Redcastle

Redcastle is a rural locality in central Victoria 45 km east of Bendigo and 18 km north of Heathcote.

Redcastle was an isolated goldfield between the McIvor (Heathcote) diggings and the Waranga (Rushworth) diggings further north. It was discovered in 1859, and named the Balmoral Diggings. ‘Redcastle’ a name of Scottish origin, displaced Balmoral (also of Scottish origin) but the exact reason is unrecorded.

Bailliere’s Victorian gazetteer (1865) recorded Redcastle as having police and court facilities, a post office, two hotels and three quartz-crushing mills: most gold was found in quartz reefs. There was a short-lived private school in 1861, and no other school until 1876 when a government facility was opened. During the 1880s a school report described Redcastle as a mining town in the last stages of decay, and population figures confirm that observation. The last hotel closed in 1913, the school closed in the 1930s, and in 1972 the district’s population was estimated to be three people. A journey down Redcastle Cemetery Road leads to a heritage-listed cyanide works and the cemetery.

Redcastle can be identified by numerous abandoned gold mines with State forest around three sides. Its census populations were: