Bendigo's new dragon Dai Gum Loong unveiled ahead of 2019 Easter festival

Dai Gum Loong arrived in Bendigo as a flat pack and was put together by a team of volunteers led by Golden Dragon Museum general manager Anita Jack.

It is now two weeks until crowds of up to 60,000 people will see Dai Gum Loong, Sun Loong and original dragon Loong parade together in the Bendigo Advertiser Gala Parade.

"We're making history," Ms Jack said. "On the (parade) day a lot of people will be quite emotional. I know I will be because I never thought the day would be possible. Now it is.

"It feels surreal. After Easter I can go home and collapse, that will be the moment (everything we have done) all hits home."

But before Bendigo's newest dragon parades through the city, Ms Jack had some daunting experiences to take on including the unboxing of Dai Gum Loong.

"When talking to dragon maker, he was talking about making the frames and having them shipped over by air," she said. 

"The problem was that it was 61 boxes not including the skirt and scales. The airspace for that would be enormous. We would have also had to box and fumigate it, which is additional expenses, so we made the decision to have him flat packed."

The cost-effective decision meant Bendigo could learn the skills needed to construct the dragon.

Ms Jack enlisted the help of volunteers with trades skills to help bring Dai Gum Loong to life and ensure he would last for a century or more.

"We got Dai Gum Loong here and the dragon maker had sent videos on how it was assembled," she said.

"So I called in mechanics, engineers and even woodturners - all really skilled tradespeople - to do a debriefing to say how can make this dragon last 100 years.

"We've seen how it's been built. It's built to last 100 years. Now it is our responsibility to make sure that the structure lasts 100 years.

"Businesses volunteered and gave me all these skilled trades men and women to build Dai Gum Loong's bones. It was extraordinary."

It took eight days to construct Dai Gum Loong.

"A lot of thinking and planning took place," Ms Jack said. "We sketched and mapped it out and that thought process was important to make we sure delivered exactly what we needed to for Bendigo.

"A dragon like this hasn't been built since 1980, which was one for San Francisco, so some of the skills have been lost and we re-introduced that to dragon maker and Hong Kong."

Ms Jack said the transportation and construction of Dai Gum Loong had been very well planned.

"There's been amazing community support. With all those organisations pulling together to help us (put Dai Gum Loong) together, I felt quite relaxed and comfortable," she said.

"It's amazing when you have a wonderful community around you and the job seems easier and more relaxed. People pulled together to bring this dragon to Bendigo."

Ms Jack said Dai Gum Loong's journey to Bendigo began in 2008 when the Golden Dragon Museum realised current dragon Sun Loong only had a few years left in him.

"It wasn't until about 2016 when a preservation needs assessment was created that we knew that time was really running out to get a new dragon here or do conservation to Sun Loong. Now we have managed to do both ," she said.

"When the City of Greater Bendigo's David Stretch and I sat down to write a business case about how long it might take to fundraise for a new dragon and do the job, we thought it might take three years.

"We've done it all in a year."

Ms Jack said the realisation from the Bendigo community and the museum that there could be an Easter without a dragon spurred people on.

"That really hit home. Not only to local residents but to the state and the nation," she said.

"Hence the state, federal and local government funding that really kickstarted the project. I can't be more grateful to all those levels of government."

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