Mt. Gambier

Mt Gambier is famous for its Blue Lake which is an old volcano crater and is a brilliant blue from November to March. They don’t really know why it is blue for this short time. There is another crater nearby which is a greeny colour. The lake area is beautiful with walking paths right around the lake and lookouts and lots of beautiful green trees. A great recreation area for the people of Mt Gambier.

The whole area is limestone so there are lots of caves and sinkholes. We went to see the Cave Gardens which is a big hole in the middle of town and was originally the town water supply but now is a garden. The limestone sits on a clay base so the water that seeps through the limestone accumulates in caves and sinkholes. When Brian lived here he used to go diving in these underwater caves. There is another big cave in the town which you can look through but we didn’t fancy that. Limestone was used to build most of the houses and old buildings. Mt Gambier is graced with many old beautiful buildings and is the second largest city in S.A.

The gardens in Mt Gambier were beautiful with lots of roses everywhere and many beautiful old trees.

The next day we went for a drive to Port MacDonald which is only 20 klms away where we saw the jetty and lots of crayfish boats anchored in the harbour. It is renowned for its delicious crays. An interesting mural depicts the activity at the jetty in the early days. It was a very busy port then but because of the rugged coastline and shallow harbour there were many shipwrecks. The local maritime museum has some fascinating displays and info about the wrecks.

A scenic drive takes you along the rugged limestone coastline. There is a colony of fairy penguins on one of the small islands close to the cliffs but you really have to go on a tour to see them. You can see where a lighthouse was finally put up to warn unsuspecting seafarers of the dangers. It always took several keepers to mann the lighthouses as they had to keep replenishing the whale oil of kerosene to run the light. This lighthouse was the only one that has the living quarters underneath it. The prevailing winds were so strong that a wall had to be built to protect the building. The lighthouse has been moved but the remains of the wall are still visible.

Brian has some old friends who in Mt Gambier so we went to visit and the next day Brian went to help John with his work which is garden maintenance and tree lopping so I had a day lovely day to myself shopping. I also visited the brand new library which is a magnificent library. They have a huge historical research room and I was able to research my great grandfather who came to Mt Gambier from England in 1856. That evening we were treated to a beautiful roast dinner by Brian’s friends.

On Thursday we went for a tour of the Blue Lake pump station. We walked down the steep hill to the old limestone pump station and learnt some of the history. We then went in a lift which took us to the level of the lake and we walked along a tunnel where we could see the pumps in action. The lake it is deep in a crater so it is too steep for animals to get down to the water’s edge so there is very little pollution in the water which makes it very good quality water. There were just a few ducks on the water and a funny little diving bird which goes down very deep. Mt Gambier will never be short of water.


We enjoyed our stay in Mt Gambier and spent the next night at a free camp at Mt Schanck which is at the base of yet another crater and is where Brian used to live. There is a quaint little stone house there and he built all the stone extension on the house so it was great for him to see it again although it is not lived in now and a bit overgrown.
We walked up to the crater rim where you could get a really good view of the surrounding countryside. It was very windy at the top.

From here we headed to Victoria.