Plans to build a 196-lot estate on Strathfieldsaye Road drew the ire of nearby residents in June.

One compared the planned multi-million dollar development to a caravan park, but the chief executive officer of the company behind it said it was an example of a newer model that was successful in other parts of Australia.

Read more: Residents’ 20-year subdivision struggle

In February came the news of a young woman’s death at a home in California Gully.

A man has since been charged with her murder.

Footage of a man paying for an older man’s meal at a Bendigo McDonald’s restaurant captured the attention of the local community and beyond, the kind gesture making news across the country and abroad.

A prospector who spent more than two years digging a 20-foot mine shaft in public bushland north of Dunolly was furious to find it filled in earlier this year.

Forest Fire Management Victoria said the mine shaft was filled in ahead of a controlled burn, and it had tried to contact the man multiple times without success.

Three companies formerly involved in prominent Bendigo cafes were placed in voluntary liquidation in March.

The director for the companies was a woman in a Nathalia nursing home, who was also the mother of the man at the helm of the companies involved in the same three cafes in 2014.

DISTURBING CONTENT: A Kangaroo Flat man pleaded guilty this year to seven charges after he attempted to procure a two-year-old and transmitted “extreme” child exploitation material.

The man was arrested in a raid the year before.

A man died in hospital after he suffered severe injuries in King Street in early January last year.

Another man has since been committed to stand trial for the man’s murder, and his lawyer has flagged self-defence as a defence to the charge.

Some Bendigonians had a very good day in August, each winning about $90,000 after their syndicate ticket won division one and division three in TattsLotto. 

An 18-year-old man was tragically killed when his ute crashed into a truck and tipper on the McIvor Highway at Longlea in January.

There was an outpouring of grief after Bendigo musician and nurse Liam Thorpe’s body was discovered in Bendigo Creek in July.

He was described as a compassionate, dedicated, kind and supportive person by those who knew and loved him.

The last month of the year brought sad news with the death of a 21-year-old woman in a crash on Somerville Street, Flora Hill.

A 20-year-old man was later charged with dangerous driving causing death.

April also saw a fatal crash on the region’s roads, with a Spring Gully woman losing her life in a crash involving a truck and a car at Axedale.

The owner of a live music venue in Bendigo was accused of selling various illicit drugs to undercover police and charged with drug trafficking, as well as drug possession and possession of a firearm.

A man’s body was discovered in Bendigo Creek at Golden Square in early July.

The man’s death was not treated as suspicious.

It was later found the man was Liam Thorpe, a much-respected musician and nurse here in Bendigo.

It was a decision that provoked widespread anger: the City of Greater Bendigo’s vote to forcibly purchase a family’s land at Marong to make way for the proposed Marong Business Park.

The impending decision on that April night was so controversial that police attended to ensure peace was maintained.

The six councillors who voted in favour of the public acquisition overlay spoke of the merits of the proposed development for the future growth of Bendigo.

Following the council vote, the Carter family took their fight to keep their land intact to Planning Minister Richard Wynne, who declined to approve the council’s decision.

“The proposed land acquisition by the council was well intentioned but ignored the strongly held views of the land owners and was not justified in the circumstances,” Mr Wynne said.

Read more: Carter family not looking for compensation

The Addy’s journalists and photographers have taken a look back at 2018 through their own work:

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