From the currently proposed components I visited the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park. It’s only about 1h drive from Melbourne, so this might become an easy tick in the future.

From Chewton, there is a very small (just hope for no counter traffic), paved road leading to a parking lot very close to the main attraction o this area: the remains of the Garfield Water Wheel. You will also find an information board there, that talks about the history of the wheel and the mine. The whole area is now covered by a forest, but the digging holes are still clearly visible. There are several walking trails, but the Garfield Mine Walk is probably the best to cover the mining activities. I found another small ruin on the walk, but no information on what it once was.

A few minutes from the gold field you can find 2 other connected sites. The Expedition Pass Reservoir (Image) is where the water for the digging came from. Close to the reservoir is the Forest Creek Monster Meeting Site, where 1851 14'000-20'000 diggers protested against the increase in miner's licence fees.

If you have more time than I had, you can also visit the nearby mining town Bendigo, around 40mins drive further north.

It’s hard for me to judge whether this is of OUV or just local importance, but I enjoyed my visit and would consider visiting more components in case this gets ever inscribed.