Sailors Gully, an outer northern suburb of Bendigo, is 9 km north-west of the city centre and immediately west of Eaglehawk. Gold was discovered there in the first half of 1852, possibly by a sailor or sailors who had deserted their ships and set off for the gold diggings.
Sailors Gully was part of Eaglehawk borough (1862). Its first school was opened in 1855 by the Church of England. It was replaced by a government school in 1874 and is now named Eaglehawk North.
Also named Nerring, Sailors Gully was described in the 1903 Australian handbook:
The school is in Sailors Gully Road where most of the village's public buildings have been found. At the bend of the road near Growlers Street there were the Sailors Gully Hotel (c1866, rebuilt 1908), a mission hall (1938) for Methodist and Presbyterian church goers and a shop with an attached dwelling. Further west, past the school, there is the Gothic-design Catholic church (1864).
Sailors Gully gold heritage is found at the New Moon Quartz mine site (1860) in Beelzebub Gully Road, off Growlers Road. It is heritage listed and includes above ground structures built in the 1890s.
Sailors Gully census populations have been: