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During 1987, a number of meetings were held in Ballarat and Bendigo as well as smaller towns in between, bringing together people interested in Steiner education. Two important decisions ultimately arose from these meetings; to establish a Steiner school in the Castlemaine area and to begin with a kindergarten – truly a ‘children’s garden’ which would be the gateway to the school. With hard work and a strong commitment, this shared vision was brought to fruition. The Castlemaine Steiner Kindergarten began life in 1988 as ‘White Gums’ in White Gum Road, Barkers Creek, in a studio on the property of one of the children and this then led to the development of the school. The school and Kindergarten then moved to The Penny School (a National Trust classified, old school building in Maldon) and in 1996 the school moved to the specially designed present-day school and kindergarten in Muckleford, on the outskirts of Castlemaine. Eighteen acres of land was purchased in 1995, just seven kilometres from the historic town of Castlemaine from which our school takes its name. The land is flat, and at the time of purchase was a sheep paddock and very undernourished. Apart from a few mature trees, the land was without anything more than a bit of grass and while there was one dam on the property, it was unfortunately salt affected.
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