About Greater Bendigo

The City of Greater Bendigo is situated in the geographic centre of Victoria, covering 3,000 square kilometres.

 We enjoy many features of a thriving regional town with a strong community spirit.

Download maps of the Greater Bendigo area.

Snapshot

• A population of more than 100,000, and growing.

• A diverse history -  the riches from the 1880's goldrush days are evident in our beautiful streetscapes and historic buildings.

• 40,000 hectares of regional, state and national parkland.

• A pleasant 90 minute drive or slightly longer rail trip from Melbourne.

• A range of services and infrastructure for north central Victoria.

• Recognition by UNICEF/UNESCO as a Child Friendly City.

Our history

• The Jaara people are the original inhabitants of the area.

• Gold was first discovered in 1851 by Margaret Kennedy, an overseer's wife from the nearby Ravenswood sheep run.

• More than 3,000 Chinese settled on the goldfields in 1854.

• The goldfields town was called Sandhurst until 1891 when it was officially named Bendigo. Our name came from a shepherd who worked on the Ravenswood Run who grazed his sheep along 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.

• German architect Carl Wilhelm Vahland designed Bendigo Town Hall, the Shamrock Hotel,  Anne Caudle Hospital, School of Mines, Masonic Temple (now The Capital - Bendigo's Performing Arts Centre) and Alexandra Fountain.

• One of our more significant citizens was Sir John Quick - a lawyer and politician who was instrumental in the formation of the Federation of Australia.

Our strong commercial base

• Bendigo is Victoria's third largest urban centre and the major regional centre in north central Victoria.

• We are the home of department store Myer, Sidney Myer's first store continues to operate in Bendigo's Pall Mall.

• Other national businesses to call Bendigo home including Fernwood Fitness, Jimmy Possum Furniture, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Mining.

• Our community offers a broad range of employment opportunities, including a growing number of new innovative and internationally competitive industries.

 Our unique features

• We are located in the geographic heart of Victoria, 150 kilometres north west of Melbourne and only 90 minutes from Melbourne Airport.

• Bendigo is located at the junction of three highways with excellent connections to interstate highways.

• With Bendigo as its largest centre, our municipality includes the thriving smaller communities of Heathcote, Elmore, Goornong, Marong, Redesdale and Axedale.

• We are located in the Murray Darling Basin, the North Central Catchment Region and catchments of the Loddon and Campaspe rivers (with the exception of a small area in the east of the municipality).

• Our municipality is surrounded by parkland and nature reserves including the Whipstick and Kamarooka State Parks; One Tree Hill and Eaglehawk Regional Parks; Maiden Gully, Marong, Wellsford and Mandurang State Forests;, Diamond Hill Historic Reserve and various flora and fauna reserves and bushland reserves.

• We boast the only known area where the vivid flowering Whirrakee Wattle can be found.

• Our community has some of north central Victoria's most outstanding natural features including a variety of eucalyptus including blue and green eucalyptus, Bull Mallee Grey Box and Ironbark.

• Our forests, parks nature and bush reserves are home to more than 200 species of birds including the Grey Shrike-Thrush, White-Wing Chough, 44 species of mammals such as the Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Black Wallaby, echidna, 40 species of reptiles and 12 species of frogs.