Bendigo - Australia's gold rush town

Yesterday I took a 2 hour train ride out to Bendigo to see the countryside and another interesting place.  The Bendigo art museum had an exhibition of wedding dresses on loan from the Victoria and Albert museum in London so I took that in as well.

Countryside north and a little west of Melbourne.

 

                                                                                                           

Across the main intersection in town.   

This caught my eye only because I was watching that Ken Burns series on PBS about prohibition.

Capital Theatre - just a little small town theatre.

A local artist had produced these wonderful playful dress sculptures that were displayed in prominent shops around town - and for sale.

Every nineteenth century gold rush town needs lots of magnificent churches.
St. Johns Presbyterian Church

Sacred Heart Cathedral - construction began in 1896 and finished in 1977. 

The civil buildings were impressive too.  This was the post office now the visitor's centre.

The public restroom building behind the visitor's centre.

                                 The promenade at Rosalind Park.

Look!  A tower, think I'll climb this.  Called Poppet Head Lookout.  It is in Rosalind Park.

I'll only make you look at one view over the town from the tower.  Have to prove that I actually climbed it.

Okay, well two.  This is an elaborate cascading water feature build in the 1870's in the style of European gardens.  It fell into disrepair and was actually filled in until the 1990's when it was fully restored.  I guess it has fallen into disrepair again because there was only water in the bottom fountain.  Or they only run it on special occasions. 

These budgies were all around the park and traveled in pairs.  It was pretty hard to get a picture with my camera.  They were pretty skittish, not like the budgies my Grandmother always kept.

Just one more building shot, promise.  This is the town hall but what I really wanted you to see was the lovely ceiling in the canopy over the sidewalk.  Most of the walks were shaded with deep canopies.