13/12/2025
A remarkable piece of local history right here – an original invitation to the official opening of Cairn Curran Reservoir on 27 April 1956, signed off by Premier Henry Bolte and Water Supply Minister W. J. Mibus! 📜
This wasn’t just a ribbon-cutting. It marked the completion of one of Central Victoria’s most significant post-war engineering projects – a 656-metre-long, 44-metre-high embankment that took nearly a decade (1947–1956) and £1.23 million to build! 🏗️
Cairn Curran transformed life along the Loddon River. It stabilised water supply for farms across the lower Loddon Valley, helped safeguard towns from flooding, and even supplemented Maryborough’s domestic water – a massive deal in an era when drought could cripple entire districts! 🌊
The reservoir we now think of for fishing trips, boating weekends, and mirrored sunsets was once a symbol of pure optimism – proof that the region was once building for the future, investing in its land, and carving out stability after the turbulence of the early 20th century. ⛵
And tucked into the bottom of the invitation is a gorgeous old locality plan showing Maryborough, Carisbrook, Newstead, Maldon and Castlemaine in the era before freeways and satellite mapping – a reminder of how this landscape once connected, creek by creek and road by road. 🗺️
Certainly a stunning relic of a moment when Central Victoria stood on the edge of something new! 💧
