Nerrina or Little Bendigo

 
160 or so years ago, Nerrina was the site of a return gold rush from Bendigo back to the hills above Ballarat.  The miners named the place,with total lack of imagination but lots of hope, Little Bendigo. This hilly little settlement is now a suburb of Ballarat and called Nerrina - no doubt to prevent letters going astray to Big Bendigo.

 Nerrina's two old churches aren't in use now.

but the primary school is flourishing.

In the nineteenth century the Victorian government put up this beautiful brick primary school in Little Bendigo.
In the 1960s it was down to a handful of students, but now lots of kids go to school here because the area has been filling up with new houses.

 Look at the roof -  those finials are exquisite and just the colour of new gum leaves.

Despite all thye new houses that have gone up in the last twenty years the place is still full of trees, 

dead-end roads,

 and cottages and farmlets folded into the hills. 

A few old remnants from the past hang on next to the modern developments.

You can walk here from the city centre of Ballarat, but it's a long, hot walk, so today Yin drove me about.