Bendigo Pottery is the oldest working pottery in Australia. It is not a museum piece. It is a living workshop where people still come to make, learn and buy handmade ceramics, more than a century and a half after the first kilns were fired.
The history
The pottery was founded in 1858, during the gold rush, when Bendigo was booming. It started out producing practical wares: pipes, bricks and household ceramics. Over 160 years later the kilns are still firing.
The site keeps its original brick buildings and beehive kilns, and walking through it gives you a real sense of the scale of the region’s industrial past.
What is there now
Today the site includes a working pottery studio, a gallery and shop selling handmade ceramics, and hands-on clay experiences where you can throw your own piece on a wheel or hand-build something to take home. There is also a cafe, and the Bendigo Pottery Antiques and Collectables centre in the neighbouring buildings.
The clay sessions are popular with families, couples, school groups and anyone who wants to spend an hour doing something with their hands instead of their phone.
Good to know: the clay experiences book out on weekends and in the school holidays. Book ahead through their website, and allow time afterwards to wander the gallery and the kilns.
When the clay sessions book out
Weekends book out all year. In school holiday months, book furthest ahead.
The whole year in one list
Jan: Summer school holidays
Feb: Weekends book out
Mar: Weekends book out
Apr: Autumn school holidays
May: Weekends book out
Jun: Winter holidays begin
Jul: Winter school holidays
Aug: Weekends book out
Sep: Spring holidays begin
Oct: Spring holidays end
Nov: Weekends book out
Dec: Summer school holidays
Why it matters
Bendigo Pottery is one of those places that could easily have become apartments or a retail park. Instead, it kept making things. In a city that values its creative and industrial heritage, that continuity matters. It is a working example of what happens when a community holds on to its makers rather than paving over them.
Visiting Bendigo Pottery
Bendigo Pottery is at 146 Midland Highway, Epsom, a short drive north of the Bendigo CBD. The gallery and shop are free to browse, and the clay experiences need to be booked in advance through their website.
Before you go: check their website for current opening hours and session times, especially around public holidays.
It is one of those places locals forget about because it has always been there. If you have not been in a while, or you have never been at all, it is worth the drive. For more on Bendigo’s creative side, read about Chancery Lane and the Bendigo Art Gallery redevelopment.
A note for local makers
If you sell handmade work at markets or in shops around Bendigo, swing tags with your name and a line about how each piece was made are a simple way to make it feel finished. They are priced live on the product page, alongside roll labels for packaging and jars.
