Charing Cross ( ) is a major junction centrally located in the city of

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is the intersection, or crossing point, of four of Bendigo's main streets: High Street, View Street, Pall Mall and Mitchell Street. As the Midland Highway, one of Bendigo's main thoroughfares, passes through Charing Cross, the highway is named High Street to the south-west and Pall Mall to the north-east of Charing Cross.

Etymology

Charing Cross in Bendigo is named for

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the junction in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

which, since the early 19th century, has been the notional "centre of London". Like its English namesake, Pall Mall in Bendigo is also in the immediate vicinity of Charing Cross.

History

After rapid European settlement in the Bendigo Valley following the official discovery of gold on

Bendigo Creek Bendigo Creek is a seasonal stream, or creek, in North Central Victoria, Australia. The city of Bendigo is named for the creek and valley in which it was founded in 1851. Gold was officially discovered on Bendigo Creek in late October 1851, transf ...

in October 1851, the "Charing Cross" junction, together with neighbouring "Pall Mall", was planned in 1858 by the government and district surveyor Richard William Larritt, who planned the original township of "Sandhurst" in his "Plan of the Valley of Bendigo". Bendigo was officially named "Sandhurst" from 1853 to 1891. In 1861, to "retain an association with Pall Mall and Charing Cross", there was even a proposal to give the name St James's Park to what became the adjacent

Rosalind Park Rosalind Park is an Australian park in Bendigo, Victoria. Prior to white settlement, a grassy woodland surrounding what is now called Bendigo Creek. At that time the creek was little more than a chain of pools and billabongs. This area would ha ...

, as

St James's Park St James's Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous c ...

in London is also in the immediate proximity of Charing Cross and Pall Mall.

Features

Charing Cross is the location of the

Alexandra Fountain Alexandra Fountain is a fountain in the Australian city of Bendigo, Victoria. It is regarded as one of the city's most prominent landmarks and monuments. The fountain is located in Bendigo's Charing Cross area at the intersection of View Street ...

. The fountain, one of Bendigo's prominent 19th-century landmarks designed by the notable goldfields architect

William Vahland William Charles Vahland (born Carl Wilhelm Vahland; 2 October 1828 – 21 July 1915) was a German-trained Australian architect who, after migrating to Bendigo in 1854 and becoming an Australian citizen on 20 July 1857, became known as the ...

, is built on a wide bridge spanning a large

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

above the

which runs beneath the intersection. The location of Charing Cross has been a crossing point over the Bendigo Creek since the 1840s.National Library of Australia website.
/ref> Charing Cross Bendigo 1853

Charing Cross was also the intersection of Bendigo's two main tram lines, one line of which survives today as part of the infrastructure of

trams in Bendigo Trams in Bendigo have operated since 1890. They ceased to operate as a means of public transport in 1972 but part of the main network continues to operate today as a tourist attraction. Limited trials have also been made in 2009 with operating ...

. The

Charing Cross tram stop Charing Cross is the second tram stop in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, on the Vintage 'Talking' Tram network which is operated by Bendigo Tramways, under the supervision of The Bendigo Trust. History The Charing Cross Tram Stop was opened to th ...

is the second stop on the vintage "Talking Tram" network which is operated by Bendigo Tramways, under the supervision of the Bendigo Trust. The main entrance to

is at the north-western corner of Charing Cross, through the Queen's Gardens which feature a prominent statue of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, the reigning British monarch when the city of Bendigo was founded in 1851. The south-eastern corner of Charing Cross is the location of the

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is an Australian financial institution, operating primarily in retail banking. The company was formed by the merger of Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank in November 2007. Before the merger, Bendigo Bank delivered its p ...

's head office, the only Australian bank headquarters located outside a capital city.

References

{{coord, -36.75953, 144.27845, format=dms, type:landmark_region:AU-VIC, display=title Bendigo Tourist attractions in Victoria (Australia) Landmarks in Australia