Central Victorian council votes to keep divisive public holiday

A Central Victorian council has been drawn into a local public holiday debate, backing a slim majority of locals who wanted to keep a controversial race-day holiday.

The City of Greater Bendigo council voted on Monday night to keep Bendigo Cup Day as the local public holiday for another five years.

The 4-1 vote to retain the current arrangement will see part of the shire taking a public holiday on Wednesday, October 28, a week prior to the Melbourne Cup.

Residents in the municipality east of the Campaspe River, including Heathcote, will continue to observe Melbourne Cup as its public holiday.

The decision followed a community survey that drew 2,672 responses, with mayor Thomas Prince calling it the council's "third most ever engaged survey".

The meeting saw councillors vote in line with the slim majority of respondents.

About 38 per cent of survey respondents said they wanted to keep Bendigo Cup Day holiday, while 36.5 per cent preferred Melbourne Cup Day and 24.7 per cent preferred the Friday of the Bendigo Show.

Meanwhile, just over half of businesses surveyed, making up 4 per cent of the responses, called for the date to be changed to Melbourne Cup Day, citing business operation concerns and alignment with the rest of the state as reasons to switch.

The mayor told the meeting he was "challenged" by the survey.

"It feels like a popularity contest around what the community want," Cr Prince said.

"Most of our contributors, I think, will be related to the sports racing industry and the jockey club and those at the Bendigo Show, and they're very self-invested ideas and opinions.

"The question is, 'What is most important for Bendigo?'

"What's best for Bendigo … is that we want our own holiday. We want a chance to celebrate who we are."

Eppalock Ward councillor Aaron Spong was the only councillor to vote against the motion, arguing the business feedback deserved more weight.

"Tradition does matter, but so does practicality," Cr Spong said.

"Local pride matters, but so does business certainty."

Epsom Ward councillor Andrea Metcalf, who moved the motion, said analysis by consulting firm IER and council data put the 2025 Bendigo Cup's local economic activity at between $2.9 million and $3.2 million, with more than 6,500 people attending the cup.

The Bendigo Show draws about 20,000 people across its two days, five days before the cup.

"Both the show and the cup can be successful under the current arrangement," Cr Metcalf said.

Cr Prince told ABC Central Victoria Breakfast the alternative of moving the holiday to Show Day would have come at the Bendigo Cup's expense.

"To elevate that to probably potentially completely squash the Bendigo Cup day also just didn't make sense," he said.

The Bendigo Jockey Club welcomed the vote, with chief executive Paul Scullie saying the club had heard "the importance of ensuring our business community benefits from the public holiday" and wanted racegoers to "shop locally, stay locally, eat and drink locally".

The council will now apply to the state government, which makes the final decision on local public holiday arrangements.