Malthouse One First Floor

The first floor of Malthouse One at the Mittagong Maltings runs the full depth of the building, its concrete columns receding in a line toward the far end. Their surfaces are no longer plain. Graffiti has accumulated across them in overlapping layers, each mark laid over the last, building into a record of everyone who found their way inside after the building was left open. Arched window openings line the right wall, their forms consistent with the Federation Industrial detailing applied across the complex. A low timber platform sits abandoned near the skirting, the only piece of furniture left on the floor. Dust covers everything beneath it. Malthouse One was the original structure on the site. Construction began in early 1899, carried out by Stuart Brothers of Sydney, with bricks sourced locally. The building was completed and commenced operation in August 1899, producing malted barley through the traditional floor malting process that would define the site's entire 81-year operational life. A fire in August 1942, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald as "the biggest fire in the history of Mittagong," spread from Malthouse One into the adjacent Malthouse Two; the building was temporarily repaired within twelve months. In 1969 a second fire permanently closed Malthouse One, and all its internal structures were removed. What stands is the shell: the column grid, the arched openings, the floor. The wider Mittagong Maltings complex, comprising three malthouses and a collection of ancillary structures across a 6.5-hectare site, is assessed by Heritage NSW as the only remaining example of a traditional maltings manufacturing facility in Australia. Tooth and Co operated the site from 1905 until production ceased in 1980. The Maltings was listed on the National Trust of Australia Register in 1982 and nominated for the NSW State Heritage Register in both 2004 and 2017. This photograph was made in 2014, before remediation works began under the approved redevelopment DA. The columns still stand. The graffiti still covers them. The platform has not moved.