Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Victorian gold rush heritage park in Castlemaine, Australia.
Castelmaine Diggings is a heritage park covering approximately 75 square kilometers with walking trails threading through abandoned settlements and native Box-Ironbark forests across rolling terrain. The landscape shows clear evidence of mining activity through visible gullies and earth movements across the hills.
Between 1851 and 1854, the area became the world's richest shallow goldfield, drawing more than 40,000 people to the region. This intensive period of extraction left an enduring mark on the landscape.
The Dja Dja Wurrung people have ancestral roots here and work with Victoria through a formal Recognition Agreement to shape how the park is cared for. Their presence and perspective remain part of daily stewardship.
The park offers multiple walking trails of varying difficulty, picnic facilities with electric barbecues at Vaughan Mineral Springs, and an information center in Castelmaine town. Visitors should wear sturdy footwear and bring rain gear, as paths are uneven and can become slippery after wet weather.
The park preserves the largest collection of original mining structures from the era in Australia, including working puddling machines still on site. These machines demonstrate the methods miners used to separate gold from earth during active digging.
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