It was a brisk -5 degrees for our early morning walk in Castlemaine along icy pathways and crunchy frozen grass. It’s such a novelty for us lads from Far North Queensland to experience sub-zero cold, wrapped as we were in multiple layers of tees, woolly jumpers and fleecy jackets. It was great to be there for a few days, but boy was it cold in Castlemaine! 

Castlemaine is around 120 kilometres from downtown Melbourne and just an hour or so on the train, heading in to the high country of Victoria. I’ve written about Castlemaine before (previous posts) and we were there once again to visit great mates G&D in their lovely new home. This whole region is so gorgeous – rolling hills, sheltered gullies and ridges, deep cut streams (once full of gold) and distant eucalypt covered mountains and dark temperate rainforests, not to mention the many bustling country towns and hamlets nearby including Kyneton, Woodend, Heathcote and Daylesford. 

Gold was discovered in this region in 1851 with thousands of migrants from all over the world rapidly descending on country Victoria. Between 1851 and 1854 Castlemaine was the world’s richest shallow alluvial goldfield with an exploding population in excess of 60,000! Today, a mere 12,000 odd souls live in this gorgeous eminently liveable place with a surprisingly thriving bar, live music and fine dining scene. 

In the very heart of town is the sprawling Mill Castlemaine, an inspired re-imagining of the former Castlemaine Woollen Company, built in 1875. There’s some 8500 square metres of buildings here, ranging from the late 19^th Century through to the early 1990’s when this site was taken over by a carpet factory, now long gone. Multiple fires over the years have ripped through this site, so it was good to see it restored and saved for its new life as a bustling makers community, brewery, live music venue, bakery, bars, cafes and restaurants, including the wildly eccentric but none the less fabulous Das Kaffeehaus, an authentic Viennese Coffee House, where Central Victoria meets true central European glamour. 

There’s also a surprisingly thriving art scene here too, led by the quintessentially Aussie artist, Les Thornton. 

Thornton has a rather peculiar and some may say, warped eye on all things Australian. His works are irreverent, ironic, cheeky and comical as he depicts Australian scenes, places and objects in a unique pop-art style that’s quite distinctive. We were fortunate to be in town for his self-styled show, ‘Sir Leslie Thornton: Castlemaine Art Museum’s First Blockbuster’. A hoot! Check out his work here. https://sirleslie.com.au/blockbuster/

It was the winter solstice whilst we were in town with the main event over in nearby Maldon for their annual Solstice Bonfire Night. There’s a heritage steam train that departs from Castlemaine station in the evening and chugs along through the chilly night air to Maldon and the community bonfire. We couldn’t make it over to Maldon that night but did get the opportunity to stand trackside just beside the house in Castlemaine and experience the steam train roar past. Next year perhaps.