Source: www.bendigohistory.com/

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Bendigo is literally the heart of Victoria, and it's past 150 years have influenced not only the surrounding region, but Victoria, and even Australia, as a whole.

Bendigo had modest beginnings as a sheep station, the Southern area of which was run by a massive fan of English boxing Champion, William Abednego Thompson. Thompson's middle name, Abednego was a Biblical name which few could prounounce and it's 'corrupted' pronounciation became 'Bendigo', a nickname the shepard of the region was given due to his idolisation of Thompson.

With the discovery of gold, in time Bendigo became the richest goldfield in Australia drawing flocks to settle the region in order to 'strike it lucky'. The town has also been home to one of Australia's richest men, & one of the most influential writers of Australia's very own Constitution.

Bendigo has left it's mark on Australian History, even that of the World, with the town's gold rush & general culture attracting people from the World over. Bendigo is one of only two cities outside of China (the other being San Francisco) to have a Chinese Name, Bendigo's being Dai Gun San (Big Gold Mountain), due to the large influence from Chinese immigrants during Bendigo's Gold Rush period.

This has also been the motivation for Bendigo's World renowed Golden Dragon Museum which houses one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts, the number of some in existence can be counted on a single hand, and some no longer even in existing China. The Golden Dragon Museum is also the home to another of Bendigo's greatest prides and attractions, Sun Loong ("New Dragon"), the World's Longest Imperial (5 Clawed) Dragon, as well as Loong ("Dragon"), the World's Oldest Imperial Dragon.