Comfort Inn Central Deborah

Lake 2

by Kate-Me

A view from one of the walks, looking back at the Turtles bridge. The best thing about this lake was the Tortoises, and the nice birdlife too.
Otherwise, the surroundings are pretty but the water is quite murky.

10,000 FIRECRACKERS

by aussiejen

If you have come to Bendigo to see the Awakening of the Dragon ceremony make sure you stay until the very end. Lots of people left before the end, which was a shame because they missed out on seeing and hearing 10,000 firecrackers going off.
It was quite a spectacular end to an entertaining couple of hours. Be prepared for the noise!

Golden Dragon Museum

by eviltooth

Ling aka Footfetish, Baton West and I passed by the Golden Dragon Museum and the Classical Chinese Garden when we were rushing to the Bendigo District Hospital. We got to Bendigo a bit earlier than expected, dropped in to the Memorial Military Museum and totally forgotten about the time for my interview.

Ling and I are both Chinese, and Baton West a plastic tube who'd no say in anything :p, we weren't particularly interested in Chinese museum that probably deal with things we grew up with so we gave it a miss.

However if you would like to learn more about the history of the Chinese people of Bendigo from the goldrush of the 1850s to the present, or see the world's longest Imperial Dragon 'Sun Loong', or the world's oldest Imperial Dragon 'Loong', this is the place for you. Just in case you're wondering, 'Loong' means dragon in Chinese.

Opening Hours

9:30am - 5pm daily

Charges

Adults $7.00
Concession $5.00
Children Under 15 $4.00
Family $20

Golden past, golden future

by iandsmith

"Unflaunted, but grand"

One of a score of towns in the area that arose as a result of the great gold boom in the mid 19th century, Bendigo has survived and prospered, unlike other places that withered when the yellow metal became scarce.
Its heritage has been wonderfully preserved and strong ties to England apparent in the types of architecture and names of streets are retained.
The strongest tie of all though, is to the Chinese who also flocked to the fields, a fact sometimes resented by the caucasians. The splendid cultural museum houses the reputedly longest dragon in the world.
This town is very much worthy of a stopover.
Rich alluvial gold was first discovered in Bendigo in 1851, but once it was exhausted the digging began and shafts were sunk into a gold-bearing quartz reef. Bendigo became the greatest goldfield of the time with the world's deepest mine, continuing until 1954, long after the rest of central Victoria's goldfields were exhausted. It's a city that has developed and retained its prosperity: the nationwide department store Myer began here (since taken over by a conglomerate and now called Coles Myer), as did Australia's first building society in 1858. The latter fact is interesting inasmuch as in the late 20th century people were becoming disillusioned with the poor service from banks and the closure of rural branches so an indedpendent bank arose with the name, you guessed it, Bendigo Bank.
Although in many ways more magnificent than Ballarat, Bendigo has never flaunted itself, never having turned itself into a purely tourist town. Its most visited sights are legacies of the mining days - the Chinese Joss House and the Central Deborah Mine .
At the heart of Bendigo is the vast Rosalind Park , and three important religious buildings constructed through money from gold-digging - All Saints Church, St Pauls Cathedral and Sacred Heart Cathedral . Local Catholics imported stonemasons from Italy and England, and their craftsmanship can be seen in the design and details of Sacred Heart, begun in 1897 in English Gothic style. The interior has beautiful woodcarvings of the Twelve Apostles, and the crypt is the burial place of local bishops. Wanting to give Bendigo a sophisticated air reminiscent of London, the newly prosperous citizens called its central crossroads Charing Cross . Pall Mall runs off to the east, while View Street, with its many fine old buildings, climbs north off Pall Mall. Mitchell Street leads south to the train station and High Street (the Calder Highway) is the main exit west out of the city. The other important street is Hargreaves, parallel to Pall Mall one block south, with its impressive town hall and a bland, but purposeful, shopping mall.