Celebrating our region

We’ve always envisaged the Castlemaine-Maryborough trail as something that should be more than a 3-metre-wide gravel path linking two points.

Celebrating the region’s many attractions is a primary aim for our trail.

From Maryborough to Castlemaine, and all the places in between, our region is studded with natural and other attractions.

Beautiful waterways, lively bushland, ancient volcanoes, places of untold significance to First Peoples, Goldrush buildings, art galleries, lively festivals, and award-winning restaurants and food providores.

Our region has a uniquely rich array of attractions. They fall neatly into four categories that are a priority for Victorian tourism: nature, arts & culture, epicure and First Peoples’ led experiences. Together, they make a remarkable collection – one that’s worthy of celebrating.

We want our trail to help with that celebration. We can do that by using the trail to connect the attractions and the communities that steward them. Above all, we want our trail to help tell our region’s stories of people and place.

That’s why CMRT developed our “Guide to the Castlemaine – Maryborough Rail Trail”. Our guide takes a brave first step towards that aim of storytelling. We’ve begun by identifying 35 attractions along our proposed 55km trail, and spanning those four key tourism themes. There’ll be more; this is just the start.

CMRT’s guide was a key part of our successful bid for $120,000 in Victorian Government tourism funding with the two regional councils to evaluate the trail. The beautiful guide was illustrated by our talented illustrator, and Castlemaine artist, Scott Rossiter.

We hope that as our trail gets built, we can do our bit to knit the region’s attractions together into the kind of celebration of storytelling our region and communities deserve.

Take a closer look at our guide.