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Bendigo
Gold Fields
By
Richard Moore
Bendigo
Map
Ballarat
and Sovereign Hill Day Tour with Optional Wildlife Park from Melbourne
Grampians
National Park and Australian Animals Small Group Tour from Melbourne
2-Day
Great Ocean Road and the Grampians Tour from Melbourne
Bendigo
is a city built on the wealth of the goldfields and has a population
of about 90,000 people.
Geographically
it sits pretty much smack-dab in the middle of Victoria about 150km
north-west of Melbourne.
It
is a very attractive city with a large number of grand Victorian
buildings that show just how rich the city was during the gold rush
of the 1850s.
Major
buildings include the Bendigo Town Hall, the Old Post Office, the
Law Courts, the Shamrock Hotel, the Institute of Technology and
the Memorial Military Museum.
But
even they pale besides the Sacred Heart Cathedral, a large sandstone
church, which is the third largest cathedral in the country.
In
the 1870s there were 1000 gold-mining companies operating in and
around Bendigo.
From
1851 to 1954 Bendigo yielded more than 700,000 kgs of gold - worth
about $28 billion in today's money.
One
of the best ways to see how gold operations worked is by taking
a tour through the Central Deborah Mine, which was kept intact by
a far-thinking city council way back in 1970. The mine has 17 levels
underground and goes down 412 metres.
Another
of the must-see places in Bendigo is the Golden Dragon Museum. It
is said to be the centre of Chinese culture in Australia.
The
museum traces back the contribution Chinese immigrants and workers
have made to Australia since the days of the gold rush.
At
the museum you can go into the Yi Yuan (Garden of Joy) Gardens that
feature classical Chinese architecture, strongly influenced by the
gardens in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Entry to the gardens is
included in the general admission ticket. They are open from 9:30am
- 4:30pm daily. And open every day except Christmas Day is the museum's
beautiful Kuan Yin (Guan Yin) Temple.
Bendigo
also has a tourist tram service that conducts Talking Tram Tours
of the city. It is a hop-on, hop-off tour that allows visitors to
explore many of the parks, attractions, shopping and dining facilities
available in the city. The trip is an 8.4km round trip every day
(except Christmas Day) to a regular timetable. The tour commences
at Central Deborah Gold Mine but you can join or leave it at any
one of the other tram stops. Tickets cost $16 for adults, $10 for
children and $47 for a family.
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