The new state government funded facility at 32 Templeton Street, Castlemaine was open to the public over the weekend.

Senior Sergeant Ian Brooks said residents streamed through the building for tours.

He said many were impressed at the state-of-the-art facilities. 

"We’ve had some people wanting to move in and we have had close to 700 to 800 people through," Senior Sergeant Brooks said. 

He said the new building was no comparison to the old.

The current station has housed police since 1977 and Senior Sergeant Brooks said it was "well past its use by date".

The Castlemaine station currently has 36 members, but will soon expand to 38. 

Senior Sergeant Brooks said the building could easily accommodate 60, which would be useful if the station needed to make way for detectives and highway patrols using it as a temporary base. 

He said the old station was too small to accommodate visiting police members.

"We were working on top of each other and crowding into small rooms," he said.

He said the new building was open plan with secure custody cells, a gym and an outdoor space with a barbeque. 

It is also linked to an old heritage building that housed Castlemaine police from 1921 to 1977. It was built originally as a bank in 1855.

He said he felt no nostalgia about leaving the old station.

The state government will sell the old station once police have moved.