journalist who reported what he saw to Melbourne and the rush to Bendigo began.
Chinese people, in particular, were attracted to the Bendigo goldfields in great numbers, establishing a large Chinatown on a bountiful gold run to the north west of the city.
The Post Office opened on 1 July 1852 as Bendigo Creek. It was the first Victorian post office to open in a gold mining settlement. It was renamed Sandhurst in 1854 and Bendigo in 1891.
In 1853 there was a massive protest march by surface miners against the amount of the gold licence fee and the frequency with which it was collected. This protest, the Red Ribbon Agitation, was peaceful (unlike the later Eureka event in Ballarat) because of the ability of the miners' leaders and the young Scots police commissioner, Joseph Anderson Panton.
Numerous pit mines later exploited the underground ores which are found in elongated saddle quartz reefs in corrugated sedimentary rock.
Bendigo quickly grew from a �city of tents� to become a substantial city with great public buildings. The first hospital was built in 1853 and the first town plan was developed by 1854. A municipality emerged and the first town hall was commissioned in 1859.
Bendigo was connected to Melbourne by telegraph in 1857 and it was from here that the first message reporting the deaths of Burke and Wills was sent in 1861. The Bendigo Benevolent Asylum, now known as the Anne Caudle Centre, was erected in 1860. Frequent Cobb & Co coaches ran to Melbourne until the railway reached Bendigo in 1862.
1870s: A city develops
In the following decade it made the transition from small mining town to large and wealthy city, and becoming established as a key centre for surrounding settlements.
Water supply was always a problem in Bendigo. This was partly solved with a system harnessing the waters of the Coliban River, designed by engineer Joseph Brady. Water first flowed through the viaduct in
