Healthy and active lifestyles are promoted by the Bendigo Botanic Gardens and this is reflected within the landscape design. Educational and interpretive messages throughout the gardens support the key messages surrounding the connections between a healthy garden, a healthy mind and body and a healthy community. The gardens’ layout encourages visitors to engage in various forms of physical activity, including walking, bike riding and using the playground. A working vegetable patch in the kid’s garden has also been put in place to teach families how to grow their own produce.

Visitation to the gardens bring economic activity and enhances the city’s appeal to external visitors. Estimated visitation rates of 88,000 people per year have been modelled which includes 26,000 tourists per year. Each visitor brings money into the town and extending their stay in Central Victoria is part of a strategy to promote tourism throughout the region. This builds on existing markets of art and culture, goldfields cultural heritage, food and wine, cycling and walking adventures.
The rejuvenation and extension of the gardens will add to the suite of heritage and contemporary attractions and cultural institutions that make Bendigo a desirable visitor destination. The construction of the project, as well as the maintenance of the gardens are expected to generate employment opportunities. Estimates put the value of construction and ongoing maintenance at over $8 million dollars of value to the economy and over 30 jobs created.
With the Bendigo population expected to increase by 50% within 25 years, the demand for high quality parks would have been outstripped by the current offerings of Rosalind Park and Lake Weeroona. The Bendigo Botanic Gardens addresses this gap by providing a large-scale parkland precinct in a rapidly growing region. This supports the region’s liveability by increasing opportunities for cultural, social, educational and recreational enrichment.
Outdoor events attract tourists which also benefits the local economy. Education is also of economic and social value and school groups from primary, secondary and tertiary levels have all been shown to use the site and be willing to pay for quality educational services. Expanded programs will be run that cater for specific groups and this will add an economic value to the gardens services.

A key environmental message of the Gardens is that immersion in the diversity and beauty of nature provides opportunities to learn about sustainable living, and caring for the environment.
The Bendigo Botanical Gardens is guided by this ethos and subsequently leads by example, teaching others how to care for their environment. This is achieved through revegetating the billabong and creek systems, using water sensitive urban design, using world’s best practice irrigation techniques and by creating habitat gardens with nest boxes for various animals and insects.
The Gardens promote water sustainability to school kids, provide food sustainability to the public and additionally manage and conserve special collections of significant plants for future generations. The Gardens grow plants suitable for Bendigo’s current and projected future climate that respond to climate change and a changing environment.

Communities are brought together in this outdoor green ‘social hub’ and are encouraged to participate in active and passive recreation through many diverse social activities and events. The physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of a garden provide various benefits to different people, and these come together at large festivals such as Christmas carol event or food and wine festivals where the community can enjoy them as a collective.

The City of Greater Bendigo has undertaken a masterplan for the rejuvenation and extension of the Bendigo Botanic Gardens, White Hills that will guide the restoration of the existing culturally significant gardens and plan for an extension, creating a significant, new, engaging and contemporary facility. It will be an iconic landscape that provides diverse opportunities for learning about plants, horticulture, landscapes, botany, ecology, conservation and heritage. It will be a place for the enjoyment of the whole community.
There is a clear intention to develop the site into a cultural institution that is recognised state wide and nationally. It will draw visitors from well outside Bendigo. This will be achieved with an outstanding design with a contemporary fresh approach that meets educational, tourism and local leisure needs in regards to park design, events and programs.
The project will enhance Bendigo’s capability to deliver outcomes for tourism, the economy, the environment, recreation and public health. It will aid in the City’s goal to become Australia’s most liveable regional City.