Maltings Driveway

A red-leafed tree in full autumn colour anchors the left of the frame, its fallen leaves scattered across a dark asphalt path leading toward the brick facade of Mittagong Maltings. Boarded and open windows punctuate the wall in rough rows. The midground grass has grown long and ragged against the base of the building, and a single red object sits on the path to the right. There are no trucks, no movement, only a path running quiet toward buildings that have not been in production since 1980. The Maltings was built in stages beginning in 1898, when the Malting Company of New South Wales acquired land from the Oaklands Estate northeast of Mittagong railway station. The site was chosen for its proximity to the rail line, to Sydney, and to water supply. Builder Stuart Brothers of Sydney constructed Malthouse 1 in eight months; it commenced operation in August 1899. Tooth and Co purchased the works in 1905, added Malthouse 2 in 1906 and 1907, and erected Malthouse 3 in 1916. The three malthouses and their ancillary structures, including grain stores, silos, a maltster's cottage, and a railway siding with turntable, formed a 6.5-hectare complex on the edge of town. The Maltings ran on traditional floor malting throughout its entire 81-year operational life. Barley arrived by train, moved through steeping tanks and germinating floors, passed through the kilns, rested in the malt rooms, and left bagged and dispatched to Tooth and Co's Kent Brewery in Sydney. The facility supplied that brewery for 75 years. Peak annual production reached approximately 200,000 bushels in the early 1940s. Production ceased in 1980. Tooth and Co cited financial difficulties and the availability of subcontracted malting services. The site was sold in 1981. Heritage NSW assessed the Maltings as the only remaining example of a traditional maltings manufacturing facility in Australia. The National Trust listed it in 1982. In 2014, when this photograph was taken, the approach that once handled the daily movement of a working industrial site had been standing idle for more than three decades. The grass had started to close in on it.