Thank you to Carmel Sanderson for your wonderful collage of photos of this two day excursion

Thirteen members of the Grovedale Marshall Probus Club embarked on a two-day trip to Bendigo on Thursday 24th March. Included in this trip was a visit to the Golden Dragon Museum.

Our members were impressed to see the large collection of objects, textiles, photographs, documents and oral histories that relate to the family and community lives of Chinese migrants and their descendants in Bendigo, the wider Victorian goldfields and beyond. This gave us an appreciation of Chinese arts and culture through the ages.

An important function of the Museum has been to house the Bendigo Chinese community’s growing collection of processional regalia used in the Bendigo Easter Fair since the late nineteenth century. Chinese processions were relatively common in the nineteenth century, but Bendigo’s is the only one to have continued to the present day. The Chinese Museum also houses the Dragons used for the Easter parade.

• Loong – being heritage listed and the oldest complete dragon in the world – now in hibernation and undertaking restoration
• Sun Loong –  used between 1970 – 2019  and is 100 metres long
• Dai Gum Loong – purchased in 2019 and is 125 metres long – thought to be the longest dragon.

Thank you Merv for these great pictures too:

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