Bendigo Pottery

Bendigo Historic Buildings

The most famous of all the potteries, Bendigo Pottery, with its large, distinctive beehive kilns, is located on the Midland Highway 6 km north of the city at Epsom. The pottery, which was established in 1858, is now open to the public.

The Bendigo Pottery was created by George Duncan Guthrie, a Scot who was an apprentice potter by the age of 12. He travelled to Australia in 1849 and, visiting his father who was living in Bendigo, he noticed the fine white clay of the district. He returned in 1858 and founded his first pottery on Bendigo Creek at Epsom. However, the lack of transport infrastructure restricted distribution and Guthrie sold the pottery to return to prospecting. When a rail line to Melbourne was established, he bought the land at Epsom and reopened his business, selling unglazed terracotta pots and salt-glazed stoneware such as bottles and jars. He sold on the business in 1882, but continued to work there until 1883 when he retired. However, the business declined ater his departure and he returned as managing director. By 1888 11 kilns were in operation and the site employed 130 people (30 just for cutting wood for fuel).

The fortunes of the Pottery waxed and waned in subsequent years. On the down side of the ledger there was a destructive fire in 1900, Guthrie's death in 1909, a flood (which caused two hot kilns to explode) in 1928, the Great Depression of the 1930s and another fire in 1941. Toby jugs decorated with war figures during World War I, and the demand for mugs, bowls, dishes and bottles for troops in World War II helped keep the business afloat. It became a tourism complex in 1971.

Today domestic pottery is made in the historic kilns, which are fired on wood and coal. The site offers a total tourist experience with free clay play for kids, a potter's workshop, lessons in creating a clay pot on a wheel, an Interpretive Museum (including a theatrette inside a restored kiln), a sales gallery and cafe. The four-acre complex includes five rare and historic bottle kilns from 1868, an 1880s two-storey brick stable block, striking beehive kilns, rectangular kilns, related red-brick chimney stacks and a timber crane jib.