Castlemaine

Distinguished and Famous people from Castlemaine

🌟 Ernest Leviny

Hungarian-born Ernest Leviny tried goldmining at Forest Creek before establishing a jewellery and watchmaking business in Castlemaine in 1854. His elaborate gold and silver work attracted exhibition recognition, and examples entered the National Gallery of Victoria's collection. In 1863 he bought the house later named Buda, where he and his wife Bertha raised their family. Their daughters developed creative interests of their own. Preserved as a house museum, Buda connects the practical skills of a goldfields business with the art, furnishings and daily life of an unusually creative household.

✈️ Bob Iredale

Bob Iredale was born at Castlemaine in 1913 and grew up in Melbourne. Work with an oil company took him to New Guinea and Horsham before he volunteered for wartime flying training. He commanded No. 464 Squadron and later an RAF wing, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bar. After the war he returned to the oil industry, eventually becoming Mobil’s Australian marketing manager. Castlemaine is his birthplace, preceding the sporting interests, overseas work and demanding operational service that shaped his career. His later life also retained close friendships with the aircrew alongside whom he had served.

🌿 John Stewart Turner

John Stewart Turner moved to Castlemaine in 1982 after a long career leading botany at the University of Melbourne. Retirement gave him more time for conservation and for his own art, including scraperboard landscapes used to illustrate publications. His earlier scientific work had ranged from plant physiology to ecological surveys, while his educational influence reached school biology through The Web of Life textbook. Castlemaine was a later home where those interests continued together. The artist and conservationist were not separate from the scientist: close attention to the appearance and workings of landscapes ran through all three parts of his life.