Castlemaine Monument

Burke & Wills Memorial, Wills Street , Castlemaine , Victoria 3450.


	TO COMMEMORATE THE VICTORIAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION THE FIRST TO CROSS THE CONTINENT OF AUSTRALIA ROBERT O’HARA BURKE OF CASTLEMAINE, LEADER, DIED AT COOPERS CREEK,1 ST JULY 1861 MELBOURNE TO CARPENTARIA BURKE, WILLS, GRAY, KING SURVIVOR ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION AD 1862

Castlemaine was the first towns to decide to build a monument. Initially they wanted to bury Burke at the Castlemaine cemetery.

By May 1862, the citizens of Castlemaine had raised £450 for a memorial from public subscription and donations and on the anniversary of Burke’s death, 1 st July 1862 , a public holiday declared. A procession of over 2,000, including John King, John Macadam and Frederick Standish, marched from town to a hill to the east of town where a ceremony was performed and a foundation stone laid by the Sheriff of Castlemaine, Richard Colles.

The granite obelisk was completed in July 1863, but not before the workers of Castlemaine and Fryers Creek had threatened to erect a taller monument commemorating Charlie Gray, if Gray's name was not included on the original memorial.

Heritage Listing

The Burke and Wills Memorial at Castlemaine was been entered on the Register of the National Estate in 1999 as being of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria. The Castlemaine Burke and Wills memorial obelisk is of outstanding historical significance as the first monument erected in Victoria to honour the achievements of Burke and Wills.

Legal status: Identified through state processes. The place is entered in the State heritage register. The Australian Heritage Commission had formally recognised the standards of historic assessment of the relevant state or territory heritage body and acknowledged that the place has National Estate historic values.

Place ID: 102327
Place File No: 2/06/092/0063
Victorian Heritage Register citation: H1814
http://www.deh.gov.au/heritage/index.html

Police Station Plaque, Old Police Station, Hargarve Street , Castlemaine , Victoria 3450.

When Burke was stationed in Castlemaine (1858-1860), the Police Station was at the Gold Commissioners Camp Reserve and Burke lived nearby at 31 Gyngell Street . The police station moved into the present town centre in 1859 and occupied the red brick building nest to the fire station on Templeton Road . The building with the plaque was built in 1855 as the State Savings Bank and became the police station in 1921.

CASTLEMAINE POLICE STATION
1851
ESTABLISHED ON CAMP RESERVE 1875
TRANSFERRED THENCE TO STATE SAVINGS BANK SITE,
BARKER AND TEMPLETON STREETS. 1921 TRANSFERRED THENCE TO THIS SITE.
THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED IN 1855,
FOR THE SAVINGS BANK AND WAS OCCUPIED BY THE BANK FOR 66 YEARS.

ROBERT O’HARA BURKE WAS IN CHARGE OF THE STATION FROM 1858 TO 1860.
T.O’CALLAGHAN CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF POLICE 1902 TO 1913,
WAS STATIONED IN CASTLEMAINE 1872 TO 1875.

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CASTLEMAINE MONUMENT

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Burke & Wills Web
www.burkeandwills.net.au
- an historical research resource -
© Dave Phoenix, 2008