Bendigo Valley

The valley is notable as a major tourist destination and is the location of one of the world's largest and longest-lived gold production areas.

They exploited the rich local hunting grounds from which they were displaced by the arrival of European settlers, who established the first of many vast sheep runs in 1837.

[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.

Larritt included the town of Sandhurst and the hamlet of White Hills within the municipal boundary in his "Plan of the Valley of Bendigo" in 1856.

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.