Bendigo Law Courts, Victorian Second Empire courthouse in Bendigo, Australia.

Bendigo Law Courts is a rendered brick and Harcourt bluestone building on Pall Mall, designed by Public Works architect George W. Watson in the Victorian Second Empire style and described as reminiscent of an Italianate palazzo. It backs onto Rosalind Park and shares design and builders with the neighbouring Bendigo Post Office.

The Bendigo Law Courts were built between 1892 and 1896 by contractors McCulloch and McAlpine to designs by Public Works architect George W. Watson. Watson and the same contractors had completed the neighbouring Bendigo Post Office ten years earlier, and the two buildings share much. The courts remained in use until 2023, when operations moved to a new building at Mundy and Hargreaves streets; the old building is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register as item B5126.

The building reflects the hierarchies of Victorian justice through its design, with grand public entrances contrasting sharply against plainer separate corridors for prisoners and detainees. This spatial arrangement still expresses how society once valued order and authority.

The courts moved to a new building at Mundy and Hargreaves streets in 2023, so the 1896 building on Pall Mall no longer holds sittings. It backs onto Rosalind Park, and its exterior can be viewed from the park and the street. Check access to the interior before visiting.

The courthouse shares its architect, George W. Watson, and its builders, McCulloch and McAlpine, with the neighbouring Bendigo Post Office, finished about ten years earlier. The two Pall Mall buildings were thus designed and erected by the same hands, and the courts back onto Rosalind Park. The old building left judicial use in 2023, when the courts moved to a new complex at Mundy and Hargreaves streets.