Understand
Bendigo grew to a bustling town during the Gold Rush Era of the 1850s. The wealth created during this period resulted many fine Victorian era buildings in the down town and surrounding areas. This type of architecture is not common to most country towns in Australia.
An influx of people from the city has brought the population of Bendigo to just over 100,000. Even so it still retains a friendly country atmosphere.
The town has more sunny days per year than Queensland. Being north of the Great Dividing Range, it has also far less rain than Melbourne. Summers are hot and dry, up to 40 degrees Celsius or more on some days. Winters tend to be mild; with lowest temperatures around -5 degrees Celsius overnight and around 15 during the day.
Sheep, cattle, fruit, wine and cereal crops are the most common products of the area. Gold is being discovered again in large quantities at deeper levels in the old mines with new technology.
History
Before European settlement the are was occupied by the clans of the Dja Dja Wrung people. They were regarded by other tribes as being a superior people, not only because of their rich hunting grounds but because from their area came a greenstone rock for their stone axes. Early Europeans described the Dja Dja Wrung as a strong, physically well-developed people and not belligerent. Nevertheless the early years of European settlement in the Mount Alexander area were bloodied by many clashes between intruder and dispossessed.
Major Mitchell passed through the area in 1836. Following his discovery, the first squatters arrived in 1840 to establish vast sheep runs. Bendigo Creek was part of the Mount Alexander or Ravenswood sheep run.
It is generaly acknowledged that Mrs John Kennedy and Mrs Patrick Farrell, wives of workmen on the Ravenswood run, found gold at âThe Rocksâ - now an identified location that can be visited at the junction of Bendigo Creek and Maple Street.
The first ârushâ took place in November 1851 when miners at Castlemaine Forest Creek heard of the new discovery. Alluvial gold was found in the area of its first discovery present day Golden Square and then the miners followed the gold down the creek to what is now Epsom and up the creek to the present suburb of Kangaroo Flat. Further discoveries were soon made in the tributary creeks at Eaglehawk and Diamond Hill.
As a result of the rush of people to the area, the Gold Commissionerâs Office, the Police Barracks and the courts were erected on Camp Hill, now the present Rosalind Park in central Bendigo. The âdiggersâ, as the miners were called, numbered as high as thirty thousand and came from all over the world; from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland â along with Germans, Italians, Swiss, French and Americans. The Chinese population reached many thousands in the early gold rush period but their numbers dropped rapidly as the nineteenth century progressed.
Bendigo quickly grew from a âcity of tentsâ to become a substantial city with great public buildings. The first hospital was built in 1853 and the first town plan was developed by 1854. A municipality emerged and the first Town Hall was commissioned in 1859.
Bendigo was connected to Melbourne by telegraph in 1857 and it was from here that the first message reporting the deaths of Burke and Wills was sent in 1861. Frequent Cobb & Co coaches ran to Melbourne until the railway reached Bendigo in 1862.
In the following decade it made the transition from small mining town to large and wealthy city, and becoming established as a key centre for surrounding settlements.
Water supply was always a problem in Bendigo. This was partly solved with a system harnessing the waters of the Coliban River, designed by engineer Joseph Brady. Water first flowed through the viaduct in 1877.
Architect William Charles Vahland left a major mark on Bendigo during this period. He is credited as innovating what was the most popular residential design of the period, low cost cottages with verandahs decorated in iron lace which became a popular style right across Victoria. He transformed the Bendigo Town Hall between 1878 to 1886 into a grand building and designed more than eighty more public and private buildings, including the Alexandra Fountain, the Masonic Temple now the Capital Theatre and the Mechanics Institute and School of Mines now the Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE, 'Fortuna Villa' in Golden Square, which was the home of 'Quartz King' George Lansell, the Law Courts, former Post Office and the expanded Shamrock Hotel in Pall Mall.
A tram network began in 1890 and was used for public transport.