Five years ago prominent architectural historian, George Tibbits, rated the dearth of books available to guide people’s appreciation of their historical environment as one of the major brakes on the conservation movement in Victoria. Since then a growing number of excellent publications have attempted to redress this weakness, the latest being Grant Blackman and John Larkin’s Maldon. It follows closely on the heels of Burchett’s work on East Melbourne and has a similar format and high quality of production. Blackman’s photographs in black and white and color beautifully capture the town’s flavor and are at their best with the more intimate details of verandah variances, padlocked intimate doors, details and of cemetery headstones. Some of the more panoramic plates might have been more sharply reproduced and it is unfortunate that one or two of the captions are repetitive. Well-chosen historical photographs are interspersed to complement the modern views. The Gill sketches do not portray Maldon itself and will be familiar to readers other goldfield histories. The four David Drape paintings, on the other hand are of early Maldon scenes and one regrets that they were not reproduced in colour.