Epsom: Pottery History and a Park

For a stay in Epsom, there are two distinct visitor highlights to choose from: Bendigo Pottery and its pottery history, and the Epsom Village Green Playspace in a park with open lawns and trees. When planning your visit, you can weigh up whether you are more interested in ceramics, crafts and historic kilns, or in a park with a skatepark, barbecue area, shelter and seating. This comparison helps you tailor your visit to Epsom to your interests: cultural history and design on the one hand, and a playspace and its park setting on the other.

Bendigo Pottery: History and Visiting

Bendigo Pottery was founded in the 1850s after Scottish immigrant George Duncan Guthrie discovered a local clay deposit. Guthrie subsequently built a successful pottery business. Bendigo Pottery is Australia's oldest continuously operating pottery. For travellers interested in the connection between a person, a local discovery and pottery history, both the period in which it was founded and its continued operation offer a tangible way to connect with the place.

Visitors can explore the complex, see the historic kilns and create their own Bendigo Pottery pieces. The kilns offer a different focus from making your own piece: one option directs your attention to the historic part of the complex, while the other focuses on your own creative activity. This lets you decide whether you would prefer to experience the visit more as a tour or as an opportunity to create something.

Crafts and Souvenirs

The Village of Artisans at Bendigo Pottery features, among other things, collage art, printmaking, quilting, handmade homewares, painting, winemaking and artisan food products. The range extends beyond pottery: collage, printmaking and painting are visual art forms, while quilting and homewares represent other areas of craft. Winemaking and artisan food products also broaden the focus to include the production of drinks and food. If you are interested in more than one art or craft form, you can consider the Village as a broader focus alongside the history and design of pottery.

Bendigo Pottery's Retail Gallery sells pottery souvenirs to visitors. This makes buying a souvenir different from the option of creating your own Bendigo Pottery piece: at the gallery, you purchase a keepsake on offer, whereas when creating a piece, you contribute to making it yourself. This distinction helps you plan shopping and hands-on activity as two separate interests.

When deciding what to do, it is helpful to distinguish between a dedicated pottery focus and a broader range of crafts: the history, kilns, hands-on creation and souvenirs are all connected to Bendigo Pottery, while the Village of Artisans adds other areas.

Epsom Village Green Playspace

The Epsom Village Green Playspace includes a skatepark, barbecue area, shelter and seating, and is located in a park with open lawns and trees. The playspace facilities and the park setting are distinct features: the skatepark, barbecue area, shelter and seating are part of the playspace, while the lawns and trees describe the park. When choosing what to do, you can therefore consider both the specific facilities and the open parkland.

Discover more destinations: Taminick, Nichols Point, Halls Gap, Glenlyon, Moe, Clifton Springs, Bellbrae, Axedale

For the broader travel overview: Victoria.