Striking gold: How Bendigo still digs its history

Since its days as a gold-rush hub, Bendigo has been a place people come to for its potential. In the 1850s, they arrived with dreams of striking it rich the old-fashioned way. Today, the regional city, located 150 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, is having another moment as a rising star of Australia’s tourism scene. A designated UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy (Australia’s first-ever), Bendigo enjoys a vibrant arts scene, is home to a celebrated wine industry, boasts a diverse cultural heritage and tips its hat to its gold-rush foundations with wide streets teeming with opulent architectural finery. Bendigo’s greatest asset, however, may just be its tight-knit community, with locals going out of their way to help their neighbours succeed.

Swapping traffic jams for winery lands 

Cliff Stubbs has owned and operated Burnt Acre Vineyard since the late 1980s, with his partner, Maureen O’Connor. 

“I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne but I always knew in my heart that I was a country person. Back in those days, I was a tradie who spent hours sitting in traffic as I drove from job to job and I was always thinking, ‘There has to be a better way to live than this.’ Discovering Bendigo when I was in my late twenties was life changing; there was peace in the region’s open landscapes, beauty in her gold-rush-era architecture and a focus on good food and wine. After a period of time when I learnt all I could about winemaking at Passing Clouds – a family-owned winery near Daylesford – a vineyard in Bendigo came up for sale. Maureen and I couldn’t buy it fast enough. 

“The UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy label gives us a standard to maintain.” 

Burnt Acre Vineyard is a solid representation of the kind of wineries you’re likely to find around Bendigo. The local wine scene has about 20 licensed winemakers and some 40 to 50 vineyards scattered around the region and most are boutique and family owned. We launched in 1994 and produce shiraz, a little cabernet sauvignon, some blends and a sparkling shiraz that’s hugely popular. In this profession, you’re never going to be a millionaire but it’s a lovely lifestyle.

Bendigo’s Creative City of Gastronomy distinction is something that gets mentioned a lot so that adds a level of pressure to the region’s food and wine producers. I think it’s a good pressure to have – it gives us a standard to maintain and we all work hard to ensure that visitors will have an excellent experience no matter where they drink or dine. My personal favourites? I love Borchelli for its pasta and slow-cooked dishes, The Woodhouse does excellent steaks and Wine Bank on View is a lovely wine bar and retailer operating from a heritage-listed bank. Most restaurants are supportive of local wine producers but I’d love to see those numbers grow. Who wants to drink a South Australian wine when you’re sitting in a restaurant that’s close to a lovely wine region of its own?”

How Commbank shows up with a fresh branch

Bendigo native Leon Nixon is the branch manager at the town’s new main CommBank branch. 

“One of the things that astounds me about Bendigo is the growth we’ve witnessed over the past decade – particularly since the pandemic, when the size of our community ballooned after everyone started leaving Melbourne. I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years in terms of infrastructure and it never ceases to amaze me how Bendigo manages to maintain that country feel in a city environment.

I joined CommBank as a part-time teller in 2003 and have steadily worked my way up the ranks; I honestly can’t imagine working anywhere else. I love what I do and community involvement is a huge part of that. I have a four-year-old son and I meet a lot of new people – and potential new customers – through his sports. And at CommBank, we regularly check in with local business owners to see how we can better serve their needs. If they’re existing customers, we like to know how we can improve what we offer and if they’re not, we try to find out how we can help them join our team. It’s the sort of personal touch that a place like Bendigo thrives on.

All in all, it’s been an exciting year for Bendigo’s main branch. We moved to a new space in March, which is right by the station and has plenty of free parking. Our customers love it. Bendigo was also the fifth stop on the CommBank Tour. It’s a bus that travels around Australia to deliver immersive-VR experiences, practical tips and information to regional and local communities – especially around financial scams and fraud. It’s another way we look after our community.”

A town full of opportunities

Caitlin Roffey, a part-time student, works in the café and catering divisions of Peppergreen Farm, a social enterprise that provides sustainable employment for people with disabilities. 

“When you have a disability, it can be tough to hold down regular employment. I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and any time I feel overwhelmed or stressed, I need to walk away from my job and find some greenery to ground myself. If you behaved this way in any other workplace, you’d be fired pretty quickly but the team at Peppergreen Farm take all conditions, including mental health, into consideration and continue to support and care for us. "

"We’ve got everything here – from a café, a farm and a catering business to a car wash and art programs – so there are plenty of work opportunities to choose from. I work as a waitress at the café and in catering and I love what I do. You can’t go wrong with a community focus where people help each other and build each other up.

That Peppergreen Farm operates in a place like Bendigo makes sense. It’s a tight-knit community where people take the time to chat to one another, whether you’re down at the bus stop or you’re browsing in a shop. It always takes me ages to get anywhere because I’m forever running into people I’ve come to know by bumping into each other so many times on the street.

It’s not all about the people, of course; I’m also a big fan of Bendigo’s shopping scene.

The town is known for its food and I would say that the food at Peppergreen Farm’s café is right up there with the best of them. Our coffee is some of the best I’ve had and I always recommend the corn and zucchini fritters. But you’re spoilt for choice wherever you go in the city. If I’m not at work, I also love Gallo Coffee Co., Sim’R Cafe and Edwards Providore. My parents brought me up to be a bit of a foodie but I’d say that’s true of most Bendigo locals.”

A rich multicultural history

Occupational therapist Ashlee Lougoon is an executive member of the Bendigo Chinese Association. 

“My paternal great-grandfather immigrated from southern China towards the end of the gold rush and married an Irish woman with whom he had 10 children. Growing up, my grandfather – their youngest child – was determined to keep us connected to our heritage and even though I don’t look like someone traditionally Chinese-appearing, I’ve always been incredibly proud of our culture. I think the fact that there are so many like me who can trace our ancestry back to the gold-rush Chinese community and celebrate both cultures is part of what makes Bendigo so unique. We’re a perfect representation of this country’s multicultural melting pot.

My father’s side has always been heavily involved with the Bendigo Chinese Association. It’s difficult to know exactly when the association was established but we know that its involvement with the Bendigo Easter Festival and fundraising for Bendigo’s Benevolent Asylum and the Bendigo Hospital can be traced back to the late 1870s. Fundraising – predominantly for the

Bendigo Health Foundation – is still at our core, and throughout the year we run traditional Chinese festivals, such as the Lunar New Year and Harvest Moon festivals, and we’re still heavily involved with the Bendigo Easter Festival. The numbers are significant – we have more than 1000 people volunteer and visitors come from all around the country to participate in or see our events over the Easter weekend.

“Bendigo is a perfect representation of this country’s multicultural melting pot.”

There’s a time-capsule quality that keeps Bendigo anchored in the gold rush and its multicultural heritage. For those interested in digging a little deeper, I always recommend they check out the Golden Dragon Museum – the collection is so spectacular that visitors from China say they’ve never seen anything like it – as well as the heritage-listed Bendigo Joss House Temple. Whenever I drive past it, I always think how lucky I am to have this culture as part of my identity.”

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