Bendigo to Horsham road trip: Best stops, distance & driving time

The best stops on a Bendigo to Horsham road trip include St Arnaud and the Murtoa Stick Shed. By car, the distance from Bendigo to Horsham is 217km, with a driving time of around 2h32m.

Planning a Bendigo to Horsham road trip itinerary

A Bendigo to Horsham road trip connects the Goldfields region of Victoria to the northern end of the Grampians.

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.

Horsham is a country town with silo art at the northern end of the Grampians. To book Horsham accommodation, investigate the options here.

This guide should help you plan your perfect Bendigo to Horsham road trip itinerary.

Bendigo to Horsham distance and driving time

By car, the distance from Bendigo to Horsham is 217km. That makes for a driving time of around two hours and 32 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 Horsham 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 Horsham drive: St Arnaud to Horsham

There are several more bushland reserves along the highway on the way to Rupanyup, where there is some more impressive silo art to admire.

The next town along, Murtoa, is bigger. Here, you’ll find a supermarket and outdoor swimming pool. There’s also the Murtoa Stick Shed, the last remaining emergency grain store built in World War II. It’s like a cathedral built out of tall wooden poles.

Then, on the way into Horsham, there are a few swampy bushland reserves that won’t be of much interest to anyone beyond obsessive birdwatchers.

Horsham offers silo art, a pleasant botanic gardens, the Horsham Regional Art Gallery and strolls through the parks by the Wimmera River.