City of Castlemaine

The Mount Alexander Shire (officially Shire of Mount Alexander) is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of 1,530 square kilometres (590 sq mi) and, in August 2021, had a population of 20,253. It includes the towns of Castlemaine, Chewton, Elphinstone, Maldon, Newstead, Harcourt, Taradale, Vaughan, Fryerstown and Campbells Creek. It was formed in 1995 from the amalgamation of the City of Castlemaine, Shire of Newstead, and most of the Shire of Maldon and Shire of Metcalfe. The traditional owners of the land are Dja Dja Wurrung.The Shire is governed and administered by the Mount Alexander Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Castlemaine, it also has service centres located in Maldon and Newstead. The Shire is named after the first European settlers' name for the Castlemaine region and goldfields.

Castlemaine Boroughs was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria from 1856 to 1859. It included the towns Castlemaine, Muckleford, Harcourt and Elphinstone, all roughly 110 to 130 km north-west of Melbourne. The boundaries included non-continuous urban areas. The district of Castlemaine Boroughs was one of the initial districts of the first Victorian Legislative Assembly, 1856. Castlemaine Boroughs was abolished in 1859, the new district of Castlemaine was created that year when the Victorian Electoral Act of 1858 was implemented.

Castlemaine Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 202 Barker Street, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 8 November 2011.

Castlemaine ( KASS-əl-mayn, non-locally also KAHSS-) is a town in west central Victoria, Australia, in the Goldfields region about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest by road from Melbourne and about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the major provincial centre of Bendigo. It is the administrative and economic centre of the Shire of Mount Alexander. The population at the 2021 Census was 7,506. Castlemaine was named by the chief goldfield commissioner, Captain W. Wright, in honour of his Irish uncle, Viscount Castlemaine. Built on the lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Castlemaine began as a gold rush boomtown in 1851 and developed into a major regional centre, being officially proclaimed a City on 4 December 1965, although since declining in population.It is home to many cultural institutions including the Theatre Royal, the oldest continuously operating theatre in mainland Australia.

Castlemaine Art Museum is an Australian art gallery and museum in Castlemaine, Victoria in the Shire of Mount Alexander. It was founded in 1913. It is housed in a 1931 Art Deco neo-classical building constructed for the purpose, heritage-listed by the National Trust. Its collection concentrates on Australian art and the museum houses historical artefacts and displays drawn from the district. The Museum is governed by private trustees and managed by a board elected by subscribers and provided with state and local government funding and support from benefactors, local families, artists and patrons. Its trustees also oversee the management of Buda, a heritage-listed villa and garden 1.3 km across Castlemaine in Hunter Street, which houses its own collection of art and artefacts associated with the Leviny family, and is also open to the public for exhibitions, events displays and garden tours.

Castlemaine railway station is located on the Deniliquin line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the town of Castlemaine, and it opened on 21 October 1862.The station is also the termini of the Maldon and Moolort lines, but no passenger revenue services currently operates on the latter line, with the Victorian Goldfields Railway operating heritage services on the Maldon line. In 1973, a turntable at the station was abolished. On 9 July 1977, the passenger service to Maryborough was withdrawn, and in 1978, a number of points were abolished, as was a crossover and the former carriage dock.Rationalisation of the former yard occurred during the late 1980s. In 1989, signal boxes "A" and "B" were abolished, and replaced with a signal panel within the station office. Mechanical points were also abolished, and all signals were replaced with two and three position signals. Also in that year, boom barriers replaced interlocked gates at the Parker Street level crossing, located nearby in the down direction of the station.On 17 December 2004, the Victorian Goldfields Railway was extended from Muckleford to Castlemaine. On 17 January 2005, the signal panel was abolished.Disused stations Elphinstone and Taradale are located between Castlemaine and Malmsbury, while disused stations Harcourt and Ravenswood are located between Castlemaine and Kangaroo Flat. Demolished station Chewton was also located between Castlemaine and Malmsbury.

The Old Castlemaine Gaol is a former prison, located in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. The building was modelled on Pentonville prison in London, replacing the original, designed by Inspector General John Price, which was never occupied. Built in 1861 to house offenders from the goldfields and nearby towns, it served various functions in the penal system before it was closed in 1990 and its prisoners transferred to HM Prison Loddon. From 1861 to 1908, the gaol housed all manner of criminals, including lunatics and debtors, and ten men were hanged within the walls. In the later of these years however, the gaol housed mostly short-term prisoners and first-time offenders. Between 1909 and 1951, the gaol was converted into a reformatory school for boys aged between 16 and 25. Most were under 21. The gaol then closed for a number of years, before reopening in 1954 to accommodate medium-security prisoners from across the state. It remained open until August 1990. After it ceased prison operations, it was used as a hotel and tourist attraction. It served as the studio for local community radio station WMA FM/Main FM 94.9 as well as various small businesses. In 2018, the old gaol was sold to artist David Bromley. The grounds were originally landscaped by renowned landscape gardener Hugh Linaker.

Castlemaine Secondary College is a state secondary school located in the town of Castlemaine in central Victoria, Australia which caters for approximately 630 students from Years 7 to 12. It is the only state secondary school in the Mount Alexander Shire.

Buda is a heritage-listed historic house and garden located in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. It was added to the Victorian Heritage Database on 15 October 1970, when it was purchased by the Trustees of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historic Museum (CAGHM) which oversees its management. Since 1981 the house (museum) and garden are open to the public Monday to Sunday 12pm to 4pm, except Good Friday and Christmas Day.

The Central Highlands subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes the municipalities of Rural City of Ararat, City of Ballarat, Golden Plains Shire, Shire of Hepburn, Shire of Moorabool, Shire of Pyrenees.The term is mainly used in a geological context to describe that part of the Great Dividing Range that is west of its alpine areas but does not extend to its western end in Victoria's west. The area is situated east of Ballarat, south of Bendigo, north and east of Melbourne, and west of the alpine areas. Major towns of the Central Highlands include Castlemaine, Creswick, Daylesford, Gisborne, Kyneton and Woodend. All these towns are located in what is usually referred to as the West Central Highlands. The more mountainous and more sparsely populated eastern part of the Central Highlands is referred to as the East Central Highlands and has extensive areas of temperate rainforest.

HM Prison Loddon is an Australian low-medium security prison, located in Central Victoria, Australia, approximately four kilometres from the centre of Castlemaine and 128 km north-west of Melbourne. Loddon is a campus style prison, within a secure perimeter, providing accommodation for 468 medium security prisoners. The landscaped grounds, modern buildings and wide range of programs and activities provide an environment and facilities which, as closely as possible, resembles those available in the general community.In July 2014 Loddon prison expanded adding a new unit Middleton which is a restricted-minimum rated men's prison. Prisoners at Middleton live in self-catered, cottage style accommodation where they are responsible for cooking their own meals. Middleton has a capacity of 248.

Campbells Creek is home to the historical Castlemaine Cemetery, which was moved from Templeton Street, Castlemaine, to Cemetery Road, Campbells Creek, in 1853. Most of the burials in the original cemetery were re-interred and the new cemetery was still called Castlemaine Cemetery. The first burial noted in the new cemetery register was on 3 March 1853. Since then, there have been approximately 20,500 burials registered. The cemetery features a soldiers' memorial and an historic two-tiered Chinese funeral burner, which served as a safe place for the ritualized burning of spiritual tributes.The Sexton's office was built in 1867 and was known then as "The Lodge". It houses the original 1875 cemetery map. The cemetery trust has been managed by a group of volunteers appointed by the Government since 1859, an arrangement that continues to this day. The cemetery is on the Victorian Heritage Register as the site is of historical, social, architectural, and aesthetic significance to Victoria. Many of the pioneers of Castlemaine are buried in the cemetery including Fanny Finch, the first woman to vote in an Australian election, 50 years before it was legal for women to vote. Also Sir Harry Sutherland Wightman Lawson (1875–1952), 27th Premier of Victoria, is buried here.