our catalogue).

Austin, K.A. (1977) A pictorial history of Cobb & Co. Rigby, Melbourne. Pages 117−119.

Baragwanath, Pam (2000) If the walls could speak: a social history of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria. Publishing Solutions, Richmond. Pages 9−10.

Rhule, Brian (2019) Maldon: a new history 1853−1928. Exploring History Australia, Bendigo, Victoria. Page 28.

Smith, James Montague & Cuffley, Peter (editor) (2001) Send the boy to sea: the memoirs of a sailor on the goldfields. The Five Mile Press, Noble Park, Victoria. Page 81.

On-line sources

Cobb and Co. State Library Victoria − blogs.slv.vic.gov.au

National Library of Australia Digitised Newspapers − trove.nla.gov.au

• The Tarrangower Times and Maldon District Advertiser (existed 1858−1862)

• The Tarrangower Times, Maldon and Newstead Advertiser (existed 1862−1873)

Say, Madelaine (2020) Thomas Hannay, photographer in 19th-century western Victoria in ‘The La Trobe Journal No. 104 March 2020’. State Library Victoria − www.slv.vic.gov.au