Victoria’s first female Governor, the Honourable Linda Dessau AM, and her husband Judge Anthony Howard were the guests of honour at the 10th anniversary Maldon Twilight Dinner on Saturday night.
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More than 1500 people flocked to the main street of Maldon to dine under the stars in what organiser Ian Hansen said was a record crowd.
“When the Governor actually left we couldn’t get her to her car because of the crowd,” he said.
Despite plenty of food and live entertainment on offer, Mr Hansen said the Governor had been the “hit of the evening”.
“Her and Judge Howard wandered through the crowd on multiple occasions and met as many locals and non-locals as possible,” he said.
“They really wanted to get out and about with all the other people at the event, so from our point of view it was a major success.
“I was quite surprised, I think there’s probably about 1000 selfies of people with the Governor floating around.”
Mr Hansen said Governor Dessau had travelled to Maldon from Castlemaine by train and had even had an opportunity to take the wheel.
“Apparently she did very, very well,” he said.
“I did check the train for dents when they arrived but it was all a fairly flawless evening.”
Tribute band BABBA and local opera singer Rebecca Morton entertained the packed venue which had already sold out by November, despite not even being advertised.
“We had a local opera singer, Rebecca Morton, but I must say the hit of the evening was when BABBA came on and we had 1000 people dancing,” Mr Hansen said.
The event also coincided with the 50th anniversary of Maldon being officially designated as Victoria’s first notable town by the National Trust.
“It’s a little bit like the National Trust classified Como [House, in Melbourne] as a historic building, we’re classified as Victoria’s first notable town,” Mr Hansen explained.
“We actually closed off the main street and the event was held in the main street with all the classified architecture and it was quite spectacular.
“Because it was our anniversary and the town’s anniversary, that was really the impetus to invite the Governor.”
Other guests included Minister for Regional Development Jaala Pulford, Maldon’s state and federal members of parliament, retired police commissioner Kerryn Walsh, and Mount Alexander Shire mayor Christine Henderson.
