Where to Stay in Bendigo, State of Victoria

What is Bendigo known for?

On the old goldfields in the dry forest country of Australia, it grew rich in the great rush for gold, and it keeps the deep shaft of the Central Deborah mine, the grand cathedral and Victorian streets of the boom years, the Chinese dragons and museum of its old mining camps, and the vintage tram that still runs through the town. The dry bush rings the town. Old headframes stand on the hills.

What are the main landmarks in Bendigo?

The Central Deborah mine is the mark of Bendigo. The old deep gold mine, its shaft dropping hundreds of feet under the town, stands with its poppet head by the road, the emblem of the city, downtown. A dragon sleeps in its museum.

The great Chinese dragon Sun Loong rests in the Golden Dragon Museum, while the Sacred Heart Cathedral, the vintage tram, and the grand old streets mark the country around Bendigo.

What is the history of Bendigo?

Bendigo was born of a gold rush. In the eighteen-fifties diggers struck fabulous gold in the creeks and quartz reefs here, and one of the richest goldfields on earth drew a rush of thousands to the bush. The Chinese came in their thousands too.

Miners from southern China worked the diggings and built temples and gardens, and their dragons still dance through the town at festival time. The gold built a grand city. As the deep mines drove down after the quartz reefs, Bendigo grew into a rich Victorian city of broad streets, a great cathedral, grand hotels, and a fountain of marble.

The gold gave out at last. When the reefs ran thin the mines closed one by one, but Bendigo kept its grand buildings, its old mine, and its dragons, growing into the market city of the goldfields. The old poppet heads still stand on the hills.

Bendigo keeps its gold-rush streets in the heart of Victoria.

Where is Bendigo?

Bendigo lies in the center of Victoria, on the dry inland slopes north of the Great Dividing Range in Australia. The city sits in rolling country of box and ironbark forest, on the old gold-bearing reefs, with low wooded hills and quartz ridges around and the wide dry plains stretching north. The bush runs dry and grey.

Low hills roll to the plains.

What is the climate of Bendigo?

Bendigo has a warm, dry temperate climate. Hot dry summers and cool wet winters cross the goldfields, with baking heat and bushfire days in summer and cold grey rain in the winter. The long summer bakes dry.

Cold rain soaks the winter.

How do you get to Bendigo?

Bendigo lies in central Victoria, on the road and rail northwest of Melbourne. Fast trains and the highway run to it up from Melbourne across the goldfields, and roads lead on to the dry inland towns. Trains cross the bush.

Melbourne lies southeast down the line.