Northern Victoria’s Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands are unique. They have enormous environmental values and strong cultural and community ties and traditions.
Since European settlement, the Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands have been extensively cleared for agriculture, gold mining, urban development and timber. Today only 17 percent of the original Box-Ironbark vegetation remains.
Greater Bendigo National Park
The Greater Bendigo National Park surrounds Bendigo. It includes the former Whipstick Forest and Kamarooka State Parks, One Tree Hill Regional Park, Mandurang State Forest and Sandhurst State Forest and spans 17 007 hectares.
The park contains some of the highest quality Box-Ironbark forest in the Bendigo area, along with broombush mallee, grassy woodlands and Kamarooka mallee. The park conserves some of north-central Victoria's most outstanding natural features.
The park itself is the product of intensive use over the past 150 years from gold mining, land selection, forestry, and eucalyptus oil production. Many significant relics of these industries, particularly the gold mining and eucalyptus oil industries, remain in the park today. Recreational fossicking is allowed in some areas. Fossickers must hold a current Miners Right.
For more information visit www.parkweb.vic.gov.au