I was a leg of Dai Gum Loong. What does it take? A strategy and a buddy

I strongly suspect this was strategic - I was hardly going to say no on my first day, and certainly none of the more senior journalists were putting up their hands.

I will admit, the mix of Chinese and Christian cultures was new to me, but Leigh McKinnon, the research officer at the Golden Dragon Museum, said it wasn't unusual in Victorian towns.

"It's rare for it to be continuous for a century and a half. It did happen in other places in Australia, or at least Victoria, but it never became an embedded part of the local culture in the same way as Bendigo," Mr McKinnon said.

Bendigo's Easter celebrations have had Chinese parade dragons since 1892.

In 2024, people came from all over Australia - and the world - to participate.

Mr McKinnon said having volunteers from all cultures has been "usual in Bendigo for a long time".

"There is a lot of openness in the Victorian Chinese community to other people from other cultural backgrounds taking part in those cultural festivities," he said.

On the day, more than one person told me it was much more organised than it had been last year, but I showed up with very little idea of what was going on - including what I was supposed to be wearing or where to go.

This isn't necessarily a complaint - I think a level of confusion lends itself to making friends, and the community spirit was one of the best parts of the day.

The organisers were trialling a buddy system so we would have someone to swap out with if Dai Gum Loong got to heavy.

I lucked out with my buddy - Pamela Kadow is not only a volunteer at the Golden Dragon Museum who could introduce me to all the important people, but she carried Dai Gum Loong last year, and knew which calls for volunteers to ignore.

On her advice, we put our hands up to guard the large porcelain vases flanking the museum's entrance as Dai Gum Loong made his grand exit.

This meant we weren't assigned a position under Dai Gum Loong to swap between us, but walked alongside the dragon, making sure he didn't trample any children or trip in a gutter, and looking for arms poking out of his side for any buddy-less legs who needed to swap out.

This is certainly the easiest job - I only carried Dai Gum Loong for ten minutes at the tail end of Pall Mall, and Pam managed to avoid it all together.

Pam had warned me each volunteer holds about 10 kilograms of weight, but the hardest part is just keeping it upright - the bamboo structure is very top heavy, and it's easy to think you're just following the flow of the dragon when you are, in fact, falling over.

Unfortunately, I had to stick it out until the man walking beside me moved away.

As I was going under, I heard someone tell him, "There's a young girl there, just stick by her."

For context, I am 28 years old.

Judy Deveraux and her husband, Rodney Pierce, were on their way home from a seven week holiday in Asia.

They flew into Melbourne on Easter Saturday, came to Bendigo to be the legs of Dai Gum Loong, and continued home to Swan Hill that afternoon.

Although they both grew up coming to the Bendigo Easter Festival, they had never considered becoming one of Dai Gum Loong's legs.

"I remember the excitement of the dragon coming and the crackers. It's one of those magical, mystical things, isn't it?" said Ms Deveraux.

Only a few days ago, however, they were sitting in a Malaysian temple, admiring the red and blue dragons on display there.

"We were in awe of this beautiful temple and the dragons," said Ms Deveraux.

"Then, when we went to our social media, we saw the Bendigo Chinese Association had put out an ad calling for people to volunteer. And we thought, 'Well, why wouldn't we do that? What an opportunity.'"

"We thought, 'What a great way to end our holiday,'" said Ms Deveraux.

Ms Deveraux said she wasn't sure she would carry Dai Gum Loong again, but she would look into other opportunities to volunteer for the festival next year.

"It's a magical experience, but he is very heavy."