Years of deferred maintenance, a ballooning capital works program, and a rate cap that hasn't kept pace with costs have left the City of Greater Bendigo navigating one of its toughest financial moments in a decade.
4 min read
The City of Greater Bendigo confirmed last month that its 2026–27 budget carries a forecast operating shortfall of approximately $4.1 million — a figure that didn't appear overnight. It is the product of decisions, deferrals, and demographic pressures stretching back at least six years, and understanding how the council arrived at this position matters for every ratepayer opening their next assessment notice.
The timing is pointed. Victoria's rate cap — set by the Essential Services Commission at 2.75 per cent for 2026–27 — has consistently trailed the actual cost of delivering local services, particularly after construction inflation ran above 8 per cent in 2022 and 2023. Councils across regional Victoria absorbed those costs quietly. Bendigo's infrastructure backlog, formally valued at $68 million in the council's own 2025 Asset Management Plan, is the accumulated bill from that period of quiet absorption.
Two projects define the current fiscal pressure more than any others. The Bendigo Stadium redevelopment on Midland Highway, completed in stages between 2021 and 2024, came in roughly $3.2 million over its original budget — a blowout attributed largely to supply chain disruptions during the post-pandemic construction surge. Simultaneously, the council committed to the Ulumbarra Theatre precinct maintenance program on View Street, a multi-year obligation tied to the 2015 heritage conversion of the former Sandhurst Gaol. Both were worthy commitments. Both landed in a period when every dollar was being stretched.
The Bendigo Health capital expansion on Lucan Street added indirect pressure. As the health service grew its workforce — announcing more than 200 new clinical positions between 2023 and 2025 — demand for roads, car parks, drainage, and public amenity in the surrounding Kennington and Flora Hill precincts increased substantially. Council infrastructure spending in those suburbs rose 34 per cent between 2022 and 2025, according to council budget documents, without a commensurate increase in rate revenue from the largely existing residential base.
La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, anchored on Edwards Road in Flora Hill, compounded that dynamic. Student enrolments climbed back to approximately 4,800 equivalent full-time students by mid-2025 after the COVID trough, lifting demand on active transport corridors and the Strathdale–Kennington shared path network. The council extended that path network by 1.8 kilometres in 2024 at a cost of $870,000 — funded partly through a state active travel grant, but with maintenance obligations falling entirely to the municipality.
Council officers presented three budget scenarios to elected members at the June 25 ordinary meeting, ranging from a targeted service review saving $1.8 million annually to a partial asset divestment strategy. A decision on which path to pursue is expected at the August 26 meeting, the last ordinary meeting before the October council elections reset the chamber's composition entirely.
The election timing is not incidental. Any sitting councillor who supports meaningful service cuts or a special rate variation application to the Essential Services Commission before October 25 will do so while on the ballot. The Victorian Local Government Act 2020 requires a special rate variation application to be lodged by September 30 to take effect the following financial year, meaning the current council must act — or formally decline to act — within weeks of candidates hitting the hustings.
For Bendigo residents, the practical upshot is straightforward: attend the August 26 meeting at the Town Hall on Hargreaves Street, read the budget scenarios when they are published on the council's Your Say Bendigo engagement portal in late July, and scrutinise what each October candidate says about infrastructure funding and the rate cap. The decisions made in the next 16 weeks will shape footpaths, community facilities, and service levels for the full four-year term of whoever wins those seats.
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