Bendigo used to be a gold rush boomtown in the 1850s and the legacy of this era still shows today. The city has lovely Victorian architecture and interesting history. Today, it’s a beautiful green city with the lush, green Rosalind Park right by the city centre, trams, stately buildings and a lot of large established trees.
The Golden Dragon Museum has some seriously impressive artifacts and is very interesting to visit to understand more about Chinese history in Australia. It is an absolute must see attraction in Bendigo!
The Bendigo Botanic Gardens is not too big but lovely. It has some more established areas and also some newer zones which are clearly very well planted and planned. In a few years when the trees grow up, this newer area will be a real treasure to the city!
To the north of the city is the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. This is an impressive structure and was designed to last 1000 years. It’s quite new and unfinished. There is still scaffolding and work being carried out inside. Nevertheless, there is plenty here to make it worth a visit. It clearly tries to be a multi denominational place as it contains shrines to a number of different religions.
There are trams in Bendigo!Bendigo is prone to flooding so they have these massive drainage ditches to drain huge amounts of water away from the town center!Soldiers Memorial Institute Military MuseumBendigo Art Gallery – not a big gallery but a lovely sanctuary on a searing hot day. It actually contains some really interesting and accomplished works from a wide range of time periods. Lion and old coat in Golden Dragon Museum Loong, the world’s oldest surviving complete professional dragon still intact, 29m, from about 1901. This old guy was brought out to dance at the annual Easter Festival for over 120 years! There are two dragon heads in this picture. The left dragon is Sun Loong who took over as the main dragon in the Easter Festival parade from Loong in 1970 until it was retired in 2019 to be replaced by Dai Gum Loong. Sun Loong is an impressive 100m long! Dai Gum Loong, Big Gold Dragon, used from 2019. Bendigo’s latest professional dragon for the annual Easter Festival! 125m long!!Jade Carriage! Impractical but impressive!Lion Dance costumesTemple in the same complex as the Golden Dragon Museum Chancery Lane – dotted around the main town centre are cute little laneways reminiscent of Melbourne.
Arch of Triumph at the Bendigo Botanic Garden Bendigo Botanic Gardens Cicada shells at Bendigo Botanic Gardens Inside Sacred Heart CathedralQueen Victoria statue Sacred Heart Cathedral Rosalind Park, a green oasis in the city center Alexandra Fountain Lake Weeroona, just outside the town centre and popular for recreation Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Quan Yin Statue, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Famous Jade Buddha at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion
Statue depicting the story of The Four Harmonious Friends
