Don't forget that any tour can be changed to suit you, as our itineraries are based on your requirements

The Story of Gold - The Bendigo Version

150 km from Melbourne, Bendigo, formerly known as Sandhurst, has one of the finest collections of Victorian buildings in inland Australia. They were built, directly as a result of the discovery of gold in the area in 1851, which would ultimately produce over 25 million ounces of gold from then until 1954.

That's 781 metric Tonnes of gold, which equals, let's see..............

• 15 BILLION U.S. Dollars
• 20 Billion Australian Dollars
• 8.5 Billion English pounds

Which gives you an idea of why all those magnificent buildings and terribly English gardens are in Bendigo. When you think there's a virtual duplicate at Ballarat, it all starts to look VERY impressive.

The miners came from all corners of the globe, to carve out their own niches in Bendigo:

• The Irish at St. Killian's,
• The Cornish, coming from South Australia's copper mines to set up at Long Gully.
• The Germans at Ironbark
• And by no means least, Chinese at Emu Point.

The Chinese are a very important part of Bendigo's (and Victoria's) history, and at one stage, Cobb & Co Coaches, ran a special service to Guildford, exclusively for Chinese passengers. The fact that it would have been a segregationary service, does nothing to detract from the importance of the Chinese influence in Bendigo's development.

There is plenty of evidence of that Chinese prescence, especially in the Chinese cemeteries, and in the Joss House in Bendigo proper, which we can visit, from the Talking Tram tour route.

The continuing Bendigo Easter Fair, has been operating since 1871, with the Dragon used in that parade, being one of the finest in the world. The Golden Dragon Museum, has "Loong", the world's oldest imperial dragon, as well as "Sun Loong" the world's longest imperial dragon, on display. There are also items of historical significance to the Chinese community in Victoria, especially in relation to the goldfields.

Beside the Golden Dragon Museum, are gardens designed to resemble those in Beijing's Imperial Palace

From 1870 until about 1900, Bendigo was the world's leading producer of gold-from-quartz and was unequalled in Australian total gold yield, until 1988, when Kalgoorlie took the title.