Newstead, population 850, is situated on the Loddon River. It is 15 km (by road) SW of Castlemaine. On the Rail Trail it will be 24 km to Castlemaine (via Guildford) and 32 km to Marlborough.
Loddon River at Newstead
.Carisbrook is home to the Dja Dja Wurrung people. The Loddon River and adjacent river flats provided them with rich supplies of food and other vital requirements.
Although situated in the goldfields region, Newstead did not have particularly rich fields to attract rushes of miners. It grew from being a crossing place on the Loddon River, often for miners traveling to the Castlemaine and Mount Alexander diggings. In the 1850’s the town grew with churches, shops, schools, a flour mill and hotels. The main work available locally was on the nearby farms in the Loddon valley. Gold mining was carried out at Green Gully, Sandon, Strangways and Welshman’s Reef, all within about 5 km of Newstead.
Newstead Gold Dredge
In 1934 a gold dredge began in the Loddon River near Newstead. Until its closure in 1947 the dredge extracted 5.3 tons of gold, a record for that class of mining in Victoria. About 100 ha of dredge overburden were reclaimed and leveled for pastoral purposes. The original Loddon River has been much changed over the last 150 years as mining waste has gradually flowed down from the mining activity upstream and by the gold dredging.