page_title: Bendigo
section_title: Extreme weather events
hierarchical_section_title: Bendigo / Geography / Climate / Extreme weather events
caption_attribution_description: English: A bushfire burns behind a house in West Bendigo on February 7, 2009.
context_page_description: Bendigo is a city in Victoria, Australia, located near the geographical centre of the state and approximately 150 kilometres north west of the state capital, Melbourne. As of June 2018, Bendigo had an urban population of 99,122, making it the fourth-largest inland city in Australia and fourth-most populous city in the state. It is the administrative centre for the City of Greater Bendigo, which encompasses both the urban area and outlying towns spanning an area around 3,000 km² and over 111,000 people.
  The discovery of gold in Bendigo in 1851 transformed the area from a sheep station into one of colonial Australia's largest boomtowns. News of the finds intensified the Victorian gold rush, bringing an influx of migrants to the city from around the world, particularly Europe and China. Once the alluvial gold had been mined out, mining companies were formed to exploit the rich underground quartz reef gold. Since 1851, about 780,000 kilograms of gold have been extracted from Bendigo's goldmines, making it the highest producing goldfield in Australia in the 19th century and the largest gold-mining economy in eastern Australia.
context_section_description: A series of great floods occurred in Bendigo in 1859. Substantial flooding also occurred in 1903.
  Tornadoes have been seen around the area of Bendigo, and although rare, the 2003 Bendigo tornado passed through Eaglehawk and other parts of the city, causing major damage to homes and businesses.
  Bendigo was in severe drought from 2006 to 2010, and during this time, the city had some of the harshest water restrictions in Australia, with no watering outside the household. Heavy rains from the middle to later months of 2010 filled most reservoirs to capacity and only wasteful water use (e.g. hosing down footpaths) is currently banned.
  Bendigo was affected by the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. A fire to the west of the city burned out 500 hectares (1,200 acres). The fire broke out at about 4.30 pm on the afternoon of 7 February, and burned through Long Gully and Eaglehawk, coming within 2 km (1.2 mi) of central Bendigo, before it was brought under control late on 8 February. It destroyed about 58 houses in Bendigo's western suburbs, and damaged an electricity transmission line, resulting in blackouts to substantial parts of the city. One fatality from the fire occurred.
  Flash floods occurred across Bendigo during 2010, the first in March and the most severe at the beginning of September.
caption: Fire threatening houses in Long Gully, west of Bendigo, during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires
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