History

Significant aspects of Bendigo's history are:

• The Jaara people are the original inhabitants of area that now constitutes the City of Greater Bendigo.
• Gold was first discovered in 1851 - by Margaret Kennedy, an overseer's wife from the nearby Ravenswood sheep run.
• Over 3,000 Chinese settled on the goldfields in 1854.
• The town was called Sandhurst until 1891 when it was officially named Bendigo. Bendigo was named after a shepherd from the Ravenswood Run who grazed his sheep along the creek known as Bendigo Creek. The shepherd was handy with his fists and was nicknamed Bendigo after the world famous bareknuckled boxer, William ‘Bendigo' Thompson from Nottingham in England.
• One of the more significant citizens was Sir John Quick - a lawyer and politician who was instrumental in the formation of the Federation of Australia.
• The German architect Carl Wilhelm Vahland designed the Bendigo Town Hall, the Shamrock Hotel, the Anne Caudle Hospital, the School of Mines, the old Masonic Temple (now The Capital - Bendigo's Performing Arts Centre) and the Alexandra Fountain.
• The Chicko Roll was invented in Bendigo.
• Sidney Myer's first store was established in Bendigo.

Physical Attributes

Bendigo is:

• 225 metres above sea level.
• 150 kilometres north west of Melbourne.
• 90 minutes from Melbourne Airport and is strategically located at the junction of rail links.
• At the point of convergence of three (3) highways with excellent connections to other interstate highways.
• The geographic heart of Victoria.

Outside Melbourne, Bendigo is the third largest urban centre in the State, and the second major regional centre for Victoria.

A number of small towns including Heathcote, Elmore, Goornong, Marong, Redesdale and Axedale are located within the municipality.

Lake Eppalock is an important water supply and recreation resource, which provides an increasing proportion of Bendigo's domestic water supply.

Located within the Murray-Darling Basin, the North Central Catchment Region and the catchments of the Loddon and Campaspe rivers with the exception of a small area in the east which is within the Goulburn Broken Catchment Region.

The location of the Whipstick and Kamarooka State Parks, the One Tree Hill and Eaglehawk Regional Parks, the Maiden Gully, Marong, Wellsford and Mandurang State Forests, Diamond Hill Historic Reserve and various flora and fauna reserves and bushland reserves. These parks conserve some of north central Victoria's outstanding natural features including a variety of eucalyptus principally blue, green, and bull mallee grey box, and iron bark and significant relics from gold mining and eucalyptus oil industries. Found only in the Bendigo area is the vivid flowering whirakee wattle.

The home of more than 200 species of birds such as the grey shrike-thrush, the white-wing chough, 44 species of mammals such as the eastern grey kangaroo, black wallaby and echidna, 40 species of reptiles and 12 species of frogs.

Demographic Profile

For a comprehensive demographic profile for Greater Bendigo based on the 2006 Census, please click here