City of Greater Bendigo / Australia

The City of Greater Bendigo is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of 3,000 square kilometres and, in June 2018, had a population of 116,045. It includes the city of Bendigo and the towns of Axedale, Elmore, Heathcote, Marong, Raywood and Strathfieldsaye. It was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the former City of Bendigo with the Borough of Eaglehawk, Shire of Strathfieldsaye, Shire of Huntly, Rural City of Marong and parts of the Shire of McIvor. It is the state’s third largest economy base and is considered a service and infrastructure centre for north central Victoria. The city is surrounded by 40,000 hectares of regional, state and national parkland.The city is governed and administered by the Greater Bendigo City Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Bendigo, it also has service centres located in Heathcote, Huntly, Marong and a couple of other locations within Bendigo. The city is named after the main urban settlement lying in the centre-west of the LGA, that is Bendigo, which is also the LGA's most populous urban area with a population of 99,122.