Next day (8 March), we drove the 400km to Bendigo - apart from flights, the longest leg of our journey. We quickly left the vineyards of the Mildura (Sunraysia) Region and travelled through the wheat country of Victoria. The harvest was finished so all we could see was golden brown stubble, with a few green trees, for as far as the eye could see. It was very flat country and very dry.  

For most of the journey on the Calder Highway, we drove alongside the railway track with wheat bins at regular intervals. Very similar to the CBH grain depots in Western Australia. As we approached Bendigo, the terrain became a little more hilly (bumps in the land really) but still predominantly wheat country. We passed through many small towns - some no more than grain depots - and stopped briefly at Ouyen and then at Sea Lake. The latter is close to 3 large lakes - hence its name. The journey took about 5 hours and, whilst there was little variation in the scenery, it was an interesting journey. Interesting to see how varied Australia is and how farmers have managed to overcome the dryness and remoteness to develop a thriving agricultural economy.
    
Bendigo lives up to its reputation as a showcase of Victorian buildings. It has a very ornate fountain, formal gardens, statues of George V, Queen Victoria and other notables, and some very impressive buildings. It's a fairly compact town so it doesn't take long to walk around it. It developed after gold was discovered nearby in 1851 and, as a result, became quite wealthy. They still mine gold in the area.  

One of the impressive buildings houses the Art Gallery, which we visited. It has works by Tom Roberts, Charles Blackman, Sydney Nolan, Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Boyd and many English and European artists. It's quite a large and varied collection for a relatively small city.  

Bendigo has a gothic-style Cathedral which was started in the late 1800s and completed in 2001. It's very impressive from the outside but, unfortunately, we couldn't get inside.