Bendigo
Most gold produced on earth 1850-1900 (~$9B today). Population exploded from zero to 50,000. Bendigo Bank HQ (5th largest AU). Tourism $364M. Mining resumed 2011.
Bendigo produced more gold than anywhere else on earth between 1850 and 1900. The discovery came in September 1851 at 'The Rocks' near Golden Gully—found by Margaret Kennedy and Julia Farrell, wives of shepherds from a nearby sheep run. Within months, 5,000 diggers arrived weekly; the population hit 50,000.
The wealth was extraordinary. Gold exported from Victoria in the 1850s paid off all of Britain's foreign debts. At its peak, some two tonnes of gold per week flowed into Melbourne's Treasury. The finds that built Bendigo would be worth around nine billion dollars today. News of the discoveries brought migrants from around the world, particularly Europe and China—tripling Australia's population from 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million by 1871.
The gold rush left visible legacy. Victorian-era buildings line Bendigo's streets—heritage that now drives tourism worth A$364 million annually in 2008-09. The Central Deborah Gold Mine offers underground tours. The Chinese community that formed during the rush left the Golden Dragon Museum and Australia's oldest Chinese temple.
Modern Bendigo is a service economy. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank—Australia's fifth-largest—has its headquarters here. Health, education, food processing, and engineering provide employment. Gold mining resumed in 2011 as prices rose, though the industry now operates at a fraction of historical scale.
By 2026, Bendigo tests whether heritage tourism and financial services can sustain a city built by extraction.