Kingston SE

Kingston SE is best known as a working fishing port for southern rock lobster (crayfish) and as the home of "Larry the Lobster", the giant fibreglass lobster built in 1979. It is also recognised as the "Gateway to the South East", sitting where the Limestone Coast meets the southern end of the Coorong on the shores of Lacepede Bay.

Kingston SE is roughly 300 kilometres south-east of Adelaide, which works out to about a three to three and a half hour drive via the Princes Highway. It is around two hours from Mount Gambier, making it a natural first or last stop on a Limestone Coast road trip.

Visitors can photograph Larry the Lobster, walk the long jetty and Kingston SE Foreshore, and swim or fish at safe family beaches such as Wyomi Beach. Nearby you can visit the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse museum on the foreshore, drive out to The Granites on the Coorong shore, taste cool-climate wines at Cape Jaffa Wines and look for birdlife at Mount Scott Conservation Park.

Late spring through summer and early autumn, roughly November to April, brings the warmest, driest weather and the calmest swimming conditions on the beaches. This period also overlaps with the lobster season, when the Cape Jaffa fleet is most active, while winter is cooler and quieter.

The Cape Jaffa Lighthouse was originally built offshore on a dangerous reef in the 1870s, then dismantled and re-erected on the Kingston SE foreshore, reopening as a museum in the mid-1970s. It is one of the town's signature landmarks and can be explored on guided visits, with the working fishing port of Cape Jaffa a short drive to the south.