Anne here and I’m in Bendigo, which is an historic city in Victoria (my state) a few hours drive from Melbourne. I’m here to run a writing workshop, which is something I always enjoy doing.
Bendigo is a city that grew up because of the 1850’s gold rushes, and as a result it has lots of gorgeous old historic buildings; cathedrals with soaring spires, grand old hotels, solid Victorian-era civic buildings, mansions and lots of lovely little cottages, some brick or stone, others timber, and many with ornate iron lace, which was very fashionable at the time — and is still very much admired today. There is also a also a thriving Chinese community which dates from the 1850s gold rush too.
But it’s not all about the history. Bendigo is the fourth largest city in Victoria with a population around 110,000. There’s a modern and active cultural precinct, some excellent art galleries which have exhibitions that people come from all over to attend, and there are young people everywhere, which is indicative of a healthily thriving modern city.
In 1851 gold was discovered in Bendigo Creek, which was named after a local shepherd and amateur boxer who, in turn, earned the nickname because his fighting style resembled that of English bare-knuckle champion William Abednego “Bendigo” Thompson. From a quiet rural pace inhabited by aborigines and squatters — Europeans who illegally established huge sheep stations (sheep farms) and became very rich — it became a boomtown almost overnight, with tens of thousands of people arriving in less than a year. It grew to be one of the biggest in the whole of Australia.
News of the rich finds — the idea of gold, there for anyone to just pick up — brought a huge influx of migrants from all over the world, mainly from Europe and China, but also a lot from America, diggers who had tried their luck in the California gold rushes and were ready to try again in Australia. Some made their fortunes overnight, others struggled on, finding just enough gold to keep digging. It wasn’t called “gold fever” for nothing.
Today, as you drive out of Melbourne, you pass a place called Digger’s Rest — a remnant of the gold rushes — it’s located about a day’s walk from the port of Melbourne. It was where would-be diggers for gold stopped for the night on their way to try their luck on the goldfields. Here, whole families — including the family dog were walking to the goldfields.
Makeshift accommodation and taverns sprang up to service the diggers, in tents at first and later substantial buildings. Diggers were a lucrative source of income, and they were sold gold digging equipment at ludicrously inflated prices. (A lot of the fortunes made by people were not from prospecting, but from selling to the diggers. My own great-great grandfather made a good living by carting vegetables to the gold fields.) Digger’s Rest is now a small country town — more of a village, really, on the edge of Melbourne.
You can still get an idea of the wealth that was generated by gold, in the grand Victorian-era buildings you can see through the city centre. The Shamrock Hotel (where I stayed last time I came to Bendigo) was established in 1854, and rebuilt in 1897. The civic buildings — town hall, post office and so on are big, solid and impressive. And of course, in this very Victoria city there is a statue of Queen Victoria in the centre of town. (You can see her in the first photo at the top of this post — an all white statue. I don’t suppose they wanted her in mourning.)
The gold in Bendigo was still being mined in the early 20th century, and though the population of the city waned in the 1930’s, the city revived and these days is clearly thriving. It’s a beautful city, with wide streets shaded by large plane trees, which provided some welcome shade today, when the temperature was 30 C (almost 100F). It’s also a hilly city, so you come across unexpected vistas as you explore.
I’ll finish now, as I’m due at my workshop in an hour’s time. Do you have a favorite historic town you like to visit? Have you ever panned for gold? (I have – and found a few specks that pleased me greatly — but luckily not enough to give me gold fever.) Have you ever read any stories about gold rushes? (My first editor told me Australia only had gold and convicts to write about “and we’ve had quite enough of them!” she said.)
Anne, it sounds like Bendigo is worth another trip to Australia! If only it wasn’t so far…
An American historic town I like is Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, which is lovely and the site of some key American Civil War history. And has a great bookshop!
Thanks, Mary Jo.
Bendigo and Ballarat — both cities built on gold — are well worth a visit. I’d love to visit Harper’s Ferry and that bookshop. It’s a real sign of civilization, isn’t it, a town with a good bookshop.
Thank you for this informative post, Anne, and the wonderful pictures and photos; I’m reading to pack my bags for a trip to Bendigo. I hope that your writing workshop goes/went well.
Hmm, READY to pack my bags!
Thanks, Kareni — the writing workshop went well, I think, at least quite a few people came up and thanked me afterward, which was nice. I do enjoy teaching and talking craft-of-writing, and encouraging people to write.
Fascinating! As for books about gold rushes, I immediately thought of Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow, set during the very beginning of the California Gold Rush. I even have a family connection to that gold rush–my late husband’s great-grandfather, a Swedish sailor jumped ship in San Francisco to head to the gold fields!
How interesting, Jane — I think a lot of people jumped ship in areas where gold had been discovered. It was an amazing time. Thirty years later, my dad’s great-grandfather jumped ship after he met my great-grandmother in Melbourne. Apparently he thought she was gold. *g*
It’s wonderful to see that Bendigo survives as a thriving city – certainly not always the case with sites of gold finds, at least in the US. The only book about a gold rush that I’ve read was one we gave a nephew many years ago – he was about 8 and fascinated by prospecting. I cannot recall the title but recall thinking it was a romanticized version of a tough time for many! But he wasn’t daunted – and is now a geologist!
Hope you have a great time in the workshop!
Thanks, Constance. Yes, both Bendigo and Ballarat — large regional cities begun with gold — have flourished, after a rocky period when the gold ran out. And a number of small gold towns — villages, really— in Victoria have survived on a mix of tourism and “feelgood” type activities. All the ones I’m thinking of have excellent bookshops as well.
And yes, a lot of the gold rush stories gloss over the arsh and difficult life on the gold fields. It was especially hard for women — and not just in the gold fields. My great=great-grandmother (on my mum’s side) toiled for long hours, isolated and alone with a pack of small children, keeping the farm going while my g-g-grandfather was away for months at a time, selling vegetables to the diggers. She was an extraordinary woman.
I don’t exactly remember reading any gold rush books 📚 but I’ve seen a lot of old movies with the plot centered around the American gold rush. Also panned for gold as part of a touristy thing. I do love the sound of Bendigo. I’d love to visit & stay at the Shamrock!
Thanks, Jeanne — the Shamrock and Bendigo are well worth a visit, and Ballarat, another large regional city in Victoria is a great place to dabble in the days of the gold rushes. They have a historical tourist village there called Sovereign Hill, where people can learn all about the gold rush, and you can pan for gold in the creek there, which they keep seeded with specks of gold. You can also buy a pan of dirt and be guaranteed to find gold in it. *g* Another aspect of Sovereign Hill that I like is that they take school visits, and the kids go into the school house, are clad in costumes of the time, and do all kinds of fun activities. It’s so cute watching groups of small children wandering around the village, all dressed up, the girls delicately holding up their long skirts, so happy and engaged.
Thank you, Anne, for this post that was so interesting to hear about.
A couple of years ago, I was on an Alaskan cruise. One of the excursions I joined was in the town of Skagway. All of us boarded a train from the 19th-century that wrapped around a mountain side with a great voiceover from one of crew who gave a wonderful historic record of the journey.
There was a gold rush here, too, during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897–98. Skagway became a boom town as a result of the gold strike in Canada’s Yukon Territory.
During the train ride, glaciers were pointed out to us, and the most amazing fjord that was the source of the Pacific ocean.
This town was certainly a highlight of the tour.
That sounds like a fascinating tour, Patricia. I know a bit about the Klondike gold rush — and I also remember that song North to Alaska. It must have been an amazing time, with gold rushes happening in various countries and people coming from all corners of the earth.
I’ve seen glaciers in New Zealand, even walked on one — really impressive. Sadly they’re all shrinking now, with global warming.
You’ve made Bendigo very tempting. It’s funny but I think of Australia as being a new country, not as a place with historic towns! I would love to visit, and it sounds like a great place to live, also. There are many historic towns I enjoy visiting, including St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded by the Spanish, who were the first to colonize Florida. It’s got beautiful live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, and an amazing old fortress built right on the water. And I used to live in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, which is a very quaint little town by the ocean, full of Victorian cottages. They’re all made out of wood, painted in different colors, with lots of gingerbread. It was founded by the Methodist church, and up until the 1970’s, they would put up an iron chain across the entrance road, to prevent people from driving their cars in or out on Sunday. Sunday was for church going!
Thanks, Karin. In one sense, Australia is a fairly new country, though the indigenous Australians were here for more than 40,000 years. And the first Europeans to live here were squatters — illegally settling and carving out huge properties for themselves.
But the gold rush made it imperative for government to follow, and so the colony of Victoria was made legal. Victoria, my state, was pretty much colonized during the reign of Queen Victoria — hence the name of the state, and statues of her in Bendigo and other places. And in Melbourne (named after the British Prime Minister at the time) there are streets everywhere called Victoria Street (or road or parade) with a smaller one close by called Albert Street (or road or parade).
Your Ocean Grove sounds very pretty. We also have an Ocean Grove in Victoria and if you ever saw the TV series Sea Change (with Sigrid Thornton and David Wenham) it’s partly filmed there.
My first thought was also Gwen Bristow’s Calico Palace as mentioned by one of the commenters above. I did pan for gold once for a few minutes – I found it boring. I was visiting my sister who lives near Seattle. It was in a river up in the mountains. It was a lovely spot though and we did have a lovely picnic. We also went looking for colored glass on the beach. I enjoyed that more because I actually had something to show for it.
Interesting post Anne.
Thanks, Mary. I expect panning for gold is very boring — unless you find gold. Then it must get more interesting. I also love collecting colored sea-glass. I wind wire around the pieces and make jewelry from it. The soft, sea-faded colors are so pretty.
Gorgeous pictures you’ve included here!! I love them!
Glad you enjoyed them Teresa — thanks.
Thanks for an interesting post, Anne. Bendigo sounds like an interesting place to visit. I loved all the pictures you included. I enjoy visiting historic towns and cities and have many favorites, but i keep returning every year to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia (a community whose buildings were restored) which i enjoy very much. When i was growing up and when I went to college jn Massachusetts,, favorite places were Lexington, Concord and Salem. They still boasted houses from the 17th and 18th century that witnessed the opening shots if the American Revolution. History lives in all these places, and others i have visited. It’s amazing and I often wonder how the people living there feel about it! It must be so cool to live in a place where history happened!
Thanks, Jane. I wish I’d visited Colonial Williamsburg when I was doing my big explore of the US (and elsewhere) many years ago. I think I ran out of time (or money to travel there.) I did visit Plimoth Plantation and found it fascinating.
In Melbourne in the 1970’s when heaps of wonderful old houses were being demolished to make way for modern buildings, one of the trade unions intervened in some of the prettiest historical areas and declared “green bans” where no building or demolition could take place. It saved whole swathes of beautiful inner city houses and shops with gorgeous iron lace. Of course these days they’re all beautifully renovated and are a much-loved feature of our inner city suburbs.
There never is enough time or money to see and do everything, is there?
How I wish I coukd visit Australia! I have a dear friend who lives in Melbourne and it sounds like a delightful city. Alas, my traveling long distance days are over, I couldn’t sit for hours on a plane any more and flying west leaves me totally out of wack for weeks! I have to satisfy myself with photos and videos and google maps a d posts like yours!
I hope your writing workshop went well.
Thanks, Jane — the workshop participants were happy — quite a few people came up at the end and thanked me individually, which was nice. And I hear you about those long distance flights. And the jet lag.
And I might be biased, but I love Melbourne. Sydney is more spectacular, visually, on that huge, amazing harbour and surrounded by hills, but for my money, Melbourne is a better place to live.
Thanks for the post and the terrific pictures. The Shamrock Hotel looks like a place I would want to stay and wander around being impressed. Thanks again and enjoy your writing seminar.
Anne, my partner is from Bendigo, and when his Mum was alive, we went back often. Easter was my favourite time, because it was when the Awakening the Dragon ceremony was held and then Sun Loong (the dragon) was the main attraction in the street parade. Loong, the original dragon who was retired in the early 70’s and is believed to be the only complete original processional dragon in the world. Sun Loong is also believed to be the longest. This was all part of the Chinese culture that permeated the area. Many Chinese came ashore at Robe in South Australia and walked to the goldfields, a trek of over 250 miles.
Also, at Easter was the (at that stage) Book Fair, which was absolutely wonderful and used to sell books at great prices. I spent a lot of money over the years and got many, many bargains!
Thanks for this Christine. I know about the original Chinese dragon “who was retired in the early 70’s and is believed to be the only complete original processional dragon in the world.” Funny isn’t it, how a Chinese dragon on the other side of the world lasted longer than those in China and other places. I suppose, being something rare and precious, the Bendigo Chinese community took extra special care of it. I’ve never been to the Bendigo Chinese festivals, but almost always manage to enjoy Lunar New year in Melbourne, though not always with the Chinese community. I’ve taught a lot of Vietnamese people in my day, so I often attend their festivals. But we are blessed in Melbourne for so much wonderful cultural richness.