There are no warning signs, no crowds, just a stretch of country road where the only sounds are cars passing along the Old Calder Highway. It’s largely hidden from the town’s main street by trees and the slope of the hill. From below, it’s barely visible, despite being bordered by roads and nearby homes. But behind the low, metal fencing, sits the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre.

Malmsbury reopened in April as part of the Victorian government’s tougher approach to youth offending, after its closure in 2023, bringing back a presence that the town was quietly learning to live without.

Before its closure, the facility housed 40 men and boys under the age of 22. It will now house 75 beds for lower-risk inmates aged 17 and over. First opened in 1958, the facility was closed following a slate of controversies around prisoner and worker safety and wellbeing.

Josh Jones, a Malmsbury local of more than 10 years, worked at the centre for six years in a range of roles, including as a youth engagement officer. For him, the reopening brings the stress that defined much of his time there back to the surface.

“It was an institutional space where you always had the threat of violence going on,” he tells upstart.

“Sometimes there were weeks where there were assaults on staff every day.”

For most of the town, the prison fades into the background and normal life continues, Jones says, except during incidents such as escapes.

“That’s when it has a greater impact, he says. “People have had their cars stolen. Some people in the town still think about that.”

Support for the prison in Malmsbury is strong, with some locals taking to Facebook to endorse the reopening. They emphasise the economic benefits and the difficulty of refitting the facility as reasons for the justice centre remaining.

Though, to some, the economic benefits are questionable.

Logan Johnstone has owned the Merchants of Malmsbury cafe for 25 years and says business from detention centre staff dropped off around 15 years ago, following changes in management and staffing at the facility.

He says staff were once a regular presence in local businesses, but that connection had largely disappeared over time well before its closure.

“It won’t make any difference to my business,” he tells upstart.

Johnstone said the prison can hurt business in other ways too, because the frequent media attention on the centre means the town is associated with a controversial prison when “it’s really quite a sweet little village”.

Johnstone isn’t the only one with concerns. Local Alison Caddick tells upstart she feels the town has become a cog in the government’s ambition to tackle youth crime.

“People thought that it could be an educational site or a new housing site or something like that, so I was looking forward to that for the social benefit potential it had,” she says.

The facility failed to sell during its two years of closure. The Macedon Ranges Shire Council turned down the opportunity to buy it in 2024 due to the tremendous costs of repurposing it.

Jones says that although there was hope for something else, in “my heart I just thought it would reopen at some point”.

Despite his concerns, Jones says his experience at the centre was complicated.

“It was the best of times and the worst of times,” he says. “I really liked the place and I really hated it at the same time.”

For now, Malmsbury will likely remain much the same: quiet, steady, and largely unchanged, even with the facility operating just beyond view. For a town that was learning to live with the centre out of sight, its return may once again be felt only in moments when it can no longer be ignored.