The Old Castlemaine Woollen Mill reborn as food precinct

The 100-year-old chimney at Castlemaine's former Woollen Mills is working again, but today it's puffing out gentle plumes from roasting coffee.

The coffee roasting and its public face, a lavish Viennese-style cafe, Das Kaffeehaus​ (which is the new site of long-standing local business Coffee Basics by Edmund Schaerf and Elna Schaerf-Trauner, pictured), are part of a 2.6-hectare site, opposite the Botanic Gardens, that is currently being remade as a tourism hub.

Local GP and obstetrician Ronnie Moule and farmer Phil McConachy bought the site in May 2014. "As a farmer, I don't like monoculture," says McConachy. "It's the same for the site," recently green-lighted by council, to incorporate a food precinct, vintage-wares and antique market (due to open by November), as well as individual tenants, such as Castlemaine Circus, Earth Garden magazine and furniture makers.

Joining Das Kaffeehaus in the food precinct in the next month or so will be Sprout bakery, a biscuit-maker and Ice Cream Social, as well as Castlemaine Brewery and Boomtown wine collective. Plans include a large glassed-in area so visitors can view production, a tap room and cellar door, and provision for incidental sales.

Another six spaces are still being negotiated.

The Old Castlemaine Woollen Mills and Das Kaffeehaus are at 9 Walker Street, Castlemaine.