Attendees, especially older people, flocked to the gallery on Saturday for a look at the upgrades.  

Liz Martin said she loved the changes.

“I especially like that they’ve included a Bendigo landmark,” she said.

“If you look through a window, you can see they’ve framed the poppet head in Rosalind Park.

“It’s like an extra work of art and I think it’s great they’ve incorporated Bendigo into the design.

“It’s a great asset to Bendigo.”

Margaret Iser said the opening was “a special day”. 

"There have been a lot of people coming through," she said. 

"Some of them have even come from as far away as Auckland." 

Melbourne resident Judy Dries said the gallery looked wonderful.

“We walked through the whole building,” she said.

“It’s very nice, it’s wonderful.”

Gallery director Karen Quinlan said between 100,000 and 300,000 people could attend the gallery in a year depending on the exhibitions on show. 

Saturday's public launch followed an opening for stakeholders connected to the project on Friday night.