20230429 SA Mt Gambier, Penola to Naracoorte

With the last very mouth watering lobster 🦞 all cleaned and ready for dinner we left Port McDonnalle on our way to Mt Gambier to stock up on supplies then camp at the Showgrounds.  On arrival the sign at the front said no vacancies, apparently they are only aloud 8 vans at a time but the caretakers were kind enough to let us stay, we have a fire every night they said so thats me set for tonight’s entertainment. Deb and Dan run the park and came from Brisbane so we had a lot in common. We sat around the fire with other campers and Peter who’s a permanent in the park.

20230430 We’re not in any hurry so we slowly drag ourselves out of bed and start packing the van when Peter turned up to see us off, we all had a lovey night taken in the warmth of the fire and chatting about old times. Not far from here is a sink hole that we just have to check out before Heading back to Mt Gambier to find a bank for Des a pub for me and to top up our fuel.

Peter was a lovely 80 year old who recently lost his wife and moved to Mt Gambier to be close to his family. He originally came from Orroroo SA and told us some great places to camp along the way. 

 

The Umpherston Sinkhole: This Park is the remnant of a late 19th century garden of which the sinkhole was the focal point.

The garden was developed by James Umpherston on part of his property known as The Caves. The original Victorian residence was located at the rear of the park but was demolished in 1964.

Stopping at Blue Lake which we’ve seen in the past but I just had to check it out once again, a volcano crater formed by an eruption around 4800 years ago, it has an advantage depth:80 metre.(265ft), deepest section 204 metres (672 feet), Circumference:5kl. (3Miles), 

Capacity:36,000 megalitre’s (8000, million gallons).

Locks with names attached are added as a symbol of those travellers stopping at this historic site.

I found a camp spot near Penola but first let’s check out the town when we spotted a Pub so we popped in for lunch. Penola is the major town in the Coonawarra which is one of South Australia's most productive wine growing areas. 

The old hotel was demolished in 1965 and built the present one renaming it the Log Cabin Hotel-Motel, which opened on the 11th July 1966, it’s now named The Royal Oak.

I found these in a shop window, take a step back in time to the Petticoat Lane era in the 1860’s, the front one I’ll have please.

Petticoat Lane has previously been called Christie's Row and Wilson's Lane or Street after early inhabitants. In the 1860s it was also known as Petticoat Lane because of the predominance of female children born here.

Another historic cottage on Penny Lane only this is a private residence.

The local really set the scene as you stroll down Penny Lane with not just these old outfits but also the close line hoisted up with a long stick, oh my god I remember my mother doing that.

What an interesting history about the family that once lived in Sharam’s Cottage, a bootmaker who married and moved to Penola in 1860 and raised 15 children under difficult conditions. Infant mortality took its toll when a son, 3, died of consumption and two daughters died of Scarlet fever during the 1884-5 epidemic then another son Henry, 17, died after a fall from a penny farthing bicycle, I’m thinking with 15 kids you miss a few, just kidding.

The house in slowly falling apart and it looks like it was lined with hessian bags then covered in wall paper, I can only imagine bringing up 15 kids in such a small confined place.

Well the husband sounds like he was a bit of a handy man so I’m guessing this was his handy work and after 15 kids its still got a lot of life left in this old crib.

Along the road from Penola north to Coonawarra we passed vineyards all the way to Padthaway then I read there are a total of 30 wineries within this area.

It’s always nice to see a town like Penola preserve its history.