Local machinery made the design distinctly Australian

Castlemaine was built at Williamstown using a Victorian supply network that included Thompson's foundry at Castlemaine and producers around Ballarat. Local firms supplied engines, boilers, and other machinery, allowing Australia to build corvettes in quantity despite lacking the capacity to build a cruiser or carrier independently. Shared imperial ideas still required a design suited to Australian machinery and construction standards. Australian industry could manufacture higher-pressure naval-type boilers, so these went into the Bathursts instead of the more civilian types fitted in Flowers. An onboard demonstration shows Castlemaine's preserved multiple-expansion engine turning, and a volunteer identifies the castings as locally made.