Bendigo

Victoria (Western Region)

Bendigo

The huge amount of gold discovered at Bendigo has also left an extravagant mark, making it the most splendid mid-19th century Victorian city in Australia. When you drive through the main street of Bendigo you'll be struck by the city's obvious pride. Flamboyant in appearance, the journey down its side streets unveils even more remarkable buildings - baroque mansions, gothic cathedrals and Georgian-style homes.

Bendigo was the greatest goldfield of all in Victoria. Extending over 360 square kilometres, it comprised about 35 gold-bearing reefs with a total output of more than 22 million ounces. These riches built a grand city which is often regarded as the best-preserved example of Victorian architecture in the State - and possibly Australia. Any city in the world would be proud to boast Pall Mall and its handsome buildings.

The affluence and taste is also reflected in elegant villas such as Fortuna, the home of mine owner George Lansell. Known as the 'Quartz King', he was a larger than life goldmining entrepreneur whose shafts were always the deepest and whose enthusiasm spread and filled the city with optimism and excitement.

Humble single-fronted miners cottages now house fine art, as does the outstanding Bendigo Art Gallery. Here you are offered an insight into the European settlement in this area. The Gallery contains significant European and Australian art collections and has the largest Louis Buvelot collection in the country.

In total contrast, a large portion of Bendigo's rich heritage is due to its Chinese associations. The Chinese arrived in Bendigo in 1854 and China Town was once found in Bridge Street. Today, however, it is the Golden Dragon Museum which contains the treasure-trove of Chinese ceremonial regalia, including the dragons Loong and Sun Loong. If you visit Bendigo during the Easter break you can see the Easter Monday Chinese Procession where Sun Loong, carried by 60 people, is paraded.

The brilliant red Chinese Jess House is an equally startling find. Bright banners, sacred offerings and a variety of tiny alters are found inside. You can also see aspects of Chinese life portrayed in wax at the Dai Gum San Wax Museum.

Situated right in the heart of the city is the Central Deborah Mine shaft which passes through 17 levels to a depth of almost 400 metres. The last deep-reef mine in the area to close, it has been fully restored and is a working exhibit for the public.

Linking many of these attractions are the vintage 'talking' trams. You can listen to a taped commentary on the sights you will pass, identifying points of interest along the way. This eight kilometre tram tour starts and ends at the Central Deborah Mine.

While you are here, why not supplement your visual experience with some of the town's many gourmet pleasures. Wine connoisseurs will delight at the boutique wineries scattered throughout the hills and valleys surrounding Bendigo.

Other attractions include Bendigo Pottery, Australia's oldest pottery still in operation and Sweenies Creek Pottery. At Sandhurst Town, a short drive from Bendigo, you can relive the gold rush days in this faithfully re-created mining town.

The town

Many of Bendigo’s finest goldrush buildings are along Pall Mall, including the ornate Italianate post office (1887) which now houses the visitor information centre and law courts (1896) – neither of which would seem out of place in a capital city – and the amazingly decorative Shamrock Hotel opposite, which is four storeys of gold-boom architecture at its most extreme. View Street, climbing the hill beside Rosalind Park, has a few more elaborate goldrush buildings. The Bendigo Regional Arts Centre here is a massive Neoclassical pile, joined to the much more homely red-brick fire station which now serves as the Community Arts Centre. The Art Gallery, in an ugly 1960s building at no. 42 (daily 10am–5pm; $3), has an extensive collection of Australian painting from Bendigo’s goldfield days to the present, as well as nineteenth-century British and European art, acquired with all that gold. Several antique shops, restaurants, cafés and bars add to the arty feel of the street. The Queen Elizabeth Oval, with its old red-brick stadium, backs onto Rosalind Park, and you can watch Aussie Rules football here on Sundays in winter.

Bridge Street, one of the oldest in Bendigo, was once Chinatown, home to the Chinese who came by the thousands in the 1850s and who knew Bendigo as “the golden mountain”; when the gold ran out, many turned to market gardening in the area. Until as late as the 1960s old shops sporting faded signs were still in evidence, but now Chinese customs and ways of life are best seen in the Golden Dragon Museum (daily 9.30am–5pm; $6), where there is an impressive collection of Chinese processional regalia including what are supposed to be the world’s longest and oldest Imperial dragons, Sun Loong and Loong. An exhibition tells the full story of Bendigo’s Chinese community since the days of the goldrush. The latest addition to the museum are the Chinese Gardens, featuring a temple to the goddess Kuan Yin. The National Trust-operated Joss House, on Finn Street in North Bendigo (daily 10am–5pm; $3; bus #7, approximately hourly Mon–Fri), was built by the Chinese in the 1860s and is the oldest Chinese temple still in use in Australia. The route to the shrine passes man-made Lake Weeroona, whose picnic grounds are the setting for a Chinese teahouse.

Bendigo Art Gallery

The Bendigo Art Gallery is outstanding. Local surgeon Neptune-Scott bequeathed his 19th century French Collection which shows Sisley, Harpignes, Courbet, Rosseau and Hortlear to the gallery. Such acts of generosity were not uncommon in these times. Many wealthy mining magnates were collectors of Australian and European Art and they would often bequeath them to the local galleries. Australian artists represented in this region include George Lambert, Rupert Bunny, Ray Crooke, Clifton Pugh and Fred Williams. The Gallery houses the largest Louis Buvelot collection in Australia.

Collectively the three Victorian art galleries in Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine hold some of Australia's key art pieces and other works which portray early regional scenes are valuable historical references and certainly worth noting.

You will discover many outdoor works of art in Bendigo which also mark the exuding confidence of the goldrush. The stately streetscape of Pall Mall in Bendigo is introduced by the delightful ornamentation of the Alexandra Fountain, named after Alexandra, the Princess of Wales.

Central Deborah Goldmine

The Central Deborah Goldmine, at the corner of Violet Street and the Calder Highway (daily 9am–5pm; underground tour $16), was the last mine in the Central Goldfields to close. The sixty-minute underground tour is worth taking if you’ve never been down in a mine, and if you’re not claustrophobic; everybody is issued with a reassuring hard hat, complete with torch and generator. You go down to a depth of 60m in a lift, which takes 85 seconds – it would take thirty minutes to reach the bottom of some of the deepest shafts. The further down you go the hotter it gets, but at 60m it’s quite warm and airless, dripping with water and muddy underfoot.

Above ground, you’re free to wander about and take a look at the engine room with its steam-driven air compressor. You can also see a room set up like a modest miner’s house from the 1840s, a model of the mine itself, and a museum installed in the old changing rooms.

Getting there and around

Interstate McCafferty’s buses stop at the Caltex service station, on the corner of High and Oak streets. The visitor information centre is in the grand old post office building on Pall Mall (daily 9am–5pm; tel 03/5444 4433, free tel 1800/813 153). It provides lots of brochures and maps – the free Discover Bendigo booklet, including a walking map, is very useful (you’ll also find “Heritage Walk” panels outside significant buildings).

A good way to get an impression of Bendigo is to take the Talking Tram Tour, though the taped commentary can be rather irritating (hourly departures, on weekends half hourly, from the Central Deborah Goldmine 9.30am–3pm; 1hr; $8; combined ticket for the mine and tram tour $21). The tram tour ticket includes entrance to the Bendigo Tram Museum, located on Hargreaves Street at the opposite end of the route. Bendigo had electric trams even before Melbourne, but they ceased operation in 1972.

Alternatively, you can take a Double Decker Bus Tour which takes in all the sights including the Bendigo Pottery in suburban Epsom. On weekends it does round trips from the Central Deborah Goldmine between 10am and 5pm, during the week it departs only at 10am and 2pm. The ticket is valid all day, allowing you to get on and off when you want ($8; tel 03/5441 6969). Buses (Christians Bus Company tel 03/5447 2222) have since replaced trams as a means of everyday transport – they all leave from the corner of Mitchell and Hargreaves streets and charge a flat fare of $1.50 for two hours. Bendigo Airport Service provides a link to Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport (tel 03/5475 1386; $32; 3 daily; booking essential).

Eating, drinking and nightlife

The town offers a fairly good choice when it comes to eating and drinking, and there is plenty of student-influenced nightlife during term time. Entertainment facilities at the LaTrobe University campus are open to all – call 03/5444 7478 to find out what’s happening. Several pubs have bands playing on Friday and Saturday nights, including the Old Crown Hotel at 238 Hargreaves St, and The Vine at 135 King St. On Thursday night there’s live music at the Limerick Tavern, 44 Williamson St. The young crowd congregates at the Rifle Brigade Hotel at 137 View St, a brewery pub with a wrought-iron verandah. Nightclubs popular with students are Eclipse at the corner of Hargreaves and Williams streets and The Icon at 2–4 Howard Place.

Bazzani Bar & Ristorante, Howard Place (tel 03/5441 3777). Cosy restaurant at the end of the mall renowned for the interesting, well-presented and tasty dishes on the menu, like goats cheese, spinach and walnut ravioli. Lunch and dinner daily; licensed.
Clogs, 106 Pall Mall. A modern, lively and reasonably priced brasserie. Daily from 5pm, plus lunch on Sun.
Colonial Bank Gallery and Mully’s Cafe, 32 Pall Mall. In a grand, historic bank building from the 1880s, with an art gallery upstairs. Good breakfasts, brunches and afternoon teas. Licensed or BYO. Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun from 9am.
Cumberland Hotel, 56 Williamson St. Family bistro open daily for lunch and dinner.
The Match Bar & Bakehouse, 58 Bull St. A stylish café-restaurant with lots of pasta, focaccia and pizza. Dinner daily, lunch daily except Sat.
Metropolitan Brasserie & Grill, cnr of Bull and Hargreaves sts. A transformed 1860s pub that has won several awards for its food, which includes bushtucker. Daily noon–midnight for meals or drinks.
Shamrock Hotel Café, cnr of Pall Mall and Williamson St. This café-restaurant in the lovely, refurbished former public bar serves good breakfasts (home-baked bread) and has interesting, mainly Modern Australian cuisine for lunch and dinner.
Whirakee Restaurant and Wine Bar, 17 View Point, at the beginning of View St, just opposite the fountain. Outstanding Modern Australian cuisine, with an excellent wine list featuring local wines.

Accommodation

In terms of atmosphere and style, the B&B guesthouses and cottages throughout Bendigo and the whole goldfields area are a much better option than the average, somewhat sterile motel room.

Bendigo Haymarket Motor Inn, 5 McIvor Highway. Ultramodern motel with one unit accessible to the disabled, a swimming pool and sauna; some rooms with spas.
Elm Motel, 454 High St, Golden Square. Inexpensive motel, conveniently located next to McCafferty’s bus stop, with a public bus into town at the front door.
Landonia, 87 Mollison St. A centrally located B&B in a Federation-style home, with separate guest entrance and an open fireplace in the lounge.
Marlborough House, 115 Wattle St. B&B in a goldrush-era mansion near the cathedral.
National Hotel/Motel, 182 High St, 1km south. Facilities include a pool and spa, as well as a bar and bistro.
Old Crown Hotel, 238 Hargreaves St. Comfortable, centrally located pub accommodation, with a light breakfast included.
Rupertswood Country Home, Mandurang Rd, Mandurang, about 7km south of Bendigo. B&B in a quiet and picturesque valley. Has en-suite rooms and private sitting rooms.
Shamrock Hotel, cnr of Pall Mall and Williamson St. Fabulous Victorian hotel that has a wide range of accommodation, from budget-priced rooms to executive suites.