Like many of our road trips, the drive between Kooyoora and Mt. Buffalo took longer than expected, but we also made some exciting discoveries including the city of Bendigo, located in the heart of the goldfields just 150 kilometers from Melbourne.
We weren't drawn to the town in search for alluvial gold--as more the 20,000 diggers were in 1852-- but instead we were looking for a public toilet. When we drove into town we were surprised to be greeted by wide streets, lush gardens, spectacular buildings and a majestic church. For a brief moment I felt as though I had been transported back to Europe. Before our eyes was a grand and gracious city, but it was just below our feet--in the gold-bearing quartz reefs--where the wealth with which the city was built came from.
Once a booming gold town, where over 5,000 shafts were dug and 25 million ounces of the precious metal were extracted, operation of the local mines ceased in 1954. However, in 1978 there was an attempt at modern exploration and currently there is some small scale exploration and mining occurring 1000 meters below the town.
After a short stroll through the town, where I managed not to take as many pictures as I thought I had, we jumped back into our Britz Land Cruiser and continued on our way to Mt. Buffalo.
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Hi Maya, your description of the city of Bendigo sounds really wonderful. What a cool name. I really like your photos and the first one with the Christmas tree and the church in the background is beautiful. The architecture of the building in the second photo is really nice too.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing. Have a great day today.
Hi Kathy. Bendigo was really a surprise. I had no idea that it would have such wonderful buildings. The Christmas Tree/Church almost made it feel like Christmas, but it was still too hot.
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