Castlemaine, Victoria

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Castlemaine
Victoria

Location of Castlemaine in Victoria (red)

Population:

6,835

Postcode:

3450

Elevation:

310.9 m

Location:

119 km from Melbourne
38 km from Bendigo

LGA:

Mount Alexander Shire

State District:

Bendigo West

Federal Division:

Bendigo

Mean Max Temp	Mean Min Temp	Rainfall
20.2 °C ^{68 °F}	6.7 °C ^{44 °F}	558.4 mm ^{22 in}

For other uses, see Castlemaine (disambiguation).

Castlemaine (pronounced /ˈkæsəlmæɪn/; note the Flat A rather than a Broad A) is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the "Midlands" region about 120 kilometres northwest by road from Melbourne, and about 40 kilometres from the major provincial centre of Bendigo. It is part of the Mount Alexander Shire.

In 2001 Castlemaine's population was 6,835 (2001 census data), of whom about 8% were born overseas (mostly in the United Kingdom) and 2% of whom speak a language other than English, a pattern typical of much of rural Australia.

1 History
2 Prominent Castlemaine residents
3 Prominent People from Castlemaine
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Castlemaine was established during the gold rush of 1851 and was originally named Forest Creek. The name was later changed to Mount Alexander, but the chief goldfield commissioner, Captain W. Wright, renamed the settlement to honour his uncle, Viscount Castlemaine. The old name is still present in the name of a major Melbourne thoroughfare, Mount Alexander Road, which before the establishment of the Calder Freeway was the route to Castlemaine.

In September, 1851, three shepherds and a bullock driver discovered gold in Specimen Gully, about 5 km NE of present-day Castlemaine. Within a month the alluvial bed of Forest Creek was being worked with 8,000 miners on the field by the end of the year and 25,000 by March 1852.

Typical 19th-century commercial building in Castlemaine

The Theatre Royal [1] opened in 1856 to provide entertainment for the gold diggers, with the first performance being provided by the world renowned Lola Montes and her celebrated Spider Dance. The theatre still hosts films (including several world and Australian premieres), concerts, and functions, and claims to be the oldest continuously operating theatre in Australia.

In 1859, the historic Castlemaine Football Club was established, and recent evidence makes it the second oldest football club in Australia and one of the oldest football clubs in the world.

Castlemaine's 19th-century post office

After gold mining gradually ceased a number of other secondary industries sprang up. The largest was established in 1905 as the Castlemaine Bacon Company, producing smallgoods. The company is still the area's largest single employer with around 750 employees there. Tourism exploring the gold-rush era buildings, and other attractions including an art gallery featuring a number of fine Heidelberg School works, is also a major source of income for the town.