Bendigo Magistrates' Court

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The Bendigo Law Courts is a building on Pall Mall in Bendigo, a regional city in the Australian state of Victoria. The Courts back onto and are partly surrounded by Rosalind Park. The building was built between 1892 and 1896 by the contractors McCulloch and McAlpine and designed by Public Works architect George W. Watson. The building was constructed in the Victorian Second Empire style been described as reminiscent of an Italianate palazzo and shares a great deal with its neighbouring building, the Bendigo Post Office, which was also designed and built by Watson, McColloch and McAlpine 10 years earlier. The Law Courts are built of rendered brick and Harcourt (Victoria) Bluestone.The Bendigo Law Courts are aesthetically significant for its high qualities of design and construction, which are reflected in the building's innovative planning, axial expression, carefully proportioned hierarchical spatial arrangement, internal decoration, fittings and refined detailingThe Bendigo Law Courts remain in use, with daily sittings of the Magistrates Court and other Courts on circuit. As of 2014 significant expansion of the Courts were underway, with the refurbishment of the former adjacent Police Station, however this is regarded as being somewhat controversial and inadequate with some calling for a modern facility to be builtThe Bendigo Law Courts included in the Victorian Heritage Register (item number B5126).