Castlemaine

Our sightseeing today starts at Bendigo pottery, the old kilns are still there, and pottery is still made here, though it looks old fashioned now by today’s standards. No doubt it’ll all come around again. There’s a man making small narrow pots on the wheel, he has an order for 50 of them, he’s only on number 8 of the batch.

Dave is looking forward to our next stop in Castlemaine, as this is the place that has been talked about for as long as he can remember. It’s where his aunt and uncle settled in Australia. Sandy takes us to their first house, where his aunt and uncle worked, where they moved to, where his aunt last lived and finally where they are both buried. It’s good to finally put pictures in our head to places that are talked about in the family and stories of what the Aussie part of his family got up to.

Wall art at the old wool factory

We’ve been told that an old wool factory has opened as an arts and crafts centre, time to check it out. The main hall has loads of memorabilia / antiques or in Dave’s words “Tutt” the only bits he’s interested in is the old albums, I don’t think we have enough room in our cases for all these though! We enjoy lunch in the restaurant which is very trendy and serves very good bagels. We try to follow signs for both the wine cellar and tap room, but both seem to be shut today, the smokehouse though is open, and all the produce looks so good. On the way back to Eaglehawk we stop at a garden centre and butterfly house. I could buy so many plants here if only I could get them home!