page_title: Bendigo
section_title: Parks and gardens
hierarchical_section_title: Bendigo / Urban structure / Parks and gardens
caption_attribution_description: English: Rosalind Park Bendigo, featuring the war memorial, Post Office and Shamrock Hotel in the distance and statuary in the foreground.
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: The central city is skirted by Rosalind Park, a Victorian-style garden featuring statuary and a large blue stone viaduct. The main entrance corner of the park is on the intersection known as Charing Cross, formerly the intersection of two main tram lines (now only one). It features a large statue of Queen Victoria.
  The Charing Cross road junction features the large, ornate Alexandra Fountain (1881) and is built on top of a wide bridge that spans the viaduct. The park elevates toward Camp Hill, which features a historic school and a lookout – a former mine poppet head.
  Further from the city is Lake Weeroona, a large, ornamental lake adjacent to the Bendigo Creek. The White Hills Botanical Gardens, which opened in 1869, are further downstream. Major redevelopment of the Gardens has taken place in recent years.
  The gardens are home to many native species of animals, including brushtailed and ring-tailed possums, ducks, coots, purple swamp hens, microbats (small insect-eating bats), the grey-headed flying fox, several species of lizards, owls, and the tawny frogmouth.
caption: Rosalind Park featuring statuary and flanked by ornate Second Empire-style buildings
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