Maryborough & Bendigo

We based ourselves in the cute town of Maryborough while exploring the Goldfields region. This area is full of towns and cities that were part of the Victorian Gold Rush from the early to mid-1800s.

Maryborough

We stayed at a great little caravan park in town and were given a fantastic, large spot right on the lake (great view!). While we were there, there were two swans and their two cygnets just near our van and swimming in the lake.

Maryborough had some nice old buildings and all the shops you could hope for.

Bendigo

We had a lot of people tell us to visit Bendigo so we went for a day trip. We were lucky and had a beautiful day. Bendigo was lovely – tons of old, ornate buildings and the parks were full of flowers. Bendigo is one of the old gold mining towns from the 1800s.

Flowers

We didn’t go into the botanical garden, but the small park just on the edge of it was beautiful – tulips everywhere and nice little greenhouse.

Cathedral

The first stop we made was at the cathedral. Wow! It was a beautiful, European-type cathedral. Most of the paintings and sculptures came from Italy in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

Buildings

Everywhere you turned in Bendigo there were really nice buildings, fountains and statues.

The buildings were also ornate and had sculptures, gargoyles and other ornaments on them. Even the street lights were sculpted.

Chinese History

Bendigo was one of the most multi-cultural cities that we’ve visited on this trip. It was amazing how many people we saw who looked like they had Chinese or Indian ancestry.

There’s a long history of Chinese people coming to Bendigo. Initially, they came to mine gold and by the mid-1800s they made up 20% of the city’s population. You can learn more about Bendigo’s Chinese history here.

Near the botanical garden in town, there was a pretty Chinese garden.

We really liked Bendigo and would recommend others to visit it.