Spring Gully

Spring Gully is a suburb 5 km south of Bendigo, backing on to State Forest which forms a catchment for the Spring Gully Reservoir. The name is probably descriptive of a natural feature of the area.

The district supported gold mining activities and the surrounding forest was a minor catchment area for the Spring Gully reservoir (1877). Bendigo needed water for both domestic and mining purposes. The reservoir was mostly filled by water along a channel from the Coliban system, Malmsbury. In 1930 the reservoir’s capacity was increased fivefold, and the water was used for irrigation as far afield as White Hills and Huntly. The seventy miles of channels, however, incurred heavy water losses. The Spring Gully Hotel was submerged by the reservoir.

Spring Gully primary school was opened in 1906, and the town remained a small centre with a hall, a store and a hotel until Bendigo’s urban growth reached there during the 1970s. A retirement village was opened in 1982. Urban growth resulted in the primary school having 300 pupils in 1998 and 330 by 2014.

Spring Gully has a hall, a Lutheran church and a general store. Its census populations have been: