The Old Boundary Hotel, Bendigo

If you are a tourist you might miss this old pub, I think the locals are trying to keep it a secret. I was told it was the best pub in town (and there are quite a few) and we enjoyed a very good Australia Day lunch here. Good food, well presented and generous sized meals.

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo

Double click picture to enlarge image.

My photo doesn't do this magnificent building justice, I couldn't get the spires into the shot, they are just so high. Everyone is welcome to come inside and be inspired.

The Cathedral was built in two stages, the nave and the side aisles were built first and opened in September 1901 and then in 1954 work restarted and it was finally finished in 1977.

Bendigo, fossicking for gold

Many people still come to Bendigo looking for gold which is allowed in some areas of the Greater Bendigo National Park surrounding Bendigo.

But we still can't get away from government red tape, you have to get a Miner's Right which is a permit to 'prospect for minerals on unreserved crown land or private land where the permission of the land owner is given'. It will cost you $26.90 and is valid for two years.

But wait, there's more, you can only use hand tools and metal detectors and any soil or rocks displaced must be put back and any holes filled in.

Bendigo, Talking Trams

We don't have trams in Sydney, so it was a bit of a novelty to hop aboard a Talking Tram in Bendigo city, population 100,000. Trams stopped running here years ago but some enterprising person suggested they restore some old ones and maybe tourists would come and enjoy a ride on one, see the sights of the city and listen to a running commentary of the history of the town all at the same time. It's working very well.

The old tram you see in pieces is a 'Work For the Dole' project' - young people come here to work on restoring this old tram, originally from America.

Bendigo, a town built on dreams

Gold was discovered in Victoria in August 1851 at Buninyong, near Ballarat, two months later it was discovered in Bendigo. In 1853 60,000 diggers from all over the world were on the goldfields, 23,000 of these were at Bendigo.

There is some confusion about where the word 'digger' comes from, some say the name came about because the First World War Aussie soldiers were forever digging trenches and tunnels. The version I like is that the word comes from the goldfields and the heroic show of the miners' rebelliion at the ridiculous cost of thirty shillings a month for a licence to mine for gold, whether you found any or not.

The now famous Bendigo Petition in 1853 was drawn up with a list of the miners grievences but it all came to nothing and was denied. The diggers were furious and some time later this fury was played out at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, which is another interesting story about our rebellious past and our innate dislike of authority.