Bendigo to Adelaide road trip: Best stops, distance & driving time
The best stops on a Bendigo to Adelaide road trip include St Arnaud, Little Desert National Park, Murray Bridge and the Adelaide Hills. By car, the distance from Bendigo to Adelaide is 614km, with a driving time of around 6h51m.
Planning a Bendigo to Adelaide road trip itinerary
A Bendigo to Adelaide road trip connects one of the most appealing inland cities in Victoria to the South Australian capital.
Bendigo is the home of Victoria’s biggest gold rush. It offers gold mine tours and a lively pub scene. To fix up good value Bendigo accommodation, look here.
Adelaide brings food tours of the fabulous Central Market, Torrens River cruises, swimming with dolphins and the chance to walk across the roof of the Adelaide Oval. To book Adelaide accommodation, step this way. For a full range of Adelaide tours and experiences, explore here.
This guide should help you plan your perfect Bendigo to Adelaide road trip itinerary.
Bendigo to Adelaide distance and driving time
By car, the distance from Bendigo to Adelaide is 614km. That makes for a driving time of around six hours and 51 minutes.
Where to stay in Bendigo
The best Bendigo accommodation options are:
- For good quality, spacious apartments: Quest Bendigo Central.
- For art, liveliness and personality: Mercure Bendigo Schaller.7
- For historic charm: Hotel Shamrock.
- For central location and (usually) cheap rates: City Centre Motel.
The quickest route leaves Bendigo along the Calder Highway. Once you reach Marong, however, turn off and keep heading west along the Wimmera Highway.
This goes through the Wilsons Hill Nature Conservation Reserve, and eventually arrives in Newbridge. Here, you can camp by the Loddon River.
The Wimmera Highway then passes through Llanelly and old goldrush town Tarnagulla. There are plenty of handsome historic buildings here, and Tarnagulla is surrounded by eucalypt forests.
Bendigo to Adelaide road trip: Moliagul to St Arnaud
The next town along, Moliagul, is home to the Welcome Stranger Monument. This pays tribute to Welcome Stranger, the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found. There’s also a short, 500 metre walk through the box ironbark forest in the Moliagul Historic Park.
There are longer, better walks available in the nearby Kooyoora State Park. The best views come from the Melville Caves summit and Mount Brenanah.
There are a few more relatively pleasant bushland and streamside reserves on the way into St Arnaud, which offers a few places to eat, drink and stay.
The most immediately impressive attraction in St Arnaud, however, is the enormous mural art on the town’s grain silos.
There are impressive gardens in Pioneer Park and Queen Mary Gardens, and the town host several heritage buildings – many with notable lace ironwork. The 1.1km Bell Rock Walk to the Bell Rock Lookout is the best walking trail in the neighbouring St Arnaud Regional Park.
Bendigo to Adelaide drive: St Arnaud to Dimboola
You’ll need to leave St Arnaud along the Sunraysia Highway, then turn left down Banyena Road.
Expect more small bushland reserves on the Banyena-Minyip Road to Minyip, which has a golf course, pub and caravan park. Then leave along the Minyip-Dimboola Road.
You’ll join the Western Highway in Dimboola, a town best used as a gateway to Little Desert National Park. The 1km Pomponderoo Hill Nature Hill Walk is a good journey-breaking stretch, while you can see lots of native wildlife in the Snape Reserve.
Go when the conditions are right, and the Dimboola Pink Lake to the north of town turns pink courtesy of the micro-organisms living in it.
Click through to the next section: Dimboola to Bordertown.