Bendigo

Bendigo yielded more gold between 1851 and 1900 than anywhere else in the world—777 tonnes (25 million ounces) worth roughly A$65 billion at today's prices. The discovery came in September 1851, when Margaret Kennedy and Julia Farrell, wives of station employees, found gold at 'The Rocks' near Bendigo Creek. Within six months, 20,000 miners from China, America, Germany, and across Europe had descended on the field. By mid-1852, 5,000 diggers were arriving every week. The Dja Dja Wurrung (Djaara) people, who had inhabited this country for millennia, were displaced by the largest gold rush Australia had ever seen.

The Chinese called it 'Dai Gum San'—Big Gold Mountain. By 1858, roughly 33,000 Chinese miners worked Victoria's goldfields, making up one-fifth of the mining population. Bendigo still bears their mark: the Chinese Joss House, built in the 1860s, is one of Australia's oldest. The Golden Dragon Museum preserves the heritage. The Easter Festival, running for over 150 years, began as a celebration of Chinese culture. Unlike Ballarat, which is remembered for rebellion, Bendigo is remembered for the cosmopolitan chaos that gold created.

The wealth that gold extracted built the city that remains. Broad boulevards laid out in an 1854 town plan. Ostentatious public buildings. Richly decorated private homes. When the easy gold ran out, deep mining continued until 1954. By then, eastern Australia's largest 19th-century gold-mining economy had transformed into a regional service center for agriculture, manufacturing, and healthcare. The architecture stayed; the population diversified its economy.

Today Bendigo is home to 122,600 people—Australia's 19th-largest city and Victoria's fourth-most populous. La Trobe University's Bendigo Campus is the institution's largest regional hub, with 4,000 students and plans to quadruple regional enrollment growth by 2030. Healthcare and finance anchor the economy. Thales Australia's A$100 million contract to build 40 Bushmaster vehicles in Bendigo will sustain 250 manufacturing jobs. Qantas increased Sydney-Bendigo flights 24% in 2024-25 to meet demand. The city won gold at the 2025 Victorian Tourism Awards for the fourth time in six years.

By 2026, Bendigo bets on the same formula that saved Ballarat: heritage tourism, university expansion, healthcare growth, and Melbourne spillover. The gold is gone, but the infrastructure it built—grand streets, cultural institutions, regional significance—provides the platform for continued growth. Big Gold Mountain found a second life.