The exhibitions at Bendigo Art Gallery are impressive and unusual. Photo / Supplied
The exhibitions at Bendigo Art Gallery are impressive and unusual. Photo / Supplied
Bendigo's impressive art scene is the Victorian town's new gold rush, writes Sam Boyer.
I sat at the pottery wheel, foot gently easing the pedal, the clay spinning and squelching in my hands.
The instructor teaching me how to sculpt my mug wrapped his arms around me and Unchained Melody played softly in the background. Actually he didn't - and I somehow forgot my iPod with its carefully selected pottery playlist.
So we weren't re-enacting the magical scene from Ghost, but perhaps that was for the best. Instead, what I found at the Bendigo Pottery - "Australia's oldest working pottery" - was an artisan enclave, stereotypical of the mining town's reinvented cultural identity.
Amid the art studios in which locals, paint, mould and sculpt, you can also tour the pottery and try your hand at the wheel.
Bendigo, a former gold-mining hub to the north of Melbourne, is a pleasant 150km drive from the city. I spent it singing Bohemian Rhapsody loudly and poorly then listening to an interview with Scottish author Irvine Welsh - if you're doing the drive alone you get to choose the audio accompaniments of your own liking.
My journey into Victoria's geographic heart began the day after a naked man with a bomb strapped to his head severely delayed morning commuter traffic in downtown Melbourne.
The rest of the journey was less eventful.
Out of the city, my fellow drivers and I zipped along with that freeway freedom that only a lack of explosive nudity can bring.
Just under two hours later, my GPS guided me to Bendigo's Schaller Studio, an art-themed hotel decorated extensively and exclusively with works by Aussie artist Mark Schaller. Describing itself as "drawing from the art and cultural overtones of Bendigo", the hotel has joined the town's revolution.
The gold rush in Bendigo - Australia's second-most profitable goldfield - ran for just over a century from 1851 until the last bucket of ore was raised in 1954. So began a period of quiet inaction before the town began its cultural relaunch.
A sculpture does a balancing act at Bendigo Pottery. Photo / Supplied
According to Bendigo Tourism's Glenn Harvey - over an outstanding lunch at one of the town's top restaurants, Masons - the modern triumvirate of art, culture and food have become "the new gold rush". The old trade buildings have become boutique galleries, bars and restaurants. The town's art gallery is one of the most grand outside the nation's metropolitan centres, featuring regular touring exhibitions from Europe and elsewhere.
"It's got a bit of a city feel but it's got that country feel as well," Harvey says. "In the last seven or eight years there has been a real change in Bendigo."
The cultural repositioning hasn't been completely organic. Bendigo and a handful of smaller settlements surrounding it - including Castlemaine, which I'll get to in a moment - have looked to promote themselves as arts and crafts centres away from their big city cousin down the road, in much the same way as Wairarapa has promoted itself in the shadow of Wellington.
A brief venture to the art gallery takes you past a slew of small galleries, art stores and the cellar door of local vineyard Pondalowie where you can enjoy a quick wine tasting before checking out the main event across the road.
The Bendigo Art Gallery, I'm told by senior curator Tansy Curtin, is the largest regional gallery in Australia. Considering the size of the country's town, its exhibitions are both impressive and unusual.
Recently it has hosted touring works from the Royal Academy of Arts in London, a history of underwear from the Victoria and Albert museum, and a fashion exhibit from designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. Two exhibitions, Hiding in Plain Sight: A Selection of Artists From the Michael Buxton Collection and Ken + Julia Yonetani: The Last Supper begin next month and run until September.
The lobby at Schaller Studio. Photo / Supplied
"We've challenged the idea of what a regional gallery should be about," Curtin says. "People know we're putting on interesting exhibitions.
"Bendigo went through a period of huge decline and we've had to fight very hard to make it a vibrant city again."
The drive back to Melbourne took me via Castlemaine. Very much the regional little brother to the much larger Bendigo, but with the same art vibe, Castlemaine also offers an art gallery that's well worth a look-see.
A walk past the tavern on the corner - where six men in check shirts linger, smoking cigarettes, each with a beard or handlebar moustache longer and droopier than the one before it - brings you to the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum.
Founded in 1913, it offers an impressive collection of Australian artworks and historical pieces.
A string of galleries and stores keep your attention for an afternoon, as well as more wonderful fine dining establishments like The Good Table.
Then it was back in the car, bound for Melbourne which, to be fair, is a bloody good place to end up in.
