Post Office Gallery exhibitions

    William Dargie **Self Portrait** (detail) 1942 oil on canvas. 103 x 91cm. Bendigo Art Gallery. George Mackay Commemoration Prize, 1942 © William Dargie/Copyright Agency, 2021

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Best in Show: Bendigo Art Prize in the modern era

Highlights from the Bendigo Art Prize 1938–1967

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    Office ‘girls’ at Provincial Motors and still friends today. Pam Banfield, Annette Wilson & Kay Miller, 1962. Image courtesy of Annette Beckwith.

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Modern Revolution: Bendigo and the 1960s

The 1960s is remembered as a dynamic decade; a time of great social and political change. This exhibition features the insights and memorabilia of a selection of local people who grew up, lived and worked in Bendigo during that decade.

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    Raw unprocessed Axedale clay, Victoria, 2020. Courtesy of Bendigo Pottery. Photograph: Ian Hill

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RAW: the endless potential of clay

Clay is a rich resource readily exploited for its artistic, practical and commercial potential. It is malleable, messy, resilient and alchemical with ceramic objects possessing an alluring potency distinct to their natural beginnings.

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    Bendigo Easter Fair Grand Parade, c1965. Photograph: Doug Every. Image courtesy of Philippa JohansonBendigo Easter Fair: amusement, charity and tradition, installation view, Post Office Gallery. Photograph: Ian Hill, Bendigo Easter Fair: amusement, charity and tradition, installation view, Post Office Gallery. Photograph: Ian Hill, Bendigo Easter Fair: amusement, charity and tradition, installation view, Post Office Gallery. Photograph: Ian Hill

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Bendigo Easter Fair: amusement, charity and tradition

The first Easter Fair was held in Bendigo (then Sandhurst) in 1871; two days of fun and frolic in charity’s cause. Now a significant tourist attraction, the event is highly anticipated by locals and visitors to the city and in 2020 will run for the 150th time.

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    H.Hansen. **Pioneers of Bendigo** (detail) c1850. Collection Bendigo Art Gallery

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Pieces of a story: people and places of Bendigo

In literature, a vignette is a short scene that captures an important and defining detail about a character or element of a story. Vignettes are mostly descriptive; they are not complete plots or narratives. Vignettes are small parts of a larger work, and can only exist as pieces of a whole story.

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    Allan Doney. Untitled (Long Live Our Queen, Bendigo Alexandra Fountain) 1954, gelatin silver print. Courtesy National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo BranchAllan Doney. Untitled (Long Live Our Queen, Bendigo Alexandra Fountain) 1954, gelatin silver print. Courtesy National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo Branch

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Rule Britannia, the Golden City: royal visits to Bendigo

The first British royal visit to Bendigo was in December 1867, when Queen Victoria’s fourth child, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, toured the Golden City. The celebrations marking HRH’s visit were soon marred by tragedy however, when three young boys died in a fire that took hold of a processional float laden with fireworks.

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    Mourners gather to observe the death of Queen Victoria. View Point, Bendigo, Victoria c. 1902 | Negative, 35 mm, Black and white Copied from John B. Perry, 14 Oct 1987 | Source: Museums Victoria

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Vale: mourning, remembrance and Spiritualism in Bendigo 1851 - 1901

The business of death – that is, the protocols for managing human death, as well as its associated rituals and practices – has been a part of civic life in Bendigo since the city’s earliest days.

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    L.J. Jones, Sketch of Mr. J.H. Abbott (early 20th century), brush and ink. Gift of the Estate of Mr. J.H. Abbott, 1932. Collection, Bendigo Art Gallery.

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Bankrolling Bendigo: building a city

Bankrolling Bendigo: building a city traces the financial systems and structures that grew quickly and necessarily out of the gold-struck town and ultimately enabled the founding of a permanent city.

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    Souvenir playing cards c. 1950s. Distributed by L. Hearn, Newsagent, The Mall, Bendigo. Collection Dennis O’Hoy

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Bendigo for business, sunshine and pleasure

Once touted as ‘The Golden City’ and ‘Gateway to the North’, Bendigo has long been a popular destination for visitors in pursuit of business and recreation.

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    Backyard Drinking, Forest Street, Bendigo, c 1890, image courtesy of Museums Victoria and Rodney Aikman

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Taverns to Temperance: pubs of Bendigo

In a place where drinking beer was once seen as safer than drinking water, pubs were prolific as centres for social and commercial life in Bendigo. From the sly grog tents of the goldfields, to home style ‘taverns’ and the flourishing brewing industry, Taverns to Temperance: pubs of Bendigo illuminates the history of pubs and drinking culture in Bendigo.  

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View More Exhibitions

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Vantage point: aerial views of Bendigo Post Office Gallery
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Vantage point: aerial views of Bendigo Post Office Gallery

Vantage point: aerial views of Bendigo surveys early aviation in Bendigo, presenting a bird’s eye view of Bendigo in the first half of the

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Composing Objects Post Office Gallery
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Composing Objects Post Office Gallery

Composing Objects probes the innate creative desire to arrange three-dimensional objects.

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Menagerie: animals in Bendigo history Post Office Gallery
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Menagerie: animals in Bendigo history Post Office Gallery

Animals feature prominently in the myriad social history stories of Bendigo and surrounds.

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Eclectic Treasures: Bendigo’s private collections Post Office Gallery
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Eclectic Treasures: Bendigo’s private collections Post Office Gallery

Collecting has a deep-rooted cultural history stemming from the 'cabinet of curiosities' which was common from the 16th century to today.

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Theatrical traditions: stage and screen in Bendigo Post Office Gallery
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Theatrical traditions: stage and screen in Bendigo Post Office Gallery

Western theatrical traditions came to Bendigo with fortune seekers in the 1850s.

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Opulence: luxury in early Bendigo homes Post Office Gallery
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Opulence: luxury in early Bendigo homes Post Office Gallery

Opulence: luxury in early Bendigo homes provides a snapshot of the eclectic and lavish aesthetic of the Victorian era.

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Bendigo enlists: the First World War 1914-18 Post Office Gallery
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Bendigo enlists: the First World War 1914-18 Post Office Gallery

The First World War is said to be the single most defining event in modern history.

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Crime and punishment: a history of Bendigo's law and order Post Office Gallery
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Crime and punishment: a history of Bendigo's law and order Post Office Gallery

With the discovery of gold in Sandhurst came a flood of hopeful diggers seeking to make their fortunes.

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A cure for all ills: medicine in Bendigo Post Office Gallery
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A cure for all ills: medicine in Bendigo Post Office Gallery

From chaotic beginnings to the formation of professional practice, the introduction of regulations against quackery and the establishment of long s

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Art for the People: Bendigo Art Gallery 1887 - 2013 Post Office Gallery
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Art for the People: Bendigo Art Gallery 1887 - 2013 Post Office Gallery

Bendigo Art Gallery, established in 1887, has played, and continues to play an important role in the local Bendigo community.

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Mapping great change: the landscape of central Victoria Post Office Gallery
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Mapping great change: the landscape of central Victoria Post Office Gallery

Mapping great change: the landscape of central Victoria surveyed significant historical and cultural changes occurring upon and within the

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Childhood: growing up in Bendigo Post Office Gallery
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Childhood: growing up in Bendigo Post Office Gallery

Childhood for some is sun-soaked and sugar-coated and for others, full of awkward moments and obstacles; nonetheless, it is a time considerably sha

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Celebrating 150 years: rail in Bendigo and the Bendigo Brass Band Post Office Gallery
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Celebrating 150 years: rail in Bendigo and the Bendigo Brass Band Post Office Gallery

Celebrating 150 years: rail in Bendigo and the Bendigo Brass Band explored the long and proud history of the rail industry in Bendigo and

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Hidden Worlds: glimpses from Bendigo's Forest Street archaeological excavation Post Office Gallery
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Hidden Worlds: glimpses from Bendigo's Forest Street archaeological excavation Post Office Gallery

Hidden Worlds offered a peek into recent archaeological excavations undertaken in Bendigo with a focus on the 2009 dig at 10–16 Forest Str

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Pride of Place: the first 60 years of building in Bendigo and surrounds Post Office Gallery
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Pride of Place: the first 60 years of building in Bendigo and surrounds Post Office Gallery

Pride of Place celebrated the City of Greater Bendigo’s impressive early growth – the commitment of our towns to become self-sustaining co

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Beginning in Bendigo: from humble origins to a captured market Post Office Gallery
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Beginning in Bendigo: from humble origins to a captured market Post Office Gallery

Beginning in Bendigo celebrated the achievements of the city’s innovators, from the Myer department store to the infamous showground favou

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Naming Bendigo: evolution of a city's identity 1836-1891 Post Office Gallery
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Naming Bendigo: evolution of a city's identity 1836-1891 Post Office Gallery

The first exhibition launched at Post Office Gallery, Naming Bendigo examined the first 55 years of Bendigo’s settlement, through the nome

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Welcome

The City of Greater Bendigo acknowledges the Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Peoples as the traditional custodians of the lands across Bendigo. We acknowledge and pay respect to their Elders past present and emerging.