As is true in so many other towns in the northeast, Beechworth is rich in Ned Kelly history. The government buildings on Ford Street house the imposing HM Training Prison, where he and his mother were incarcerated before the 1880 trial, and the courthouse (daily 9am-5pm; $2.50) where the fatal trial was held. Opposite, underneath the town hall, is the grim cell where he was imprisoned as a teenager (daily 10am-4pm; free). Other sights of interest in town include the Burke Museum on Loch Street (daily 10am-3.30pm; $5.50), which displays relics of the goldrush and tells the story of the Chinese miners who flocked here. The museum is dedicated to the explorer Robert O'Hara Burke, one-time Superintendent of Police in Beechworth, who perished with William John Wills on their historic journey from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. On Last Street the century-old Murray Brewery Cellars (daily 10am-4pm; free) is well worth a visit, not only for its free tastings and sales, but also for its National Trust display of twenty beautifully restored old carriages, including a Cobb & Co stagecoach.

The five-kilometre, one-way route of the Gorge Scenic Drive begins at Sydney Road and ends at Bridge Street, along the western edge of the town. It includes the famous Spring and Reid creeks, which supported eight thousand diggers in 1852, and an old storehouse for blasting powder known as the powder magazine, as well as natural features such as Flat Rock, Telegraph Rock and Woolshed Falls.