Castlemaine, Australia

CASTLEMAINE, 39km southwest of Bendigo, is at the centre of the area once known as the Mount Alexander Goldfields. Between 1851 and 1861, when its gullies were among the richest in the world, 105,000kg of gold were found here (modest quantities are still found at Wattle Gully mine at nearby Chewton, the oldest working gold mine in Australia). Castlemaine became the headquarters of the Government Camp for the area in 1852, and its impressive buildings were built during the following ten years. With no deep mines to sustain it, however, the town has developed little since then. Some 19km northwest of Castlemaine lies the quaint, small historic town of Maldon.