Bendigo

City in Victoria, Australia, about 150 km/93 mi north of Melbourne; population (1996) 59,936. It is the centre of a pastoral wine-producing and wheat-growing area, and has manufacturing industries. It has two cathedrals, the Anglican St Paul's and the Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Bendigo was formerly the principal goldmining centre of the state, and lies on the second-largest goldfield in Australia, but goldmining ceased in 1954. Bendigo Pottery, Australia's oldest ceramic manufacturer, is still in production.

Founded in 1851 at the start of a gold rush, Bendigo was originally known as Castleton, and then Sandhurst. In 1891 its name was changed officially to Bendigo, after the prize-fighter William Thompson (1811-1889), whose nickname was ‘Bendigo’. Money earned from goldmining was used by local Catholics for the construction of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, begun in 1897. The cathedral was built in English Gothic style by stonemasons imported from England and Italy.