Along the quiet street, there are low, mostly wooden buildings. Many feature decorative columns and long verandas, with sidewalks running beneath them. Another similar street intersects, gently rising uphill.
Right in the city center, the ground floors of buildings house small shops, and a few blocks away stand only residential houses. While the main street is peaceful, it’s easy to imagine two men standing opposite each other, testing who can draw their revolvers faster.
We’re not in a Wild West town, but in Castlemaine, in the state of Victoria, 120 kilometers from Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne. We’re spending three weeks here taking care of our friends Shirley’s and Fred’s house while they’re camping.
When gold was discovered in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1852, a gold rush erupted that rivals the more famous Wild West gold rushes.
It was during this period that Australian gold rush towns emerged, including Castlemaine and Bendigo, resembling the towns of the American West.
From gold miners’ tent town to civilization hub
Until 1851, Europeans living in the interior of Victoria were sheep farmers who had settled on land previously inhabited by the Indigenous peoples. The tribe that had lived in the area, the Dja Dja Wurrung, was not warlike and soon noticed that their most important food crops were disappearing into the mouths of the sheep.
Then gold was discovered in the area that is now Castlemaine, and people began to flock to the region.
The news of the gold spread to Europe and China, from where immigrants started arriving in large numbers.
When gold was also discovered in nearby Bendigo, the Chinese particularly began to migrate there.
The humble tent camps quickly transformed into settlement hubs with shops, saloons, and administrative buildings.
These towns attracted government officials, merchants, and craftsmen with their families, who soon began to seek other forms of entertainment beyond sitting in saloons.
In 1854, Theatre Royal was opened in Castlemaine, the oldest continuously operating theatre in mainland Australia. In 1859, the Castlemaine Football Club was founded, making it the second-oldest football club in Australia.
All the services you need – and a bit more – in an Australian gold rush town
The gold rush eventually came to an end, and the residents of Castlemaine began to make a living from light industry.
With the change in economy, this too gradually declined, but by then the town’s location and its picturesque, well-preserved Victorian character began to bear fruit.
A wave of culturally oriented people began moving into the area, drawn to the peaceful atmosphere of the small town and its affordable housing.
Castlemaine began to gain a reputation as a thriving artists’ community.
Shirley mentions that many popular Australian bands are happy to include this small town of 6,500 people in their tours.
However, Castlemaine doesn’t survive on culture alone: the largest employer is a bacon factory.
Shopping can be done not only in the local shops but also in a large supermarket along the main street, which features bakeries and other small businesses in its entrance area.
On either side of the supermarket, there are also liquor stores competing with each other with unimaginable discounts. The supermarket itself does not sell alcohol.
Cozy bars and sports fields
The Theatre Royal no longer has a permanent ensemble but serves as a venue for theatre and music performances. It also has a cozy theatre restaurant with a nice little terrace.
Since it’s located next to the supermarket, we make a stop there during one of our shopping trips for a couple of beers and wines at a suitably shaded table.
We’re joined by a man and his dog, who eagerly greet us, and of course, the man greets us as well.
On the other side of the supermarket is a typical Australian war memorial, dedicated to the Australian soldiers who participated in the World Wars.
During World War I, Australians fought, among other places, at Gallipoli in Turkey, and in the second, mainly in the Pacific theater, a bit closer to home.
Further from the town center, along our way home, there are sports fields. The most exotic is probably the Australian football field.
Castlemaine also has a microbrewery called Shedshaker. Shirley takes us to their pub, The Tap Room, to taste some of their products right after we arrive in town by train.
There are a few interesting-looking small restaurants, but we’re saving money by cooking at home.
Bendigo calls after a few glasses of wine
The Australian gold rush led to the establishment of a number of larger and smaller towns in Victoria’s heartland. Among the larger ones is Bendigo, located near Castlemaine. It’s Australia’s fourth-largest inland city. A little farther is Ballarat, which is slightly larger.
We had considered taking a train to Bendigo on a cooler day when the chickens at the house we’re taking care of wouldn’t need watering – in other words, when the temperature is under 35 degrees Celsius.
However, fate intervenes, offering us not just a ride, but two new friends as well.
While taking care of Shirley’s and Fred’s Airbnb cottage, we host a couple, Nick and Nichole, who are celebrating their wedding anniversary.
The young couple from Bendigo share almost the same name and even the same birthday, which they chose as their wedding day.
They spent their wedding night in this very cottage and now return.
We get along very well with the couple, so we invite them for a glass of wine on the house terrace once they return from their anniversary dinner.
N & N arrive with a bottle of wine, and the evening stretches on. During the evening, the Bendigo locals suggest they pick us up in a couple of days to show us around Bendigo! Of course, that suits us just fine.
Australia is not only heat and sunshine
Nick arrives to pick us up as planned, and the journey begins. Nichole is at work, and Nick, a photographer, laments that he will have to leave us in the city on our own, but will take us back to the house later in the afternoon.
We protest, saying that we can make our way back by train, but Nick is adamant. He explains that he drives the 150 kilometers from Bendigo to Melbourne regularly for work, both ways, so driving us this short distance doesn’t bother him at all.
Australians are truly accustomed to the country’s long distances.
Our hopes for a cool travel day don’t quite come true: the temperature at our destination rises to 41°C in the shade, but we trust that the chickens will be fine until we return.
The inland areas of Victoria are hot, dry, and windy in the summer, from December to February.
After sunset, it usually cools down, especially in the semi-desert-like bushland or its outskirts.
In the winter, it can even get below freezing, with temperatures often nearing zero. The roads can be icy.
Australia is certainly not all sunshine and warmth – at least not the latter.
We, long-distance travelers coming from tropical Bali, caught a cold as soon as we arrived in Melbourne for the New Year when the temperature dropped below 20°C at night.
Our Finnish friend who had lived in Sydney once told us that in his first year, he thought one morning, after stepping out of the shower, that something was wrong. Then he realized: for the first time since moving to Australia, he wasn’t cold after a shower. Summer had arrived.
The political atmosphere can get heated
Nick doesn’t talk about the weather during the drive but about the atmosphere in Bendigo.
The city itself is, according to him, lively and pleasantly liberal, but the surrounding rural areas are conservative and even racist. Occasionally, there are anti-foreigner protests, but most participants are not from Bendigo.
The man, originally from Melbourne, is very fond of his current hometown, which, with about 100,000 residents, feels like the perfect size for him.
Upon arrival, Nick encourages us to visit a clothing store owned by his friends, which sells somewhat edgier street fashion, recommends a good pub, and mentions the cathedral as a great place to visit. Thanks, no worries – we’ll manage and see you at four o’clock.
From a sheep farm to a bustling gold rush town
Like Castlemaine, Bendigo was founded in 1851 during the gold rush. Before this, Bendigo was a sheep farm, and, of course, the area’s Indigenous Dja Dja Wurrung people had lived here for tens of thousands of years.
The peaceful tribe was forced to make room for the gold miners, who transformed Bendigo into Victoria’s busiest gold mining town. Today, however, the tribe’s rights to their ancestral lands are recognized.
The wealth lasted until the end of the century, and the charming Victorian architecture in the city center dates back to that time.
It was from Bendigo that a style spread throughout Victoria, in which the pillars of verandas and porches on wooden houses were adorned with iron lacework.
One of the landmarks from that time is the Alexandra Fountain in the city center.
At the turn of the 20th century, the gold rush had ended, and the city’s new industrial boom had not yet begun.
The church tells the story of the boom time
From that period comes the 1895 sandstone-built Catholic Sacred Heart Cathedral.
It is the third-largest in Australia and one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
We’re the only tourists, and the knowledgeable guide, Angela, eagerly shares the church’s history with us.
The neo-Gothic building was funded by the gold miners and reflected the city’s wealth at the time and its source.
As gold mining faded, the population shrank, and many of those left behind faced financial difficulties.
They turned to the church for help, but even the church struggled with dwindling congregations.
Things started improving when the industry settled in the town.
Today, Bendigo is once again a growing center, and like Nick, many Melburnians have decided to move to a smaller town in the inland with good transport connections.
One for the road and back to Castlemaine
It’s time to return to the present. We visit Nick’s friends’ design shop, but we don’t pick up anything for the nomadic journey this time.
That’s not the case at the shoe store in the city center, which is announcing it’s closing after just over a hundred years in business, for some reason or another.
We’ve booked a 12-day South Pacific cruise starting at the end of January and realize we’ll need a different pair of shoes than sandals or hiking boots for the fancier events
Tanja buys a pair of heels on sale to wear to dinners and theatre performances on the ship.
Happy with the purchase and all we’ve seen, we head out for refreshing drinks before Nick comes to pick us up for the trip back.
At the end of a narrow alley, a sign says that El Gordo – a pub – is further down.
So, we head there, once again on Nick’s recommendation.
El Gordo turns out to be a great small brewery pub offering tapas and, being in Australia, a good wine list. The tables along the alley have space for us, and there’s surely warm enough to have drinks on the terrace.
Shower for the chucks and humans
Bendigo day is coming to an end, and Nick drives back to Castlemaine only to take us home.
The new guests at the Airbnb cottage are at the pool and ask how the day went.
As we quickly start watering the chickens, the wife of the couple exclaims: “Oh, you should’ve said, we could have done that for you!”
Once again, the friendliness of Aussies has amazed us today. The last thing we would have wanted was to make our guests do housework while we were off sightseeing and enjoying drinks.
The chickens are just fine, and they were happy with their late afternoon shower – like us.
However, we don’t shower outside with the hose, but in the bathroom.
Oh, and where do the names Castlemaine and Bendigo come from? The latter must surely be of Aboriginal origin?
Castlemaine was named after the Irish uncle of the goldfields’ chief commissioner, the Viscount of Castlemaine. And Bendigo – after an English bare-knuckle boxer.