Bendigo: The regional city that's transformed into a foodie and cultural hub

Hats off to Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe. These two screen goddesses have played a significant role in putting Bendigo on the national arts’ radar, with exclusive exhibitions about them at Bendigo Art Gallery in 2012 and 2016 each drawing around 150,000 visitors.

For a regional city with a population of 114,000, that’s no small feat and gallery staff are justifiably proud of their efforts, which have had a huge impact on Bendigo’s evolving identity.

Trailblazing art

“The gallery has been a great leader,” says curatorial manager Tansy Curtin. “By programming these incredible exhibitions, we’ve really put the gallery on the map. Tourism and other partners have all come on the journey, and now Bendigo’s also got an amazing culture around food and wine.”

Curtin says by thinking big and pushing outside the traditional bounds of a regional gallery, the Bendigo institution has been critical in increasing tourist numbers as well as making the city a place more people want to call home.

Curtin, who moved from Adelaide 12 years ago to take up a job at the gallery, is enthusiastic about the current exhibition, Tudors to Windsors, which traces the history of the British monarchy.

Bendigo is the only place in Australia where you can see this collection from London’s National Portrait Gallery. Tweed Sutherland First National agent Helen Ashby says the gallery is part of a fantastic arts precinct, which includes the visitor centre’s Living Arts Space, La Trobe Visual Arts Centre, a silk studio, bookbinders, design boutiques and theatres.

Staging a revival

The newest addition is the four-year-old Ulumbarra Theatre, a celebrated conversion of the city’s heritage-listed Sandhurst Gaol.

This year the theatre will host a diverse range of entertainment, from Shakespeare and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to Lee Kernaghan and the Victorian State Ballet’s Beauty and the Beast.

Bendigo’s growing reputation as an arts and culture destination has helped to push property prices north, with high-end apartment developments now underway.

“A few years ago $1 million [for property] didn’t roll off the tongue easily, now it does,” says local agent Helen Ashby, who has recent sales ranging between $1.2 million and $1.8 million.

“When Bendigo was a mining town some massive homes were built, all in that central area where everyone wants to live and you can walk everywhere. There are parks, gardens and galleries, beautiful restaurants and quite diversified shopping.”

Top home in the area

This heritage-listed 1886 provincial mansion is close to the arts precinct and packed with original features from an oak staircase to pressed metal ceilings and marble fireplaces.

White iron lacework adorns a charming facade with a porch on the lower level and a spacious balcony upstairs.

Tweed Sutherland First National agent Helen Ashby and McKean McGregor agent Drew Stratton have scheduled an April 27 auction, which has a bidding guide of more than $1.5 million.