Malthouse One

Malthouse One is the southernmost and oldest of the three malthouses that make up the Mittagong Maltings complex at 2 Colo Street, Mittagong. Construction began in early 1899, carried out by Stuart Brothers of Sydney, a firm that also built the offices of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. The bricks were sourced locally. The building was completed and commenced operation in August 1899, with George Lintott, a maltster previously based in New Zealand, appointed as the first manager. The original facility comprised one barley floor, grading and cleaning machinery, two germinating floors, and two kilns. The floor malting process it housed was labour-intensive and traditional: barley steeped in tanks for roughly 48 hours, germinated on open floors for seven days and turned twice daily with wooden implements, then kiln-heated over three days. This process continued at the broader site for 81 years. A fire in August 1942, described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "the biggest fire in the history of Mittagong," started in Malthouse One and spread to the adjacent Malthouse Two. Malthouse One was temporarily repaired within twelve months. A second fire in 1969 permanently closed the building; a Tooth and Co photograph dated 11 December 1969, held at the ANU Noel Butlin Archives Centre, documents the damage. All internal structures were removed following that fire. Production across the wider site ceased in 1980 when Tooth and Co cited financial difficulties and the availability of subcontracted malting services. The site was sold in 1981. This photograph, made in 2014, records what a fire more than four decades earlier left behind: the polychrome brick exterior of Federation Industrial architecture intact, the interior emptied entirely, sunlight reaching a floor that once held germinating barley. Mittagong Maltings is assessed by Heritage NSW as the only remaining example of a traditional maltings manufacturing facility in Australia.