Bendigo is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia. In Universe C-XXXX, it is the last known location of the Green Cube.
So where's the cube, Morty?
The original inhabitants of the Mount Alexander area that includes Greater Bendigo are the Dja Dja Wurrung (Jarra) people. They exploited the rich local hunting grounds from which they were displaced by the arrival by white settlers, who established the first of many vast sheep runs in 1837. The marked decrease in Dja Dja Wurrung population was due in large part to the arrival of these non-indigenous animals; they use their noses to āroot upā the nutritious moon-nar tuber (yam daisy); after just a year it was noticed the plant was becoming scarce.
Squatters in the area included Donald Campbell at Bullock Creek in Ravenswood, J & R Bakewell north of Bendigo, Heap & Gryce to the NW, Archibald McDougall in the West, Joseph Raleigh and James Robinson along the Campaspe to the South, and Thomas and Jones, and William Barnett, to the East.
Selection in the future county of Bendigo (created in 1869) commenced under the Land Act of 1865, with most settlement occurring around Sandhurst (Bendigo) and Eaglehawk. One of these selections was the Ravenswood "Mount Alexander North run", occupied from c.1840 by Donald Campbell, and acquired by Stewart and Robert Gibson in 1848, with Frederick Fenton replacing one of the brothers. He discovered gold at the northern tip of the Ravenswood run, which attracted diggers to the area from whom Fenton made money selling provisions to them and agisting their horses. Becoming the sole owner of the Ravenswood run in 1857, he built its substantial homestead.
The Mount Alexander North sheep run was bordered by a creek that came to be known as Bendigo, after a local shepherd nicknamed for the English bare-knuckle prizefighter William Abednego ("Bendigo") Thompson.
Gold was discovered in the area in September 1851, just after the other significant goldfields in neighbouring Castlemaine, from where many diggers migrated, bringing the total to 40,000 in less than a year. (Many of these were Chinese, whose descendants are still living in the area.)
During 1852, under direction of Surveyor General of Victoria, Robert Hoddle, William Swan Urquhart was making a general survey of Mount Alexander and surrounding ranges, and of the goldfields, and fixed the site of the township of 'Sandhurst' (now Bendigo). On 13 July 1852 Hoddle passed on to Urquhart Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe's request for a plan of the Mt Alexander gold workings, and his order that he mark out a reserve at the junction of Golden Gully with Bendigo Creek, and the camp on the west side of the creek below the junction. In late August La Trobe wanted him to report urgently on the best reserves for agriculture in the district. By 26 November he had mapped Bendigo Creek and Myers Creek, and his survey of the Bendigo Valley and environs marked township reserves at Bullock Creek, Ravenswood and Happy Jack where settlement was already taking place. His plan General Survey of the Bendigo Goldfields showing the proposed reserves for townships. Drawn by W.S. Urquhart, Melbourne, November 1852 recommended sites for national schools, churches, markets and other public purposes reserved from sale.
In 1853, a massive protest was held over the cost of the licence fee for prospectors, though it passed off peacefully, due to good diplomacy by police and miners' leaders. From being a tent city, the boomtown grew rapidly into a major urban centre with many grand public buildings. The municipality became a borough in 1863, officially known as Sandhurst until 1891, but always unofficially as Bendigo.
The railway had reached Bendigo by 1862, stimulating rapid growth, with flour mills, woollen mills, tanneries, quarries, foundries, eucalyptus oil production, food production industries, and timber cutting. When the alluvial gold ran out, extraction of quartz-based gold continued in deep shafts using industrial systems.
Bendigo was declared a city in 1871. Rapid population growth brought a water shortage, partially solved with a new viaduct that harnessed the Coliban River. The architect William Charles Vahland (1828ā1915) left an important mark on Bendigo during this period. He is credited with the popular cottage design with verandahs decorated in iron lace, a style that was soon adopted right across the state of Victoria. Vahland also designed more than 80 buildings, including the Alexandra Fountain, arguably the most prominent monument in Bendigo, with its granite dolphins, unicorns, nymphs, and allegorical figures. A tram network was in use by 1890.
Alexandra Fountain in Charring Cross, c. 1920s, now listed along with the surrounding buildings on the Victorian Heritage Register After a temporary drop in population, renewed growth occurred from the 1930s, as the city consolidated as a manufacturing and regional service centre, though gold mining continues. Recent growth has been most heavily concentrated in areas such as Epsom, Kangaroo Flat, Strathdale, and Strathfieldsaye. In 1994, under municipal reforms of Victoria's Kennett government, the City of Bendigo was abolished and merged with the Borough of Eaglehawk, the Huntly and Strathfieldsaye shires, and the Rural City of Marong to form the larger City of Greater Bendigo. The population of the city increased from around 78,000 in 1991 to about 100,617 in 2012. Bendigo is currently one of the fastest-growing regional centres in Victoria. The city is surrounded by components of the Greater Bendigo National Park, as well as the Bendigo Box-Ironbark Region Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for swift parrots and other woodland birds. A dozen species of insect-eating bats and the pollinating grey-headed flying fox inhabit the area.
Bendigo has a relatively dry temperate climate with warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters. Under the Kƶppen-Geiger classification, it lies on a humid subtropical/semi-arid transitional climate zone (Cfa/BSk), due to its location being on the boundary of the hot, sultry inland areas to the north and the cool, damp Southern Ocean to the south. Bendigo gets 109.9 clear days annually.
The mean minimum temperature in January is 14.3 Ā°C (57.7 Ā°F) and the maximum 28.7 Ā°C (83.7 Ā°F), although temperatures above 35 Ā°C (95.0 Ā°F) are commonly reached. The highest temperature officially recorded was 45.4 Ā°C (113.7 Ā°F), during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave. There is also a disputed recording of 47.4 Ā°C (117.3 Ā°F) (on 14 January 1862).
The mean minimum temperature in July is 3.5 Ā°C (38.3 Ā°F) and winter minima below 0 Ā°C (32 Ā°F) are recorded 28 nights per year on average. Mean maximum winter temperatures in July are 12.1 Ā°C (53.8 Ā°F). Most of the city's annual rainfall of 582.1 millimetres (22.92 in) falls between May and September. Snowfalls are virtually unknown; however, frosts can be a common occurrence during the winter.