Bendigo high school athletics: participation data reveals a shifting fitness culture

Athletics participation across Bendigo’s high schools has held steady at about 62 percent of enrolled students over the past three academic years, according to data compiled by the Bendigo Regional Sports Assembly. The figure, drawn from annual school sport census returns filed by 11 local secondary colleges, offers the clearest snapshot yet of how the city’s teenage cohort is engaging with organised fitness.

The numbers matter because they arrive as national conversations about youth physical activity grow louder. A 2025 report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that only one in four Australian adolescents met the recommended 60 minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous exercise. Bendigo’s athletics participation rate, while broadly stable, masks significant variation between schools and between boys and girls. At Bendigo Senior Secondary College, for example, male participation in track-and-field events dipped three percentage points between 2024 and 2025, while female involvement rose by five points over the same period, census records show.

The local picture

At Eaglehawk Secondary College, athletic carnival attendance remained above 70 percent in each of the past two years, driven largely by a school-led program that embedded sprint and long-distance training into Wednesday afternoon sport blocks. The program, funded through a $15,000 grant from the Victorian Department of Education’s Active Schools initiative, ran from February through June in 2025 and 2026. Principal Melissa Tran told the Bendigo Weekly in May that the structured sessions had “reengaged students who previously opted out of carnival preparation.”

Flora Hill Secondary College, by contrast, recorded a three-year low of 51 percent in 2025. The drop coincided with the school’s decision to shift its athletics carnival from a weekday to a Saturday to reduce classroom disruption. Student attendance at Saturday carnivals across the eight schools that used the weekend format averaged 44 percent last year, compared with 67 percent for weekday events, according to the sports assembly’s analysis.

What happens next

The Bendigo Regional Sports Assembly has recommended that all member schools return to weekday carnivals for 2027, and is lobbying the Department of Education for a $50,000 funding round to subsidise transport for students from lower-income households. A departmental spokesperson said on Monday that the application was “under active consideration.” For families looking to boost their children’s activity outside school hours, the assembly’s website lists six registered athletics clubs within 15 kilometres of the city centre, including the Bendigo Harriers and the Eaglehawk Athletics Club. The clubs offer free trial sessions through September.