Highway Patrol officers were generally pleased with the outcome, after conducting 1351 tests in Bendigo from Wednesday to Sunday.

They caught five people either drink or drug driving, none of which recorded a significant reading.

Police detected 96 traffic offences in Bendigo, including using a mobile phone while driving, speeding offences, and driving without wearing a seat belt.

Senior Sergeant Ian Brooks, of Bendigo Highway Patrol, said the result was better than other other recent long weekends.

“It was a fairly good long weekend period from a road policing point of view,” he said.

“We are still disappointed to see people drink driving and drug driving.

“The number of people driving while on drugs was a little down compared with the past.”

The result reflected a trend in recent years.

In 2014-15, 118 people were caught in Bendigo with a blood-alcohol reading up to 0.15. That figure dropped to 67 in the following year.

Bendigo officers spent a combined 447 hours patrolling the roads over the Australia Day long weekend.

They attended two serious collisions in the region – including one in Longlea and another near Kyabram.

A Bendigo teenager injured in the Longlea incident, in which a ute rolled on a private property while carrying eight people, was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

In the wider policing division, police detected 269 offences and caught 15 people drink or drug driving.

They carried out more than 1500 breath tests and 1400 hours of policing on the roads.

There were no fatalities in the region.

Senior Sergeant Brooks said avoiding any deaths on the roads meant it was a positive weekend.

“Across the division, there were six serious injury collision and no fatalities,” he said.

“This is a credit to the people driving on the road and the enforcement actions of police.”

The Australia Day figure was a stark contrast to the result from the Christmas and New Year’s period, when police in Bendigo caught almost two drink drivers per day, including one man who had drunk 17 beers before driving the next day.