Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park

Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park is Australia's first National Heritage Park, protecting around 7,500 hectares of gold-rush landscape around Castlemaine, Chewton, Fryerstown and Vaughan in central Victoria. Listed on the Australian National Heritage List, it preserves remarkably intact alluvial and quartz mining relics from the 1851 gold rush, including mullock heaps, puddlers, shafts and water races set within box-ironbark forest.

Visitors can explore a large bushland park with scattered historic gold-mining relics, dry eucalypt forest, gullies and creeks. The park contains marked walking tracks, driving tours, picnic areas and heritage sites such as Vaughan Springs, Garfield Wheel and Forest Creek. Expect uneven ground, interpretive signs, ruins of mining infrastructure, wildflowers in spring, and opportunities for short walks, heritage sightseeing and picnicking across multiple dispersed sites rather than a single gated entrance.