Bendigo Valley

The Bendigo Valley is the region surrounding the city of

Bendigo Valley is broadly surrounded by the Greater Bendigo National Park and other state forests. The 17,020-hectare (42,100-acre) park was created in 2002 from the former Whipstick State Park, Kamarooka State Park, One Tree Hill Regional Park, Mandurang State Forest and the Sandhurst State Forest.^[1]

The

The Bendigo Valley contains the entire city of Bendigo and surrounding suburbs which also encompass the former Borough of Eaglehawk. The valley is located within the local government area of the City of Greater Bendigo.

History

The original inhabitants of the Bendigo Valley are the

The first European settlers, who arrived in 1837 after the survey of the area in 1836 by Major Sir Thomas Mitchell, used the Bendigo Valley for their working bullocks as the valley was "wide, gentle, well-grassed and secluded".^[2] Later the settlers brought sheep to the creek valley, making it an outstation of the Mount Alexander North pastoral run and building a hut on the creek in the valley. The creek was just within the north-eastern boundary of the Mount Alexander North pastoral run.^[3][4] The location on Bendigo Creek where gold was alleged to have been first discovered in October 1851 was a short distance from that shepherd's hut.^[5]

Although the Bendigo Valley was first surveyed in 1852, in 1854 the

Etymology

The occupants of the Mount Alexander North run, later called the Ravenswood run,^[7] named the creek "Bendigo' Creek", originally spelled "Bednego Creek" after a local bullock driver and employee of the Mount Alexander North run. Although the bullock driver's actual name remains unknown, he "was handy with his fists"^[8] and was consequently nicknamed for the English bare-knuckle prizefighter William Abednego "Bendigo" Thompson (1811-1880) who was then at the height of his fame. So the word "Bendigo" is a corruption of the name "Abednego" in its shortened form, "Bednego".^[9]

References