New green space blooms at Bendigo’s former hospital site

The Bendigo Health Precinct has been transformed with the help of long-term Bendigo Health staff who helped plant trees to mark the completion of the green space at the former Bendigo Hospital campus.

A 4,000 square metre outdoor sanctuary complete with more than 1500 native plants and trees has transformed the Bendigo Hospital campus site for future generations of patients, visitors, healthcare workers and the community to enjoy the beautiful new space.

The first stage of the project saw the opening of a new purpose-built Clinical Services Campus in 2024, with patients now accessing a team of dedicated health professionals in the one place.

With services now centralised, patients and staff are benefiting from improved access and more coordinated care in modern facilities. The tower demolition was the finishing touch in the removal of the East and North Wing tower buildings, the old hydrotherapy pool and the John Lindell Rehabilitation Unit.

More than 10,000 tonnes of building materials were removed during the demolition phase and are being recycled locally in Bendigo to be repurposed for other construction applications.

Located in the heart of Bendigo, the outdoor space is open to the community to enjoy.

Bendigo Hospital Day Rehabilitation Centre complete and green space now open to the public

Accessible transcript

[Images: large open green space outside the Bendigo Hospital Day Rehabilitation Centre]

Rohit Parameswaran: The Victorian Health Building Authority is proud to have delivered a thriving green space on the wider Bendigo Health day Rehabilitation Centre project.

[Text on screen: Rohit Parameswaran, Senior Project Manager | VHBA]

[Images: Rohit speaks to the camera; a montage of footage showing the Centre green space]

Cameron Olsen: Having an outdoor space for patients is well documented from a therapeutic perspective to improve wellbeing enhance recovery times and lead to better health outcomes.

[Text on screen: Cameron Olsen, Chief Financial Officer | Bendigo Health]

[Images: Cameron speaks to the camera, footage montage of green spaces]

Rohit Parameswaran: Stage one of the project included the completion of the new Clinical Services campus, which delivered contemporary, purpose built, patient centred care, bringing together services like rehabilitation facilities, allied health and mental health support all under one roof in one new location.

[Images: Rohit speaks to the camera; a montage of footage showing Centre facilities including treatment rooms, gym and pool]

Cameron Olsen: With this new facility and these new opportunities we can deliver more complex care to more patients closer to home and expand on what our service offering is, and we could deliver better access to care. We’ve seen unprecedented demand across the Bendigo region for services, but now we can respond to that.

[Images: Cameron speaks to camera, green spaces]

[Images: A white transition screen displays the text “In partnership with” and the “Bendigo Health” logo. A sliding transition screen then displays the Victorian Health Building Authority and Victoria State Government logos and the url vhba.vic.gov.au]

[End of transcript]