Rosalind Park holds historical and archaeological significance as the site of a government camp in the Victorian goldfields and as a late 19th-century public park.
It is located between View Street, Pall Mall, Bridge Street, Park Road, and Barnard Street, sharing space with other landmarks such as the Queen Elizabeth Oval, Bendigo Senior Secondary College, Courthouse, former Bendigo Post Office, Camp Hill Primary School, and the former Bendigo Jail, now Ulumburra Theatre.
Before white settlement, the grassy woodland surrounding Bendigo Creek provided food and water for the Indigenous Dja Dja Wrung people. With the discovery of gold in the 1850s, Bendigo became a rich gold mining region. The area was designated a Government Camp precinct in 1852, and the park was reserved in 1861. The park's layout was established by the first park gardener in 1870 and remains unchanged.
The rose gardens area was transformed from a rubbish tip into a garden in 1987. It features an ornate cast-iron fence, exotic palms planted in the late 1800s, and various statuary. The conservatory in the garden hosts floral exhibitions throughout the year.
The Bendigo Creek, the only water source during early settlement, was inadequate for the growing population. In 1862, an "artificial creek" was created from the Coliban River to the goldfields. The Bendigo Creek within Rosalind Park was lined with hand-laid flagstone, sandstone, and granite in the late 1800s. Three cast-iron bridges were installed in 1882.
The fernery, proposed in 1879, was built by filling in an existing