Words by Mat.
We started our day at the Calder Park rest stop on a very windy Sunday morning, with both the Rover club and the Macedon ranges car club also using the same location as their starting point for their travels.
Greeted with an assortment of vehicles our large group of Motafrenz, around 30, made our way to the historic town of Maldon, the first in Australia to be listed as such.
We arrived to the Maldon Vintage Machinery Museum, where Dot and family in their lovely Jaguar met us, a volunteer run museum full of an eclectic mix of machinery, from steam engines, printing presses, household appliances, fire service and more as shall be seen in the pictures.
The volunteers were kind enough to show us around and provide insight into the machinery present, most of it locally sourced from Maldon and its surrounds. The manual linotype printing presses were used to printer the local paper, the Tarrengower times, until 1991!
Towards the end of the tour as the rain started to descend, we decided to make our way to the centre to have lunch.
We decided to have a meal in the Kangaroo Hotel, sheltered away from the now pelting rain. It turned out to be a busy kitchen and thus the meals took a while to arrive. Despite the delay it was lovely to be able to eat and socialise in a warm, relaxed atmosphere.
The delay meant that we had to put off the visit to Carman’s tunnel and Mt Tarrengower lookout, most of the group decided to have a wander around town and look at the anti-Q’s (thanks Chris G).
Phil and I decided to visit the tunnel, it was a pleasant tour and the guide was very knowledgeable, and the lookout was interesting despite the cold rain.
There is an annual vintage car hill climb up Mt Tarrengower.
I recommend anyone to check out these locales next time in Maldon, or possibly for a future event.
Thanks to everyone for attending!
