The 'Woman of Maldon' tells of the raw struggle of the essence of a 21st Century woman, in her recognition for the female essence itself, where intolerance for women merely being women, is constant and crushing. It is a poignant story of a woman wanting to be allowed to be recognised for what she is herself and what she intrinsically contributes to life. It is a story of society all too critical of everything we are and do, always too rigid to allow any of us to blossom in our unfettered beauty. Too critical, in a life too questioning of our right to openly and frankly participate on our terms. The Woman of Maldn is not a story of feminism, not a story of plight. It is a story of resolute courage and determination which we all possess, in a world where few but the bravest survive, a world of impossible interrelationships. It is the story of living itself. Jan Chambers, a thirty two year old mother of her seven year old son (Evan), and her husband (Clinton), is the dynamic driving force behind this small early 2000's typical contemporary city family, which she takes to country Maldon, Victoria Australia in 2007, once the hub of the massive goldrush district of 150 years ago. Away from the home, Jan's husband works a small alluvial gold claim he discovered with his metal detector. They buy and move in to the old Maldon Inn, a beautiful old colonial coach route ale house, which Jan renovates and softens as only a woman can. Jan embeds and settles her little family and pony and dog into this idyllic setting and commences trying to live in harmony, in a fiercely resistant community, too conservative to accept any outsiders. Jan understands the town's hostility and proudly, with composure, tries to resist the constant crushing, negativity and spurning. Spurning because they are outsiders and spurning because she is a woman; in a male dominated town and community. Jan is openly and rudely confronted by the all male utterly misogynistic school committee, the organised centre of town social politics; and its powerful hierarchy of connections. She is even spurned by a woman of her own age and philosophy, a true peer she so strongly wants to connect with. Although this disgraceful treatment is so crushing, Jan doesn't allow the rejection to reach her family's souls; and they go about their simple, happy daily living. Their daily lives are consumed by bonding, away from the townspeople, with the beautiful and terrifying wilderness of the Australian bush; which tests their very mettle and existence. Without warning, the house is brutally sieged by three escaped convicted murderers while Clinton is working his claim. They pillage the place and completely take it over. These vile men hold Evan and Jan hostage by threatening Evan's murder if she doesn't meet their every whim, and the vilest brutality emerges Jan has to call on her every molecule of female cunning, intelligence and resourcefulness to deal with the ugly and brutal siege and then into a barbaric and frenzied midnight chase through the night in the dangers of the goldfields by her captor, who is bent on killing them both. With her deep knowledge of the wilderness and the treacherous vertical shafts of the colonial goldfields, Jan struggles to stay alive in the blackness of the bush, a most fearful and terrifying ordeal. The story reaches a sensational crescendo with herself, her nemesis, her community and her husband testing her very strength and innate ability to cope. She is woman, ......she is 'The Woman of Maldon'.