In 1835 the colony of New South Wales had not even reached its 50th birthday. An immigrant from the English county of Kent named John Tooth had arrived in Sydney only a couple of years earlier. By 1835 he had decided to open a brewery with his brother-in-law. It was incorporated as a company in 1888.

By that time the family had made itself rich and became the dominant brewer of the late 19th century. Brewing demanded malt, amongst other things. At the time the production of malt was still done in a very English fashion which involved just the right climate, a large amount of water, and spacious buildings. Coastal regions did not provide the first of these in the opinion of the Tooth company. Instead their attention turned to the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, a region which was considered to have some resemblance to the old country. Of course, anyone who really thinks that has never been there during summer when it is as hot as hell. The nearby Nattai Creek supplied the second. And in 1898 it was decided to construct some large buildings which would provide the third. The proximity of the rail line (which runs directly alongside the maltings' main building) meant that the goods produced here could be easily shipped to Tooth's breweries around the state.

There were three main buildings, the first of which dated back to 1898. I haven't been unable to determine when the second one was built. The third one was built between 1914 and 1916. Buildings 1 and 2 were extensively damaged by fire in August 1942 but production was restored by 1943. The third building was gutted by fire in 1969.

In addition to the maltings buildings themselves and the associated storage sheds, there was a Federation cottage (early 1900s, for non-Australians) which housed the site manager and his family.

Times changed, and brewing changed along with them. By 1980, Tooth's star was on the wane. There was no longer a need for the expansive Southern Highlands maltings. The operations were closed. A local group planned to create an arts, crafts and museum complex, but that plan fell by the wayside as did a plan to create a hotel complex here.

Unfortunately, the buildings have since been allowed to go to rot and ruin. You can still see the workmanship in the brickwork and in a lot of the timber floorboards, and if someone had the money there is no doubt that this site would make a remarkable hotel, though whether you would get enough visitors to Mittagong to justify the expense is another matter. As things stand, however, they are just a series of burnt out shells which have been sprayed with graffiti. A group of us went along to take some photographs. In my case, my particular interest was in testing out the low light capabilities of my new Olympus OMD E-M1.