Castlemaine...

On Friday DH and I left Bendigo and headed for Ballarat which is another old gold mining city in Victoria. There were a number of towns that we would pass through and the first was Castlemaine. Castlemaine had the richest alluvial gold deposits in all Australia apparently. The result is another town full of magnificent old buildings.

A beautiful old house near where we parked our car in Castlemaine

We wandered around the streets past quaint old shops and hotels.

Notice the old 'hawkers' carts' displaying goods on the footpath

Lots of iron lacework

Because the explorers Burke and Wills passed through Castlemaine on their expedition to cross the continent in 1861, a monument honouring them was erected high on a hill overlooking the city.  (Sadly even though the expedition got to the northern coast of Australia, they perished from lack of water on the way back)

My BIL and SIL (from my previous marriage) live in Castlemaine and I rang their home but they weren’t home. DH and I decided to drive around to their place and take a photo of the house for my 2 daughters as they also have never seen their Aunt and Uncle’s house. It was out of the town a bit and their street was not sealed; it was gravel and sand, a dirt road in other words. From what I could see of the house, it was exactly as I expected. A very old house in a wild garden; they had restored 2 houses in Melbourne before they moved to Castlemaine. We then headed back to the highway...

It's hard to see the old rambling house set in the huge garden

Dirt road